House of Echoes - Barbara Erskine

If you love books that are a bit scary, have a historical twist and throw in a bit of romance too, then Barbara Erskine is the writer for you. House of Echoes introduces us to Joss Grant, her husband Luke and their toddler son Tom.  Their lives have just been nearly destroyed by the dirty dealings of Luke's business partner, when fate throws them a curve ball as Joss discovers she has inherited a large, dilapidated house called Belheddon Hall from a mother that she had never met.  Joss had always known that she had been adopted, but knew nothing about her family history, or why her mother had given her away as an infant.

The Grants are forced to sell their London home, so inheriting Belheddon Hall is a lifeline for them, allowing Luke to start a car restoration business in the old stables and giving Joss the chance to start renovating the old building and start writing a novel.  But while all old buildings have their shadows and legends attached to them, Belheddon Hall seems to have more than its share of mysteries.  Almost as soon as they move in, Joss can sense someone watching her and sees shadowy forms out of the corner of her eye.  She also hears children laughing and calling to each other in the house and gardens, which at first she writes off as village children having a lark, but becomes more spooked when she discovers that the names being called are those of her two dead brothers that before she had never known existed.

The stress starts telling on Joss when baby Tom starts having nightmares and talks about being scared of the 'tin man' and then her fear builds when strange things start happening to Tom's cot in the night, and they start to find bruises on his body.  Joss also discovers that she is once pregnant once more and that she is carrying a baby boy.  But as she starts to research her family history with the help of a friend from London, she is dismayed to find that all the male children in her family seemed to die prematurely and the house has always been passed down through the female line.

As Joss's fears for her two young sons and husband mount, can she convince her sceptical family who are starting to think that she herself is causing the accidents to Tom and the new baby Ned, that there is really danger lurking in Belheddon Hall? And how does the Yorkist King Edward IV fit in to the legend?  Does Edward still haunt the Hall looking for his lost love the Lady Katherine; harming all male children out of revenge towards the boy baby that took his lover's life away when she gave birth? Or is there something infinitely more sinister at work, that threatens to drag them all down into the darkness?

This is a fascinating book, with lots of twists and turn, and quite a few scares.  As it is set in the very English countryside, have a nice hotpot or shepherd's pie for your lunch while reading and wash it down with a half of real ale. This is a good page-turning read, which will have you wondering if tragedy will finally overtake Joss's loved ones, or whether she can find a way to stem the tide of evil before it is too late.

Zombie Apocalypse - Stephen Jones

Vampires stand aside, as it seems to be the year of the Zombie both in literature and on the small screen.  After hiding behind my hands during much of 'The Walking Dead' (I don't do gore very well - that poor horse!), I was surprised at how many Zombie books now inhabited the horror shelves at the book shop. So I made my choice, paid my money and took home Zombie Apocalypse by Stephen Jones.

Well, actually it is not by Stephen Jones, but was written by a collaboration of different writers and in the unusual format of being a series of letters, emails, reports, memos and even tweets describing the unfolding horror show and tragedy.

Zombie Apocalypse is set ever so slightly in the future and kicks off in London, where the economy is even crumblier than it is now and personal freedoms have been curtailed to a great degree. To throw the citizenry some 'beer and circuses' and raise the mood of the nation, the governments decides to splurge a lot of money on a New Festival of Britain.

The idea of the Festival goes down like a lead balloon with most people, but the authorities plough on creating new venues and transport links.  For some reason, they decide to do some construction on the site of an old plague burial ground in South London, that has had a sinister reputation for centuries.

As the bodies of the plague victims start to be removed, corners are cut, regulations are not followed, and strange things start to happen. A scientist who was investigating the possible public health risks disappears, and strange figures start to be reported wandering around in the vicinity of the old church.

One dark night it all starts to go to hell in a handcart and several police officers are attacked by strange, shambling figures who seem to have a preternatural strength. Anyone who is bitten, chewed, or even scratched by one of these creatures rapidly shows massive signs of infection in the wounds, develops a high temperature, and eventually appears to die. Except......they don't!

They rise again as the living dead - zombies who have an insatiable hunger for human flesh.  The rapid collapse of society, the pitiful response of the government, and the blind panic and incomprehension of ordinary people are all played out via such mediums as a teenage girl's diary, desperate texts, police reports and blog posts (strangely there always seems to be mobile phone reception and access to the internet - usually the first things to go down in my experience - but hey they needed a book!)

As Britain fails when trying out a final solution to halt the Zombie plague in its tracks, the contagion inevitably finds its way over into the rest of the world, with the US, Mexico and Australia all being infected.

Enough gore to satisfy the horror fans and enough of a story for the rest of us, it makes an intriguing, if disturbing, read.  Is the state of our economy and sense of hopelessness that many people feel behind this explosion of zombie literature? Do people really feel that we are somehow in the 'end days'?

My only criticism of the book is in its ending, which I found a little absurd. Yes I know that on one level the whole idea of zombies is absurd, but I didn't like the ending which I don't want to give away.  Suffice to say that it brings a whole new meaning to 'you are what you eat'!

One to read trembling under the duvet with a double vodka and coke and an extra large bag of Maltesers!

The Man In The Moss - Phil Rickman

The village of Bridelow has always been an isolated, wind swept place; a place where the old beliefs and the newer Christian beliefs have been woven together. The only way to get to Bridelow is across a primeval peat bog known as 'The Moss'.

When an ancient body is discovered in the peat and taken away to be investigated by the archaeologists, perfectly preserved after thousands of years, the villagers know what they have to do to preserve the balance between light and dark in their town. They must get the body back, and put it back where it belongs. The body in the peatbog had been an ancient sacrifice, and the sacrificial victim had died the triple death.

Bridelow is also a village that draws back the people who left; and musician Matt Castle buys the village pub, after the local independent brewery is sold. Matt who plays the Pennine Pipes to appease the Moss.

Drawn into this circle of gathering darkness are folk singer Moira Cairns, American film Director Mungo Macbeth and the fundamentalist vicar Joel Beard. But one of Bridelow's own is using the energy in the town for his own ends. Having once been banished, he has now found a way to return and work his black magic.

But Bridelow has guardians; a group of women who have retained the old knowledge and pass it down from generation to generation. As people are killed and disaster threatens to destroy the village, can the remnants of the Mother's Union do enough to save Bridelow and it's inhabitants?

Set in the dark, wet weeks around Halloween - ancient Samhain - this is one to read with a big bowl of hot chilli, a baked potato and a pint of real ale!

'Salem's Lot - Stephen King

I am one of those people who, if they could, would keep every single book that they had ever read. Unfortunately that is not possible, and you would not believe how many bin liners of books I have taken to charity shops!

Some books are just evergreen to me and I can read them again and again. One such book is Stephen King's vampire classic 'Salem's Lot'. This poignant story of how novelist Ben Mears returns to his home town to reclaim his past and face up to some of the disturbing events of his childhood only to find that he has walked into a living nightmare is one of King's best novels.

Ben Mears returns to Jerusalem's Lot after a personal tragedy to confront his fears about the Marsten House by possibly leasing the property and writing a book. The Marsten House was the scene of some grisly murders and had been talked about and feared ever since. Ben once entered the house for a dare, and saw and experienced things that left him terrified. He finds that the house has been recently occupied after standing empty for many years by a couple of very strange strangers and scary, nasty things have started to happen in this very ordinary, sleepy US town.

It takes Ben some time and a lot of soul searching to realise that there are vampires terrorising the Lot, and he can only persuade a few of the residents to believe him and try to destroy the infestation, which is led by a very old evil.

The scariest thing about the book is how this small town dies gradually, with very few people acknowledging that there is even a problem. Residents fade away and disappear without comment, people tremble with fear behind their curtains but do not voice those fears until one day nothing is open, the schools have no pupils and the town has died. No news of this penetrates the outside world, and only Ben and the boy are left to confront the vampires and strike at the heart of the evil.

The characters as always in a Stephen King novel, make this book and involve you from the very first paragraphs.

If you are among the few who haven't read it yet, you are in for a treat and for those you want to read it again, choose a dark, foggy night around Halloween when the shadows are long and the nights are chill. Have copious amounts of hot chocolate and marshmallows, and be very careful of who you invite into the house!

The House of Lost Souls - F.G Cottam

Now this book - The House of Lost Souls by F G Cottam - is as different to Kelley Armstrong's slightly tongue in cheek supernatural chills as day is to night. I am not easily spooked, but the is a creepy book that you want to read with the lights on and someone else in the house!

Ten years ago Paul Seaton stumbled into the wrong house and his life has never been the same and he clings to this sanity by threads. He is living a narrow but reasonably stable life, when everything in it is totally disrupted by the arrival of Nick Mason, an ex-soldier who needs his help. Nick's sister has also found her way into the notorious Fischer House and now Nick must find a way to save her before it is too late.

One of the few leads they have is a few photographs taken by the beautiful society photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare, and they must delve into her life in the hedonistic upper class society of the 1920s to search for clues, unaware of the evil that they will find there.

Can Nick persuade Paul to return to the Fischer House in order to save his sister and her friends? Can Nick and Paul prevail against the terror that they find there?

A big glass of red and a family pack of Maltesers for this one!

Broken - Kelley Armstrong

If you are a fan of Buffy, Angel or Torchwood, you will love the books of Kelley Armstrong. I suppose they could be described as supernatural horror or supernatural fantasy fiction. They are action-packed, have a bit of gore and can be very funny. The action centres around a Werewolf pack and a witch called Paige. Throw in some sorcerers, a few vampires and the odd necromancer and you have a rollicking romp that weaves between our world and that of that of the supernatural.

Broken takes up the story where pregnant werewolf Elena goes to Toronto to retrieve Jack The Ripper's 'From Hell' letter. What should have been a simple theft goes badly awry, and opens a portal that goes from Toronto to Victorian London and literally all hell is let loose. Cue infected rats, devious vampires and zombies until one of the werewolf pack has to risk their life to get the portal closed again.

Not really scary, but snuggle down on a comfy sofa with a bowl of nachos and sour cream and a large mug of hot chocolate!