Since I write novels with ghosts in them, I keep tabs on novels that include ghosts or other paranormal phenomena, and there are plenty out there. Most ghost stories written these days involve a dual timeline, where a character discovers a ghost with an issue that needs to be solved. Some of the ghosts are benign, like mine, and I’ve included a couple of books with friendly ghosts – not as friendly as Casper, but at least not scary.

Then there are the Southern Gothic novels where a sense of sinister forces adds to the suspense. The American South is famed for its unexplained phenomena, ghost stories, witches, magic, and horror. And suspense features in all of them, to make you keep turning the pages.

Finally, there are those books where magic, both black and white, plays a part. Here’s a selection.

I love a supernatural love story, and here’s one from Connecticut author Sarah Branson. Her novel Life Ends, Love Remains is set in Ridgefield, where Clara Donovan, a divorced novelist, moves into her late grandmother’s Connecticut home after a failed marriage and a failed book. Ghostly Benjamin Whitlock, a soldier killed at the Battle of Ridgefield on April 27, 1777, has haunted the local cemetery since then. And Eliza Hartwell, dead since 1851, has been weeping in that same cemetery ever since she died. When Clara agrees to write Eliza’s story, she sets in motion a love story she never anticipated. One conducted entirely across the uncrossable distance between the living and the dead.

The next book, also a love story of sorts, falls more into the category of magic, because strictly speaking, there aren’t any ghosts in it. Lizzy’s Story: Pride & Prejudice & Potions is Book 1 in a series of twelve standalone books written by Laura M. Drake and three other authors, which tell mystery stories connected to characters from Pride and Prejudice.

In this one, Elizabeth Bennet’s life is exactly what you’d expect for a half-witch, half-fae in a small town in modern times. She shares a cozy apartment with roommates, writes about social events for the local newspaper, and helps out in her family’s bakery—famous for its love potions, gossip, and her mother’s nerves. But when her mom becomes a suspect in a murder case, the predictable headlines of Lizzy throws herself into the investigation. While chasing a lead, a spell goes awry, tangling her fate—quite literally—with her number one suspect: the arrogant, brooding Darcy. What’s not to love?

Murder in Skoghall is the first of two novels by Alida Winternheimer in her Skoghall Murder series. It has all the ingredients of a cozy, but unsettling, mystery: a haunted farmhouse, an innocent man behind bars, and a woman forced to solve a 40-year-old murder. Plus a touch of the gothic. Determined to live her dream life in an arts community on the Mississippi River, Jessica Vernon sinks every penny from her divorce settlement into a charming old farmhouse. But she doesn’t count on her new puppy being so much work, the locals being quite so close-knit, or her home—which was such a steal—being haunted. If she can’t solve a dead woman’s riddle and put her terrifying ghost to rest, Jess may not survive her first season on the river.

Madeline Martin’s A Time of Witches starts in Savannah and then moves to England in this dual-timeline novel. Two women, bound by blood and betrayal, must break silence across centuries—or be silenced forever. Lilith Legare’s life is unraveling. Since her mother’s death, strange things have been happening – plants turn toward her touch, animals linger in her path, and the birthmark on her arm has started tingling. Worse still is her recurring nightmare of being burned alive at the stake. Once in England, at the decaying Brackenmere Manor, 1645 blurs with the present. There, Lilith discovers a legacy she never asked for and, along with it, the threat of peril. History must be rewritten, or she too will die.

Spooky indeed. I’ll have more novels for you in my next post, but in the meantime, if you want something that will cheer you up rather than curdling your blood, there’s always  A Field Guide to Library Ghosts, a feel-good novel with a British accent and the occasional ghost!

And Hang around for an upcoming giveaway featuring many of these writers. It begins September 16!