77 books like A History of Fear

By Luke Dumas,

Here are 77 books that A History of Fear fans have personally recommended if you like A History of Fear. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Only Good Indians

Michele W. Miller Author Of The Lower Power

From my list on supernatural terror with real-world adversity.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write horror and crime thrillers grounded in my unusual lived experience as an author and attorney who has also overcome poverty, incarceration, and violent crime. I feel most fulfilled when I read a book that both entertains and expands me in meaningful ways, immersing me in lives, cultures, and history I might not otherwise know. So I love Social Horror novels, which feature characters who face significant human adversity beyond my own experience and leave me questioning what was worse, the human or the supernatural.

Michele's book list on supernatural terror with real-world adversity

Michele W. Miller Why did Michele love this book?

After a “massacre” of a herd of elk on a protected reservation forest—a scene which spoke more of frenzied bloodlust than hunting for sustenance—four Blackfoot men become the prey of a creature bent on revenge.

Jones’s narrative satisfied my thirst for wholly original horror while exploring the clash of Native American traditional and contemporary culture. The story touches on the characters’ drive to assimilate, guilt and sense of identity, and the need to move beyond resentments to create a life worth living.

I loved the originality of the beast, the slice of reservation life, and the endearing, flawed characters, all rendered with gorgeous precision.

By Stephen Graham Jones,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked The Only Good Indians as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Thrilling, literate, scary, immersive."
-Stephen King

The Stoker, Mark Twain American Voice in Literature, Bradbury, Locus and Alex Award-winning, NYT-bestselling gothic horror about cultural identity, the price of tradition and revenge for fans of Adam Nevill's The Ritual.

Ricky, Gabe, Lewis and Cassidy are men bound to their heritage, bound by society, and trapped in the endless expanses of the landscape. Now, ten years after a fateful elk hunt, which remains a closely guarded secret between them, these men - and their children - must face a ferocious spirit that is coming for them, one at a time. A spirit…


Book cover of The Devil in Silver

Michele W. Miller Author Of The Lower Power

From my list on supernatural terror with real-world adversity.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write horror and crime thrillers grounded in my unusual lived experience as an author and attorney who has also overcome poverty, incarceration, and violent crime. I feel most fulfilled when I read a book that both entertains and expands me in meaningful ways, immersing me in lives, cultures, and history I might not otherwise know. So I love Social Horror novels, which feature characters who face significant human adversity beyond my own experience and leave me questioning what was worse, the human or the supernatural.

Michele's book list on supernatural terror with real-world adversity

Michele W. Miller Why did Michele love this book?

A man called “Pepper,” who may or may not suffer from mental illness, ends up in a locked mental ward in Queens, New York, where the entire novel takes place.

A beast, who the patients believe is the devil, comes out at night, assaulting and sometimes killing patients. Patient deaths are chalked up to suicide. The engaging, quirky characters—drugged to the gills while warehoused and essentially untreated in a public hospital—share the defining feature of being low-income and unprotected from both the supernatural and human forces that would destroy them. They must take matters into their own hands to protect themselves.

I appreciated the theme of how marginalization and isolation presented as much terror here as the supernatural. Yet, the hope and humor of the characters also kept me engaged and frequently smiling.

By Victor LaValle,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Devil in Silver as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • Publishers Weekly

New Hyde Hospital’s psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very, very old one.
 
Pepper is a rambunctious big man, minor-league troublemaker, working-class hero (in his own mind), and, suddenly, the surprised inmate of a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York. He’s not mentally ill, but that doesn’t seem to matter. He is accused of a crime he can’t quite square with his memory. In the darkness of his room on his first…


Book cover of The Devil Takes You Home

Daniel Olivas Author Of Chicano Frankenstein

From my list on books by BIPOC writers that will scare the living daylights out of you.

Why am I passionate about this?

In my 25 years of writing short stories, novels, and plays, I have explored my Mexican and Chicano roots in a variety of genres, from literary fiction to horror to magical realism to science fiction and everything in between. In the end, I do not discriminate when it comes to genre because a well-told story is key for me, regardless of the mode chosen by the author. My most recent novel, Chicano Frankenstein, is a case in point. In it, I blend genres: horror, science fiction, political satire, and a bit of romance. So, too, I love reading fiction that bravely challenges conventional storytelling.

Daniel's book list on books by BIPOC writers that will scare the living daylights out of you

Daniel Olivas Why did Daniel love this book?

Gabino Iglesias has become a phenomenon in horror through a lot of hustle and plain hard work. His 2022 novel cemented his reputation as the king of border horror.

This novel follows the fate of Mario, a man broken by debt due to his family’s crushing medical bills. With a failing marriage, he reluctantly takes a job as a hitman, agreeing to do one last job hijacking a cartel’s cash shipment before it can reach Mexico.

Mario reluctantly works with his meth-addicted friend and a cartel insider. To make this dangerous endeavor worse, enter supernatural horrors that shocked me—and I am not easily shocked.

Is there blood? Of course! Gore? Plenty! Monsters and demons? Yes! You are guaranteed to lose sleep after reading this novel.

By Gabino Iglesias,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Devil Takes You Home as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From an award-winning author comes a genre-defying thriller about a father desperate to salvage what's left of his family—even if it means a descent into violence.

Buried in debt due to his young daughter’s illness, his marriage at the brink, Mario reluctantly takes a job as a hitman, surprising himself with his proclivity for violence. After tragedy destroys the life he knew, Mario agrees to one final job: hijack a cartel’s cash shipment before it reaches Mexico. Along with an old friend and a cartel-insider named Juanca, Mario sets off on the near-suicidal mission, which will leave him with either…


Book cover of The Reformatory

Michele W. Miller Author Of The Lower Power

From my list on supernatural terror with real-world adversity.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write horror and crime thrillers grounded in my unusual lived experience as an author and attorney who has also overcome poverty, incarceration, and violent crime. I feel most fulfilled when I read a book that both entertains and expands me in meaningful ways, immersing me in lives, cultures, and history I might not otherwise know. So I love Social Horror novels, which feature characters who face significant human adversity beyond my own experience and leave me questioning what was worse, the human or the supernatural.

Michele's book list on supernatural terror with real-world adversity

Michele W. Miller Why did Michele love this book?

In 1950s Florida, twelve-year-old Robert is sent to a reformatory for the “offense” of trying to defend his older sister, Gloria, when she is sexually harassed by a white man.

The author transports the reader to the Jim Crow South in which Gloria fights to free Robert, and he struggles to survive in a haunted reformatory run by sadistic racists.

I appreciated how the author infused life, hope, and compassion into her characters, keeping me in suspense while showing at a visceral level how slavery begot mass incarceration and human-caused terror trumped the supernatural. 

By Tananarive Due,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Reformatory as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A New York Times Notable Book
“You’re in for a treat. The Reformatory is one of those books you can’t put down. Tananarive Due hit it out of the park.” —Stephen King

A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.

Gracetown, Florida

June 1950

Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son…


Book cover of Raven Black

Raemi A. Ray Author Of A Chain of Pearls

From my list on unique, moody settings.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve loved mysteries since I was a kid and became hooked on the Fear Street books by RL Stine. In college, I took a class on suspense and mystery and was introduced to the greats: Chandler, Hammett, Collins, Christie, Doyle… I could go on and on. As I consumed more, I became enamored with mysteries that were more than just stories about victims but also used crime as a vehicle to comment on the region’s social and economic issues. My favorite mysteries are more than the sum of its body parts. They also scrutinize the worlds where these heinous crimes were allowed to occur.   

Raemi's book list on unique, moody settings

Raemi A. Ray Why did Raemi love this book?

I loved visiting the Shetland isles with world-weary police inspector Jimmy Perez. The islands, the unique culture, weather, and the remoteness were such compelling components of the story. I loved how Ms. Cleeves used Scotland as one of her characters. She created this lush and detailed world that’s eerie and uncomfortable, the perfect setting for a murder mystery.

I’m also a sucker for a grumpy detective, and Jimmy Perez is such an understandably jaded character, but he still has a kind, warm heart under his crusty exterior that comes out when he’s interacting with his more novice colleagues and members of the community. 

By Ann Cleeves,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Raven Black as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Introducing Inspector Jimmy Perez. Raven Black is the first book in Ann Cleeves' bestselling Shetland series - now a major BBC One drama, starring Douglas Henshal.

A remote community with a killer in their midst . . .

On New Year's Day, Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance . . .

The body is found…


Book cover of The Death of Lucy Kyte

Jacqueline Beard Author Of Vote For Murder: A Suffragette Murder Mystery

From my list on the bloodiest true crimes that inspired fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

An experienced genealogist, I became fascinated by true historical crime reports when I found murderers in my family tree. Since then, I have written ten historical mystery books featuring true unsolved crimes. My novels re-imagine what might have happened had the killers been brought to justice. My background in genealogy and vast experience trawling through historical newspaper reports has given me a passion for the past and a desire to resolve the unknown.

Jacqueline's book list on the bloodiest true crimes that inspired fiction

Jacqueline Beard Why did Jacqueline love this book?

This book is close to my heart as it started my writing career. The Death of Lucy Kyte is the fifth book in the Josephine Tey mystery novels based on a true Suffolk crime dubbed The Red Barn murders. I loved the way the book weaved between past and present, and the skill employed by the author in creating a fictional work from an actual historical crime. Not only did it offer me a series of mystery books, which I loved, but it set me on the path to penning my own novels in a similar genre.

By Nicola Upson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Death of Lucy Kyte as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A house that can't rest
A crime that won't fade...

When crime writer Josephine Tey inherited a remote Suffolk cottage from her godmother, it came full of secrets. Sorting through the artefacts of her godmother's life, Josephine is intrigued by an infamous murder committed near the cottage a century before. Yet this old crime - dubbed the Red barn murder - still seems to haunt the tight-knit village and its remote inhabitants.

As Josephine settles into the house, she knows that something dark has a tight hold on the heart of this small community. Is it just the ghosts of…


Book cover of The Night Hunter

Rebecca Nolen Author Of Deadly Thyme

From my list on British suspense to keep you up reading all night.

Why am I passionate about this?

At twelve, my favorite thing to read were the tattered, dog-eared Ellery Queen, or Alfred Hitchcock Mystery magazines my aunt let me borrow. From there I read every Agatha Christie novel available, and so began a lifetime of reading British authors. I love suspense these days, and of course, every British detective series I can find to stream. To research my books I’ve traveled to Britain, and have visited with my cousins, my family never lost touch with, in Scotland and in Yorkshire. You’ve heard “write what you know”. I love to write what I love. That’s why I wrote Deadly Thyme set in Cornwall, England.

Rebecca's book list on British suspense to keep you up reading all night

Rebecca Nolen Why did Rebecca love this book?

In this book, the author uses a new character Elvira (her character reappears in subsequent books) who leads the reader forward in the first person, a breakaway from the usual (close) third person in the other books in the series. Her voice is so clear, you can’t help but fall in love with her strange quirks. She is a medical student and trained in body combat. Elvira’s sister has been missing for 59 days and she can’t get the police interested enough to take her seriously. Her sister was an adult after all and left with a packed bag. Anderson and Costello eventually do get involved as more and more young women disappear.

The action in this novel is fast and furious. It left me breathless at times. I had to put the book down and walk away a few times near the end it was that intense.

By Caro Ramsay,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Night Hunter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Elvie McCulloch's sister Sophie has been missing for 57 days. She went out for a run - and never came home. Several young woman in the area have disappeared in similar circumstances, and Elvie's family fears the worst.

As Elvie is driving to her new job late at night, the naked, emaciated body of a young woman crashes from high above onto an oncoming car. Elvie recognises her as Lorna Lennox, who has been missing for weeks. But why was she up there? Where had she been all this time? And why was she running for her life?

Teaming up…


Book cover of Cover Her Face

H L Marsay Author Of A Long Shadow

From my list on classic English murder mysteries.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up binge-reading murder mysteries and promised myself that some day, I would write one too. A Long Shadow is the first book in my Chief Inspector Shadow series set in York. Luckily, living in a city so full of history, dark corners, and hidden snickelways, I am never short of inspiration. When I’m not coming up with new ways to bump people off, I enjoy red wine, dark chocolate, and blue cheese—not necessarily together! 

H L's book list on classic English murder mysteries

H L Marsay Why did H L love this book?

This is another murder mystery set in a quintessential English village and where we meet detective Adam Dalgleish for the first time. The day after the church fete, Sally Jupp is found dead in her bedroom, the door locked from the inside. I loved the way tension gradually builds through the story and how expertly each character is drawn. Nobody is who they seem, including the victim.

By P. D. James,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cover Her Face as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first in the series of scintillating mysteries to feature cunning Scotland Yard detective, Adam Dalgliesh from P.D. James, the bestselling author hailed by People magazine as “the greatest living mystery writer.”

Sally Jupp was a sly and sensuous young woman who used her body and her brains to make her way up the social ladder. Now she lies across her bed with dark bruises from a strangler’s fingers forever marring her lily-white throat. Someone has decided that the wages of sin should be death...and it is up to Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh to find who that someone is.

Cover…


Book cover of A Very Private Grave

Fay Sampson Author Of In the Blood

From my list on crime novels that have a rich dimension.

Why am I passionate about this?

I don’t warm to crime novels where the only point is to find whodunnit. Those that resonate with me are the ones that have an extra dimension. It may be taking me into a world I am unfamiliar with, like bell-ringing or a theatre troupe. Or it could be a richly-evoked setting, like Donna Fletcher Crow’s Celtic Christian background. Or a character whose very flaws make them more gripping, such as Rebus or Wallender. I want to come away feeling enriched and not just pleased that I guessed that it was the butler with the candlestick.

Fay's book list on crime novels that have a rich dimension

Fay Sampson Why did Fay love this book?

Authenticity appeals to me the most. Donna Fletcher Crow shares my love of Celtic Christianity and meticulously researches her deeply evocative settings. She set out to write a nonfiction book about Pilgrimage. It never got written, but the profoundly resonant places she visited inspired A Very Private Grave.

Felicity is studying at a monastery when her favorite monk is bludgeoned to death. Fr Antony is soaked in his blood. Yet soon the two of them are on the run from the murderer. Their flight takes them to some of my favorite places–the holy island of Lindisfarne, Ninian’s hermitage at Whithorn, Hilda’s clifftop monastery at Whitby, Jarrow, that nurtured Bede, and St Cuthbert’s grave in Durham Cathedral. The settings are vividly brought to life, making this book a rich experience.

By Donna Fletcher Crow,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Very Private Grave as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Felicity Howard, a young American studying at the College of the Transfiguration in Yorkshire, is devastated when she finds her beloved Fr. Dominic bludgeoned to death and Fr. Antony, her church history lecturer, soaked in his blood ... 'A Very Private Grave' is a contemporary novel with a thoroughly modern heroine who must learn some ancient truths in order to solve the mystery and save her own life as she and Fr. Antony flee a murderer and follow clues that take them to out-of-the way sites in northern England and southern Scotland. The narrative skillfully mixes detection, intellectual puzzles, spiritual…


Book cover of 1979

Tony Harcup Author Of Journalism: Principles and Practice

From my list on journalists as heroes.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve worked in and around journalism long enough to know that not all journalists are heroes. Few even aspire to be. But there is something quietly heroic about the daily task of holding the powerful to account, even in democracies where the risk of imprisonment or assassination is less than in more authoritarian states. Here is my selection of books to remind all of us about some of these more heroic aspects of the journalism trade. I hope you find reading them enjoyable and maybe even inspiring.

Tony's book list on journalists as heroes

Tony Harcup Why did Tony love this book?

Thriller writer and contemporary ‘queen of crime’ Val McDermid draws deeply on her own years as a tabloid journalist to bring fictional reporter Allie Burns to life during the winter of discontent. This unputdownable tale of a newspaper investigation into matters of life, death, and corruption is so evocative of a 1970s Glasgow newsroom that I could practically smell the fags and taste the whisky. More Allie Burns stories are promised, and I for one can’t wait.

By Val McDermid,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 1979 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE FIRST IN A THRILLING NEW SERIES FROM THE NO.1 BESTSELLER

Pre-order Val McDermid's explosive new novel, 1989, now!
____________________

She's on the hunt for a killer story . . .

1979. It's the winter of discontent, and Allie Burns is chasing her first big scoop. One of few women in the newsroom, she needs something explosive for the boys' club to take her seriously.

Soon Allie and fellow reporter Danny Sullivan are making powerful enemies with their investigations - and Allie won't stop there. When she discovers a terrorist threat close to home, she devises a dangerous plan to…


Book cover of The Only Good Indians
Book cover of The Devil in Silver
Book cover of The Devil Takes You Home

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