Ghost Thriller

Ellen Marx sees ghosts. Her mother, Rita, just wants her to be a "normal" 11-year-old kid. But that's tough to do when you receive a birthday card from your dead father. Following a trail of breadcrumbs left by her dad, Ellen sets out on a journey to unravel the mystery surrounding her father's disappearance and ends up unearthing secrets best left buried.

For more than 30 years, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror fans crave. Now, with the 11th volume of the series, Daltow's back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. This light creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year chronicles these shifting shadows.

Practical Melanie Middleton hates to admit she can see ghosts. But she's going to have to accept it. An old man she recently met has died, leaving her his historic Tradd Street home, complete with housekeeper, dog - and a family of ghosts anxious to tell her their secrets. Enter Jack Trenholm, a gorgeous writer obsessed with unsolved mysteries. He has reason to believe that diamonds from the Confederate Treasury are hidden in the house. So he turns the charm on with Melanie, only to discover he's the smitten one....

Everything burns...The twisted magic that merged Andrew Rufus and Pecos Bill isn’t finished with them yet, not by a long shot. Andrew believed he was ready to be a part of this fight but nothing could have prepared him for this. The dark force that awakened Septimis still hungers for Pecos’s power, and if she can’t have it, the entire world will burn...

One night, New York FBI agent Aiden Mahoney receives a visitor in a dream - an old friend named Richard Highsmith. The very next day he's sent to Sleepy Hollow because Richard's gone missing there. Maureen - Mo - Deauville now lives in the historic town and works with her dog, Rollo, to search for missing people. She's actually the one to find Richard…or more precisely his head, stuck on a statue of the legendary Headless Horseman.

All book editor Megan Law wants is to bury the memory of her brutal kidnapping and move on with her life. So when her publisher asks her to spin her hellish experience into the next bestseller, Megan agrees only because it might help keep other women safe. Then a mysterious, gruesome package arrives in the mail—a reminder that the nightmare isn’t over just yet.

Following in the footsteps of notorious serial murderer Jack the Ripper, a killer is stalking the streets of London. The self-dubbed Ripper King strikes at night, leaving a trail of eviscerated bodies in his wake. Fresh off a case with potential ties to the recent rash of killings, FBI agents Della Hamilton and Mason Carter are all too familiar with a slayer set to rule with a lethal fist. And they’ll stop at nothing to end his reign.

As well-versed in politics, pop culture, and crime fiction as he is ill-fated in life, Jack Taylor is recovering from a mistaken medical diagnosis and a failed suicide attempt. In need of money - and with former cop on his resume - Jack has been hired as a night-shift security guard. But his Ukrainian boss has Jack in mind for a bit of off-the-books work. He wants Jack to find what some claim to be the first true book of heresy, The Red Book, which is currently in the possession of a rogue priest who is hiding out in Galway after fleeing the Vatican.

When Robyn Miller inherits her father's share of an old ghost town in Nevada that has been in the family for generations, she decides to pack up and make a new life by creating a one-of-a-kind wedding venue and tourist attraction. Eager to put her plans into action, she hires a trio of geologists to survey the crumbling gold mine so that she can start offering tours. But only one of them makes it out alive, and he brings with him a tale of mummified corpses and seams of gold.

After the devastating events of the past few months, the last thing Melanie Trenholm wants is to think about the future. Why, when her husband, Jack, has asked for a separation - a separation that might have been her fault? Nevertheless, with twin toddlers, a stepdaughter leaving for college soon, a real estate career to resume and a historic home that is still being restored, Melanie doesn’t have much time to wonder where it all went wrong - but that doesn’t stop her from trying to win her husband back.

What happens when the safest place you know becomes the center of your nightmares? In the third and final book of this hit series, we follow the Benard family as they slowly discover that the secrets of their little town run deeper than they could have ever imagined. With the discovery of security footage found buried on Rich Lowery’s property, a new round of suspects in Grady’s seedy criminal underground ring emerge. Will they be apprehended before they can commit more heinous crimes, or will the residents of Grady Lake have to take justice into their own hands?

A father and daughter try to survive the steady decline of all they know in this haunting thriller from award-winning author Ronald Malfi. First the birds disappeared. Then the insects took over. Then the madness began. They call it Wanderer's Folly - a disease of delusions, of daydreams and nightmares. A plague threatening to wipe out the human race.

The luxurious Lathrop Grand Hotel is a Savannah institution that has entertained guests for more than a century and a half, offering some of the finest accommodations in the city. Famously haunted, the hotel draws tourists from around the world eager to encounter its numerous ghosts. The hotel is also known for being honeycombed with hidden doors and secret passages, enabling staff to appear and disappear quickly as they attend to the hotel's guests.

Jadyn St. James hopes that the two-week quiet period in Mudbug means things in the small bayou town are back to normal - whatever that is. But when a fisherman finds a sunken shrimp boat, and the boat captain is missing, Jadyn wonders if the damage to the boat was caused by a storm, or if something far more nefarious happened. Colt Bertrand has been fighting his attraction to the sexy game warden since he first laid eyes on her.

When a man is killed under mysterious circumstances, retired marine and the world’s greatest ghost hunter, Shane Ryan, finds himself tangled up in the case. The trail of clues leads him to a sinister traveling carnival. And a string of new murders… Backtracking along the carnival’s route, Shane discovers a ghost town filled with bloodthirsty wraiths. Battling these undead killers, Shane is barely able to escape with his life. But he manages to unearth a link between the murder victims and a hideous crime from the town’s sordid past.

When Josh is forced to spend a summer with his eccentric aunt, he thinks it will be the most boring summer ever. Instead, he finds himself talking to a ghost from one hundred years ago! In order for the ghost to finally be at peace, it needs some help, and Josh reluctantly agrees to assist. But Josh needs to dig in the old cemetery, and when he does, he finds much more than he bargained for.

Rachel Drake is on the run from the man who killed her husband. She never leaves her safe haven in an anonymous doorman building, until one night a phone call sends her running. On her way to the garage, she is murdered in the elevator. But her story doesn’t end there. She finds herself in the afterlife, tethered to her death spot, her reach tied to the adjacent apartments. As she rides the elevator up and down, the lives of the residents intertwine. Every one of them has a dark secret.

Melanie is only going through the motions of living since refusing Jack Trenholm’s marriage proposal. When she is roused one night by the sound of a ghostly infant crying, she chooses to ignore it. She simply does not have the energy to deal with one more crisis. That is, until the remains of a newborn buried in an old christening gown are found hidden in the foundation of her house. As the hauntings on Tradd Street slowly become more violent, Melanie decides to find out what caused the baby’s untimely death.

When Special Agent Jeannette LaFarge is called in to investigate a vineyard in the Reims region of France, the last thing she expects to find is multiple bodies with every vein bled dry. It’s yet another case tailor-made for Blackbird. Joining her is recent recruit Detective Daniel Murray, eager to use his newfound abilities to track down whoever is terrorizing Paris and its surrounding areas. With each ashen victim grows the realization that those responsible weren’t inspired by vampiric creatures of the night but by Elizabeth Báthory herself.

After several chaotic months, Bax has finally come to terms with his clairvoyant abilities. But fate takes a turn no psychic could have predicted when the teenage daughter of a prominent politician disappears under mysterious circumstances.