The best books that mix horror with other genres

James Herbert was, for me, the king, and The Jonah is brilliant. Jim Kelso, undercover cop, is a man with dark secrets. Shunned by others in the Police, he is seen as the eponymous Jonah as everything he touches seems to go wrong. Sent off to investigate a suspected drug factory on the coast, Kelso finds himself not only fighting the drug dealers he has been sent to bring to justice, but also with his own horrifying past. Part police procedural, part terrifying horror. Brilliant stuff.

A proper, old-school, British classic. When the entire world is blinded by comets lighting up the night sky, Bill Masen finds himself one of only a few people left who can see. Struggling through an apocalyptic London, Bill connects with other survivors, both good and bad. Trailing them all the way are the Triffids; intelligent, mobile plants that can strike and kill with lightning speed. Bill, Josella, the woman he connects with in London, and Susan, the little girl Bill rescues, try to start a new life away from the capital, fighting both the Triffids and other survivors who want Susan and Josella for their own nefarious plans.

H.G. Wells was way ahead of his time, and The Time Machine proves this. Although usually considered to be pure Science Fiction, I would argue that it has horror elements to it as well. Our hero, the Time Traveller, finds himself flung far into the future where mankind has evolved into two distinct species, the Eloi and their carnivorous masters, the cave-dwelling Morlocks. Some of the writing in this is pure horror, and Wells writes in such a ‘modern’ way that readers in the 21st Century can still relate to it.

A historical/horror crossover, this one. High in the Carpathian mountains in 1941, German soldiers are given the task of holding an ancient fort, the Keep of the title. Night after night, regardless of measures to protect themselves, the soldiers are picked off, one by one. In retaliation of what is thought to be partisan fighters doing the killing, SS Sturmbannfuhrer Eric Kaempfer is sent in with his death squad. They call in a Jewish professor and his daughter to decipher writing found by one of the dead bodies. Meanwhile, a stranger turns up who seems to know more about the Keep than he is letting on. This story deals with vampire myths and even immortality and spawned five sequels, although, in my humble opinion, none of them lived up to the original. Love this book and have a very dog-eared version of it that I regularly go back to.

Writing as Richard Bachman, this quite short story (for King) is set in a future where once a year, young people are invited to take part in the ‘Long Walk.’ The premise is simple; you walk until you can’t walk any further. Keep above a certain speed limit or, after a couple of warnings, the soldiers who trail the walkers will shoot you dead. The winner is the one who survives. It sounds stupid, but, my God, when I first read it, I felt as if I had been on the walk with the characters you get to know. Horrifying simply because of the skill of King’s writing in describing the feelings of utter exhaustion and terror along the way. Human horror at its peak.