Paranormal Ghost Fiction

Andrew Rufus in the flesh...The balance of power is shifted as Andrew is released from the twisted magic that has been imprisoning him in Pecos’s body. But some gifts can be a curse because now Andrew must join the fight against unspeakable evil without Pecos’s power to protect him. How can Andrew ever hope to survive the horrors that lie ahead?

After years managing a haunted hotel and estate, I thought things were good. Sure, the ghosts can be a handful—nosy, opinionated, interfering—but they’re also friendly and fun. We have a system. Everything was under control. Cue hysterical laughter. But after a minor blip with a demon in the basement and a vortex to the spirit world, the ghosts swear they have no more secrets. The danger is gone, and we’ve done everything we can to make the vortex safe. It should be fine. Nothing’s come through it for 50 years. It’s never that easy at Mannix Estate.

Ever since Cass almost drowned (okay, she did drown, but she doesn't like to think about it), she can pull back the Veil that separates the living from the dead...and enter the world of spirits. Her best friend is even a ghost. So things are already pretty strange. But they're about to get much stranger. When Cass's parents start hosting a TV show about the world's most haunted places, the family heads off to Edinburgh, Scotland. Here, graveyards, castles, and secret passageways teem with restless phantoms. And then Cass meets a girl who shares her "gift"....

There are those who walk among us who are no longer alive, but not yet crossed over. They seek retribution…vengeance…to warn. Among the living, few intuit their presence. Katie MacDonald is one who can. As she’s drawn deeper and deeper into a gruesome years-old murder, whispered warnings from a spectral friend become more and more insistent. But Katie must uncover the truth: could David Beckett really be guilty of his fiancée’s murder?

When Cassidy begins painting her visions, she has no idea that she actually opens a door to the past. And behind that door are ghosts, ghosts that want to be seen and remembered. As the rookie member of the Gulf Coast Paranormal investigation team, Cassidy is eager to prove she has the skills required to make the cut, but will her eagerness to fit in place the team in supernatural danger? When a new client hires GCP to settle the spirits in the Crescent Theater, Midas, Sierra, Joshua, and Cassidy are put to the test. Will a century-old tragedy force the new owner to shutter the doors?

Brodie McFadden is supposed to be on vacation, getting some sunshine and deciding if he wants to join his brothers in the Krewe of Hunters, a special paranormal investigation unit of the FBI. But a diving excursion with an old navy buddy to a historic shipwreck uncovers a crime scene - and the corpse is new. Museum curator Dakota “Kody” McCoy just wants her Key West culture festival to succeed. She’s always had a deep connection to her home, including being regularly haunted by some of the resident ghosts. Then, in the middle of a performance, a beloved local musician drops dead.

Dorothea Truelove is young, wealthy, and beautiful. Ruth Butterham is young, poor, and awaiting trial for murder. When Dorothea's charitable work brings her to Oakgate Prison, she is delighted by the chance to explore her fascination with phrenology and test her hypothesis that the shape of a person's skull can cast a light on their darkest crimes. But when she meets one of the prisoners, the teenaged seamstress Ruth, she is faced with another strange idea.

Eastwind's deputy has just ruled a wealthy werewolf's death a suicide, but something feels wrong to Fifth Wind witch Nora Ashcroft. Her psychic suspicions are confirmed when the victim's ghost shows up on Nora's doorstep asking for help in solving her own murder. The race to unbury the truth is on after one of the victim's family members begins exhibiting the same signs of illness as the deceased. Will Nora discover the killer in time, or will Eastwind have another death on its hands?

Rose Marshall died when she was 16 years old and on her way to her high school prom. She hasn't been resting easy since then - Bobby Cross, the man who killed her, got away clean after running her off the road, and she's not the kind of girl who can let something like that slide. She's been looking for a way to stop him since before they put her body in the ground.

For as long as it has stood overlooking New England’s jagged coastline, Lexington House has been the witness to madness... and murder. But in recent years the inexplicable malice that once tormented so many has lain as silent as its victims. Until now.A member of the nation’s foremost paranormal forensic team, Jenna Duffy has made a career out of investigating the inexplicable. Yet nothing could prepare her for the string of slayings once again plaguing Lexington House, or for the chief suspect....

Deadly Game begins as a mission to protect a politician from an assassination threat. But the operation takes an unexpected turn when Mari, a mysteriously beautiful GhostWalker, is taken hostage. At the same time, Ken Norton, expert assassin and himself a GhostWalker warrior, is on a mission of his own - one that reaches into Mari's own past. No stranger to the ways of violent warfare, Mari must join forces with Ken and trust his every move - each one more intimate than the last.

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...

For the past few years, I’ve been living with a ghost. My husband - my mate - was lost because of choices I made. As one of only a few tyrannosaur shifters on this planet, I have resigned myself to an immortality alone, married to my work. I am more than happy to keep my walls up, heart guarded, and my focus set on my missions. That was until a compassionate, plant obsessed man stomped into my life.

Life is about to change for Brian Henderson, now that he knows the secrets of Beach Drive. Unbeknownst to Brian and the others, they have brought something else home with them after their misadventure in the forest. The spirit of a mountain man has followed them to Frederickport with a secret of his own.

The late - as in dearly departed - Bailey Ruth Raeburn is delighted when she's assigned a new mission by Heaven's Department of Good Intentions, even if she is no good at following the rules for Earthly Visitations. This time she's determined to be the perfect unseen emissary, no matter what it takes. Arriving late in the evening in her old hometown of Adelaide, Oklahoma, to find a woman drowning in a pond, Bailey Ruth carries out a daring rescue with textbook invisible effort. But she soon realizes there's more to the woman’s accident than a late-night walk gone wrong.

When Bridget Sway's friend is murdered during a seance, Bridget and her best friend, Sabrina, vow to bring the killer to justice. The problem? The seance took place in the alive world which means the killer is very likely a livie. And they have no jurisdiction in the livie world. With very few options of how to proceed, Bridget and Sabrina decide to shadow the livie detective as he investigates the death.

Twelve year-old Serenity Noah has never told anyone about her recurring nightmares -- the haunting images of silver butterflies whose flapping wings drive away all sound, leaving only suffocating silence in their wake. Her parents already favor her "perfect" younger brother, Peace, and she doesn't want to be seen as the "problem" child. Instead, Serenity's found a productive way to channel her fears: creating a horror movie as scary as her nightmares. When Peace suddenly becomes afraid of the dark and refuses to sleep alone, their parents take him away for "treatment" on Duppy Island.

Spurred by the injustices that nearly destroyed their family, Jess and Hannah Ballard are preparing to win back a seat on the powerful Durupinen Council. The odds are stacked against them, but that's never stopped them before. But as Hannah faces the harsh realities of political intrigue, Jess must face a frightening new reality of her own.

Hotels are a place that some people frequent. Business trips, conferences, getaways, and vacations. But these people have stories to share from their experiences at hotels that weren't quite what they expected.... As one patron has advised after a terrifying experience, if you are going to an unfamiliar area, ask about the history of the place before you stay there. You'll hear about a business trip with an unexpected ghostly twist and many others. Some hotel employees as well as patrons recount numerous terrifying paranormal experiences in haunted hotels.

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.