The best creepy old house books to read on a dark and stormy night

I’ve always loved a plot that sends a penniless young woman off to an old house in the countryside on a mysterious mission that will hopefully result in an inheritance. This is a contemporary take on that with a twist—our protagonist, Hal, is a tarot card reader on the run from some loan sharks. She receives a letter saying she’s inherited money from a woman she doesn’t believe she’s related to, so she sets off for Cornwall to con her way into the cash. Hal arrives to find a creepy old family manor complete with creepy old housekeeper, and newfound “relatives” that are keeping even more secrets than she is. She has to solve a decades-old mystery to scoop the cash and stay alive. 

Coraline’s family moves to an old house that’s been divided up into flats. It’s got strange residents, a big, overgrown garden, and a door that opens onto a brick wall—except when it doesn’t. Left alone at home one day, Coraline opens the door and finds a hall that leads to her “other” family. At first, everything is the way she always wanted it to be in her real home—almost, anyway. But it’s when Coraline decides that she doesn’t want to stay that her adventure begins. This one will take you right back to that scary/excited/uh-oh feeling you got as a kid, when you had to be brave in spite of being really, really scared, because you got into something you really, really shouldn’t have.

Noemí Taboada is more than a 1950’s glam socialite—under the gorgeous clothes and bright red lipstick is a smart, tough young woman. Noemí is the rescuer, not the rescued, when she heads off into the Mexican countryside in response to a plea from her newlywed cousin, who feels trapped and terrified in her husband’s family home. The author’s vivid descriptions of a house and family in a state of decay and madness make a visit to the House of Usher look like a stay at a pleasant B&B. The setting is as much a character as the mysterious and malevolent family members. This, along with the time period and the brave and resourceful Noemí, make this a great update on a classic plot. 

Realizing there’s a stranger in the house is scary, discovering there’s a stranger writing in your diary is downright creepy. But that’s what gothic lit professor Clare Cassidy finds, hard on the heels of one of her colleagues being murdered. For added fun, Clare teaches in the building attached to the old mansion left to the university by the author she teaches an entire course on. There’s a long history of students who’ve seen the ghost of the author’s dead wife roaming the halls—including the detective assigned to the murder. This one has it all—gothic setting, murder mystery, ghost story within a ghost story, and Harbinder Kaur, one of the most interesting new sleuths I’ve encountered. 

The grandmother of all haunted house books, this 1959 release is the scariest haunted house book I’ve ever read. The 1963 film adaptation is the scariest haunted house movie I’ve ever seen. Four people gather at the allegedly haunted and uninhabited Hill House—a scientist studying psychic phenomena, two women with a history of psychic ability, and the heir who wants to prove the house isn’t haunted so he can sell the place. The servants won’t even stay after sundown—“in the night. In the dark.” The initial atmosphere of lurking menace builds to screaming tension. Don’t read it if you’re home alone.