Short Ghost

When her husband dies unexpectedly, Maggie Royal is struck with sinister visions that foretell danger for her and for her five-year-old daughter. Her mother and grandmother were said to have “the sight,” but it was never like this. With no one alive to turn to, Maggie must move quickly to uncover the meaning of her visions before her candle is snuffed out.

Ghost stories date back centuries, but those written in the Victorian era have a unique atmosphere and dark beauty. Michael Sims, whose previous Victorian collections Dracula’s Guest (vampires) and The Dead Witness (detectives) have been widely praised, has gathered twelve of the best stories about humanity’s oldest supernatural obsession. The Phantom Coach includes tales by a surprising and often legendary cast, including Charles Dickens, Margaret Oliphant, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as lost gems by forgotten masters such as Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and W. F. Harvey. Amelia B. Edwards’s chilling story gives the collection its title, while Ambrose Bierce ("The Moonlit Road"), Elizabeth Gaskell ("The Old Nurse’s Story"), and W. W. Jacobs ("The Monkey’s Paw") will turn you white as a sheet. With a skillful introduction to the genre and notes on each story by Sims, The Phantom Coach is a spectacular collection of ghostly Victorian thrills.

There is a haunted house up there that squats like a huge wooden toad behind a thick grove of pine trees on the end of a dead end road. Maybe once it was painted, but now it has a gray cadaver-like complexion, and its siding is sagged and splintered as if the devil had been poking at it with his pitchfork. Its windows are streaked and stained, and trying to see through them from the outside is like trying to look a skull in the eye.

That’s what 27 writers want you to consider, here in this collection of the strange and terrible, the shocking and amazing, the frightening and awe-inspiring. Assembled here for easy perusal are some of the finest tales of ghosts, zombies, witches, cryptozoological freaks, monsters, and aliens of the past year.

Few ghost stories are as chilling as the ones written by Victorian writers. Featuring work by H.G. Wells, Edith Wharton, F.G. Loring and Florence Marryat, this second volume of eight enduring stories, some well-known, others less familiar, transport you to a cosy fireside to hear tales of disembodied voices, haunted objects and unknown entities lurking in the shadows cast by candlelight.

When Jules first meets the handsome artist Kirin, she’s still mourning her husband’s death, but a fairytale romance soon sweeps her off her feet. Now she and her daughter Scout are moving out of the city and into Kirin’s once-lonely mansion. He’s thoughtfully updated and adapted the home to match their personalities. But Scout is determined to keep her father’s memory alive by rejecting the new life her mother and Kirin have spun for her.

This isn’t just an audiobook—it’s a journey through 67 short tales filled with giggles, goosebumps, and glowing campfires. Each story blends gentle thrills with laughter, imagination and warmth—creating screen-free moments families will remember for years.

From the bestselling author of Strange Houses and Strange Pictures comes a mesmerizing novel of eleven strange buildings and one terrible secret. A lonely hut in the woods. A murder house. A hidden chamber. A mysterious shrine. A home in flames. A nightmarish prison. . . . Each of the buildings...

Everybody’s favorite over-the-top circus performers travel to Hemlock Cove, where they meet a group of witches they didn’t see coming, before heading to the Detroit area and visiting Poet Parker’s old stomping grounds. There, they come across a family of snarky reapers who challenge their world view...and a group of at-risk street kids who are in danger of being swallowed whole by a dark enemy. Finally, they stop at Mammoth Caves, where vampires (and something a little more sinister) seem to be taking over a small town and leaving nothing but devastation in their wake.

Have you ever been possessed? Or been trapped alone in a deserted shack? Chased by an angry demon? No? Prepare for the next best thing: 10 terrifying ghost stories with chills in every story! In November Tales, Michael Lynes creates horrifying tales of the mysterious, horrific, and terrifying. There are encounters with the supernatural - a compilation of disturbing stories so real they will take your breath away.

Equal parts riveting and stirring, Carter takes a staple of campfires and rainy nights - the ghost story - into surprising new territory in this collection. No gore or gratuitous splatter here - these tales are meant to raise the hairs on the back of the neck and leave the reader feeling quietly discomfited hours after reading. These five tales have all the makings of good ghost stories with a touch of strange thrown in for good measure.

Looking for a slow, meditative story to unwind with? Tea With the Emperor’s Ghost is a 5,000-word work crafted for quiet evenings, gentle minds, and listeners who love tea, philosophy, and starlit reflection. On a secluded hillside terrace, a humble scholar prepares tea each evening—always two cups, though only one is needed. Tonight, as lanterns glow and bamboo whispers, a guest appears: an emperor long gone, his presence carrying both the weight of dynasties and the lightness of profound peace.

When Kendall quits stopping by after school to see Grandma Tyler, Grandma knows she has to find out why. When she finally talks to Kendall she knows it's time to tell her about Mrs. Peavy.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was born in Dublin, Ireland and is acknowledged as an influential writer in the genre of gothic and supernatural fiction of the 19th century. Many of his short stories were originally published in various magazines. Here are six of them: “The White Cat of Drumgonnial”, “Dickon the Devil”, “The Drunkard's Dream”, “The Secret of the Two Plaster Casts”, “The Vision of Tom Chuff”, and “An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House”.

M. R. James is one of the finest English language ghostwriters ever published. These short stories are not only classics of their genre, but are outstanding examples of beautifully paced, understated terror and sociological horror, reaching to the dark expanse of the unconscious mind.

Collection includes the most famous horror stories of all time from the pens of genius' of the genre: Edgar Allan Poe and Bram Stoker.

A mother and her daughter come to the remote Orkneys to grieve and find themselves instead dealing with a ghostly Viking legend. A Dark Ages king doesn’t realise his wife carries another man’s child and she is desperate for him not to find out. A young woman, who has spent her whole life hiding her supernatural strength, discovers on the eve of her wedding that she is Odin’s daughter. Sir Percival’s sister finds herself trapped in a castle of bloodletting sorcerers with only her sexuality as a weapon.

A dazzlingly accomplished debut collection explores the ties that bind parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends to one another and to the places they call home. In “Who Will Greet You at Home”, a National Magazine Award finalist for The New Yorker, a woman desperate for a child weaves one out of hair, with unsettling results. In “Wild”, a disastrous night out shifts a teenager and her Nigerian cousin onto uneasy common ground. In "The Future Looks Good", three generations of women are haunted by the ghosts of war.

Jordan and Amy are persistent in their effort to uncover the mystery of the ghosts that haunt their house. The ghostly boy and girl appear time and time again, and the boy states that their father, Mr. Walter Morgan, is not responsible for their deaths. Then who was responsible for their deaths? Determined to find out what happened on that fateful day in 1962, Jordan and Amy investigate further, and finally, the ghostly boy reveals the truth.

Australia's favourite rural storyteller is back with a new collection of short fiction stories. Anyone who knows Rachael Treasure's writing knows that she writes a ripper short story - full of warmth and heart and humour and with characters as lively and lovable as Rachael herself.