Here in the U.S., we're gearing up for Halloween, which kicks off our much-anticipated holiday season. Personally, I'm not a fan of Fright Night. Although I'm always happy to take a fun-size Reese's Peanut Butter Cup for the team, I've never been much for dressing up or braving haunted houses or even watching scary movies. Creepy books, though? I was a big Stephen King and John Saul fan as a teen and young adult. Old age has made a big wimp out of me, so these days, my Fall/Halloween reading is more about eerie, atmospheric books. I still dig a good Gothic chiller or a shivery ghost story, but I mostly prefer realistic mystery/thrillers with tense, heart-pounding plots and close, claustrophobic settings. When I saw that today's TTT topic is a Halloween Freebie, I started thinking about my favorite authors who capture the vibes I described above. I made a list of ten, but it felt so familiar that I checked and...yep, I crafted the exact same list for a Halloween freebie back in 2021! Some things never change. I almost just copied and pasted the old list since I'm lazy and I'm always looking for readalike recs based on my favorite authors, but I did come up with something else for this year. If you have a minute, though, check out my 2021 list. If you have any ideas for creepy(ish) books/authors I might like, I'd love to hear them. For now, here's my list of mysteries, thrillers, and a few supernatural spine-tinglers on my TBR that feel perfect for Halloween reading:

(As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.)

Top Ten Halloween-ish Reads on My TBR List  

1. Gothictown by Emily Carpenter (available March 5, 2025)—Carpenter is one of the authors on my 2021 list. She's written a handful of books, all of which I've enjoyed. It's been a few years since she's published one, so I was excited to see that she has a new one coming out. It's about a woman living in a cramped apartment with her husband and daughter in post-pandemic New York City. Eager to embrace life again, she jumps at the chance to accept an unbelievable opportunity—for just $100, she and her family can buy a spacious home in a quaint Georgia town that's desperately trying to boost their economy. After one quick visit, the family makes the move. It's not long, though, before they realize something isn't quite right with their new town. There's a sinister presence that lurks under all the Southern hospitality, something that has them all in its clutches and doesn't want to let go...

2. The Haunting of Moscow House by Oleysa Salnikova Gilmore—When a group of Bolsheviks take over the Golitevas' ancestral Moscow home in 1921, the family is forced to move into the mansion's cramped attic. Sisters Irina and Lili find escape in volunteering with the American Relief Administration to help ease some of their comrades' desperate needs. In the middle of it all, the house starts whispering to the young women, hinting at its traumatic past. Then, one of the officials living in their house dies, leading them to wonder what exactly caused his demise. Was it natural causes or something...otherworldly?

3. The Highgate Cemetery Murder by Irina Shapiro—When her brother leaves her cryptic clues to a double murder, nurse Gemma Tate is roped into investigating the deaths. She's not any keener on working with police inspector Sebastian Bell than he is with her, but it will take both of them to stop a dangerous killer.

4. The Act of Disappearing by Nathan Gower—Julia White is getting nowhere with her writing career, her romantic relationship is on the rocks, and she's losing the battle against the mountain of medical bills she needs to pay somehow. When a famous photographer makes her a tantalizing proposition to research a mysterious death, she's both curious enough and broke enough not to refuse. Soon, Julia is embroiled in a shocking mystery that she's determined to solve.

5. Under the Surface by Diana Urban—A party in the Paris catacombs goes horribly awry in this YA thriller/survival story. While a group of trapped teens tries desperate to escape their underground prison, their friend aboveground races to save them. Will the kids make it out of the catacombs alive? Or will their bones join all the others lying beneath the City of Light? 

6. Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce—Mina is struggling to get her foot in the door in her new career as a child psychologist. A journalist in her grief counseling group makes her an offer she can't afford to refuse. He wants her to live in the home of a 13-year-old girl who claims she's being haunted by a witch and treat her on-site. Curious and confident, Mina takes the job. It's not long before she's wrapped up in the affairs of a strange town that's obsessed with superstition and witchcraft. The more she learns, the more terrified she grows. How can she help her distressed patient to feel safe when she can't even help herself? 

7. Bitter House by Kiersten Modglin—When Bridget's parents died, she was taken in by her grandmother, Vera Bitter. The cold-hearted old woman did her duty, but kicked her granddaughter to the curb as soon as she graduated from high school, and never contacted her again. Bridget is stunned, then, when Vera dies and leaves her home to Bridget. Not surprisingly, the oppressive house is filled with secrets, mysteries, and danger. As Bridget starts to unravel them, she realizes that nothing at Bitter House is as it seems...

8. The Curse of Morton Abbey by Clarissa Harwood—As a female solicitor in Victorian England, it's nearly impossible for Vaughan Springthorpe to be taken seriously. So, when she's hired sight unseen by a mysterious employer who offers her a suspiciously large amount of money to ready his Yorkshire estate for sale, she can't afford to say no. Not only does Vaughan find the village surrounding the estate strange, but odd things begin happening to her inside of the building. Is the old abbey haunted? Or is Vaughan going mad? What secrets does the crumbling pile keep?

9. The House by the Cemetery by Lisa Childs—As the daughter of the town undertaker, River Gold was constantly teased about being a ghoul. The town gossip hinted that she wasn't even a true Gold. When she fled at 17, River had no intention of ever returning to her insular hometown. Then, her father dies, her mother is accused of his murder, and she is unwittingly trapped once again in a hostile place overrun with secrets and lies. Can River clear her mother's name? Figure out who really killed her father? Find her way out again?

10. The Midnight Hour by Eve Chase—Twenty years ago, a recently widowed mother of two walked out the door of her home, blew a kiss to her children, and vanished without a trace. Two decades later, the home's new owner starts digging out the basement. What will they find and what will it tell them about what really happened to Dee Delancey all those years ago?

With Thanksgiving barely behind us and Christmas looming right ahead, you'd think I'd be able to come up with something festive for today's Top Ten Tuesday. You'd be wrong. Instead, I'm going to take a more summery slant on our prompt du jour—Top Ten Books Set in X (Pick a setting and share books that are all set there. This could be a specific continent or country, a state, in outer space, underwater, on a ship or boat, at the beach, etc.)—and go with the suggested boat/ship setting. Even though I get terrible motion sickness, especially on water vessels, this is a setting I actually quite enjoy in books. Something about the combination of feelings that ensues just appeals to me: the excitement of an impending voyage, the wonder and fear of what lies below in the fathomless depths of the sea, the claustrophobia of being trapped in a floating tin can with a group of strangers you don't know if you can trust, etc. This summer will find me and my husband on our first cruise, traveling to Alaska, and I don't know what to expect. Hopefully, nothing like what happens in the books on my list (most of which are mystery/thriller novels)!

If you're not aware, TTT is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Click on over and give her some love, won't you?

1. Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith—I've talked about this YA fantasy/horror novel before. It's about a group of students who are enrolled in a semester-at-sea program aboard a luxury cruise ship. Liv can't believe it when she's selected to participate. While on board, however, she discovers that she was only chosen for the trip because the girl who was supposed to be there has mysteriously disappeared. When other participants start vanishing and other strange things begin happening on the ship, Liv begins to believe in a supernatural explanation. Just what kinds of monsters lurk under the sea below her? Which type lives above?

2. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann—I'm probably the last person in the book blogosphere to read this non-fiction account of the strange tale of the titular ship. The patched-together vessel floated into Brazil in 1742 carrying a crew of starving English sailors who had been shipwrecked and marooned for months. Although the men were hailed as heroes, another vessel arrived in Chile with a few more of The Wager's survivors. These men had a very different tale to tell...

3. Seven Days in May by Kim Izzo—Based on the author's own family history, this historical novel sounds intriguing. It's about two American sisters who board the Lusitania, knowingly risking the perils of traveling during World War I, but never imagining just how perilous their trip will soon become.

4. The Last One by Will Dean—This thriller has been featured on a few of my TTT lists this year. It's about a woman who embarks on a cruise with her new boyfriend. After a whirlwind night on board, she awakes to find Pete missing from their room. When she steps out of her cabin, she discovers that everyone has vanished. She is the only one aboard the ship, which is floating in the middle of the sea with no land in sight. What happened to all the passengers and crew members? How is the last one going to save herself now?

5. Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them by Siân Evans—This social history about how women's lives were changed by their journeys aboard luxury liners during the early twentieth century sounds fascinating. It tells the stories of a number of female travelers, from celebrities in first class to immigrants in steerage to stewardesses and other crew members who bustled about the ships making sure everyone was safe and comfortable.

6. The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish—This British thriller concerns a group of people who commute to work in London via riverboat. The shared experience has created a community of riders who intermingle while cruising up and down the Thames. When one of them is murdered and another is accused of killing him, the commuters' lives are all upended. Who killed Kit and why?

7. The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor—The lives of two women collide on the high seas during World War II as they desperately try to save themselves and two children after their ship is torpedoed by Nazi U-boats, leaving them stranded in the last available lifeboat. This harrowing survival story is based on  real events. 

8. A Stranger On Board by Cameron Ward—I've mentioned this murder mystery before as well. It's about an ex-marine who is looking for a new start and finds it working as security on board a luxury superyacht. As they head out to open sea, someone goes missing. It doesn't take long to figure out there's a killer on board. It's up to Sarah to find them before they pick off all the other passengers one by one...

9. The Cuban Heiress by Chanel Cleeton—In 1934, two women embark on a round-trip voyage from New York to Cuba. One is posing as a wealthy heiress. The other is dead. At least that's what everyone thinks. In reality, she's very much alive and on board to get revenge on the person who wronged her. As the fates of the two women collide, they will find themselves risking everything to make sure justice is finally served.

10. Lying in the Deep by Diana Urban—Like #1, this is a YA thriller featuring a group of students enrolled in a semester-at-sea program. After being betrayed by her boyfriend and her best friend, Jade is looking forward to getting away from it all and losing herself in foreign lands and adventures. She isn't expecting the couple who ruined her life to be on board as well. As her fury at them builds, a murder occurs on the ship. Then more of the students begin to suffer similar fates. There's a killer on board, but who is it? Jade has to find out before more people end up dead.

There you are, ten books with boat/ship settings that I want to read. How do you feel about boats/ships? Which books have you enjoyed with this theme? Which are on your TBR? What setting did you pick for your list today? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on yours. I also reply to comments left here, although I am a week behind at the moment.

(While preparing my list, I came across this one with the same theme posted by the lovely bloggers over at Beyond the Bookends. Thanks for the help and recs, ladies!)

Today's Top Ten Tuesday prompt is a fun one. Nice and easy, too! Suggested by Cathy over at What Cathy Read Next, we have: Top Ten Book Titles That Would Make Great Newspaper Headlines. Since book titles and periodical headlines have the same purpose—to grab our attention in order to sell a story—it makes sense that there would be similarities between the two. The best ones, for me, are those that use creative wordplay to convey double or deeper meanings. 

Before we get to that, though, remember to click on over to That Artsy Reader Girl and give Jana, our TTT hostess with the mostest, some love. 

Other than the first, all of these novels are on my never-ending TBR list:

1. The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters—I just finished this YA fantasy/horror novel about a Tennessee nature preserve that has fueled one family's witchy powers for one hundred years. Now, something is disrupting the place's powerful magic, making everything go haywire. Young women are disappearing in the preserve and one teenage witch is terrified that someone she loves is to blame.

I didn't love this book, but it has a great title. Whether you take it literally or figuratively, it's a bone chiller!

2. Murder at Haven's Rock by Kelley Armstrong—This title would definitely signal a front-page, above-the-fold kind of story. The novel is the first in a series that's a spin-off of Armstrong's popular Rockton books. In it, Casey Butler and her husband, Eric Dalton, are starting their own secret town deep in the Yukon wilderness, where people on the run can find safety in a hidden refuge. Haven's Rock hasn't officially opened yet when two of its builders disappear into the forest and don't return. Did they fall off a cliff somewhere? Were they dragged off by wild predators? Or is something much more sinister afoot in Casey and Eric's new town?

3. Lying in the Deep by Diana Urban—I've talked about this creepy-sounding novel a few times before. Its title hints at all kinds of juicy double meanings. The story is about a group of students who embark on a semester at sea, which will take them to 11 different countries in four months. Running from heartache, Jade can't wait to sail away. But when passengers start dying, she quickly realizes that her adventurous getaway has just turned into a horrifying nightmare from which it's impossible to escape.

4. Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize by Margo Rabb—This title sounds like a newspaper headline about some juicy political scandal. It's actually a YA novel that concerns a 16-year-old girl who is sick of being bullied. When she retaliates, the fallout is much worse than she expected. As a punishment, she's sent to New York City where she's forced to serve as a full-time companion to an eccentric, paranoid old woman. Despite her oddities, Lucy's new charge has lessons to teach Lucy that will change the young woman's life.

5. Blood on the Tracks by Barbara Nickless—Another sure-to-get-noticed title/headline, this murder mystery is the first in a series starring Special Agent Sydney Rose Parnell, a Denver railroad cop. When a young woman is viciously killed, purportedly by her scarred Iraq War veteran boyfriend, Sydney and her K-9 companion are called in to investigate. They discover a dangerous gang of rail riders with sinister intentions. Can Sydney stop them before they do more harm?

6. The Vanishing of Margaret Small by Neil Alexander—I'm always intrigued by titles/headlines about mysterious disappearances. In this novel, the titular character begins receiving checks in the mail signed only "C." Margaret believes they must be from an old friend from her childhood, who knew her when she was "vanished" to an institution for children who had trouble learning. In order to find out who is sending the checks and why, Margaret must revisit painful memories of a time she'd rather forget.

Carla over at Carla Loves to Read recommended this one. Read her review here. 

7. A Traitor in Whitehall by Julia Kelly—This title sounds like a headline straight out of Washington, D.C.! It's actually set in London during World War II. Our heroine is a worker in a munitions factory when a chance encounter with a family friend leads her to a job working as a secretary in Winston Churchill's war rooms. When one of her co-workers is murdered, she becomes an amateur sleuth, determined to find out what really happened to her friend.

8. An Impossible Impostor by Deanna Raybourn—Number seven in Raybourn's popular Veronica Speedwell historical mystery series, this installment sees Veronica and Stoker on a covert mission to discern if a back-from-the-dead amnesiac is the lost heir to a large fortune or a skillful fraud. 

9. The Kind to Kill by Tessa Wegert—In this fourth installment of Wegert's Shana Merchant series, the Thousand Islands Senior Investigator is on the case of a tourist who has gone missing during a pirate-themed festival. Trying to solve the puzzling mystery while also defending her reputation, which has taken a hit due to her blood relationship with a notorious serial killer, she has her hands full. 

10. Harboring Hope: The True Story of How Henny Sinding Helped Denmark's Jews Escape the Nazis by Susan Hood—Hopeful headlines are important, too, so I'm ending my list with this one. It's a verse novel written for middle graders that recounts the heroic efforts of 22-year-old Sinding, who smuggled hundreds Jewish families out of occupied Denmark to safety in Sweden during World War II. 

There you are, ten books on my TBR list that boast titles that could be newspaper headlines. Have you read any of them? Which titles-that-could-be-headlines did you choose today? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog. I also reply to comments left here.