Fans pick 76 books like The Spirit Photographer

I’ve long been fascinated by tales of the paranormal. Legends of ghosts, ogres, and demons stretch back to prehistory, and as H.P. Lovecraft wrote, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Advances in science and technology are often seen as a remedy against fearing things that go bump in the night. But in the realm of speculative fiction, what if such technology becomes the opposite: a means for the supernatural to make its presence known? This fearful juxtaposition is skillfully depicted in the five books I describe below. I hope you enjoy them.

I’ve long been fascinated by tales of the paranormal. Legends of ghosts, ogres, and demons stretch back to prehistory, and as H.P. Lovecraft wrote, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Advances in science and technology are often seen as a remedy against fearing things that go bump in the night. But in the realm of speculative fiction, what if such technology becomes the opposite: a means for the supernatural to make its presence known? This fearful juxtaposition is skillfully depicted in the five books I describe below. I hope you enjoy them.

I’ve long been fascinated by tales of the paranormal. Legends of ghosts, ogres, and demons stretch back to prehistory, and as H.P. Lovecraft wrote, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Advances in science and technology are often seen as a remedy against fearing things that go bump in the night. But in the realm of speculative fiction, what if such technology becomes the opposite: a means for the supernatural to make its presence known? This fearful juxtaposition is skillfully depicted in the five books I describe below. I hope you enjoy them.

I’ve long been fascinated by tales of the paranormal. Legends of ghosts, ogres, and demons stretch back to prehistory, and as H.P. Lovecraft wrote, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Advances in science and technology are often seen as a remedy against fearing things that go bump in the night. But in the realm of speculative fiction, what if such technology becomes the opposite: a means for the supernatural to make its presence known? This fearful juxtaposition is skillfully depicted in the five books I describe below. I hope you enjoy them.

It’s all my father-in-law’s fault. Before I ran into him, I was a card-carrying “literary” high-brow. Shoot, I was reading Faulkner’s “The Bear” in high school and thought I would be the next generation Steinbeck if I ever got around to writing novels. But one weekend, while visiting my wife’s folks, I found myself with nothing to read—a problem solved by my father-in-law’s complete collection of Richard Stark novels. Those books knocked me head-over-heels, which is why when I did get around to writing novels, the first six were hard-edged crime fiction.

I’m a 23-year city cop who spends a fair amount of time around hard cases, from veteran co-workers to repeat felons. I’ve always been fascinated by formidable fictional heroes who succeed despite overwhelming odds. It’s an art to create a protagonist who is memorably and realistically resilient. I strove for this in my debut novel. The authors above delivered and then some. 

I love to read mysteries, particularly those with recurring characters. As a lawyer with experience in criminal law and teaching college law courses, I particularly appreciate cerebral detectives and legal maneuvers, and active investigators doing legwork for cerebral types. When I write, my recurring characters come first, followed by the case plots that those characters would find interesting. I always have some ideas of where the case is going and what procedures would be followed from my legal experience. Still, my detectives seem to inspire scenes and activities that show off their particular virtues and personalities as the investigations proceed. This seems to be what happens in the detective stories I am recommending.

The roots of my debut novel Charlesgate Confidential are in the time I spent in Boston, most notably the three years I lived in the Charlesgate building when it was an Emerson College dormitory. I always wanted to find a way to write about that time, but it wasn’t until I immersed myself in the world of Boston crime—not only the novels of Higgins, Lehane, and company but nonfiction works like Black Mass and movies like The Departed and The Town—that I hit on the way to tell my story. I’ll always be excited for new Boston-based crime fiction, and I’m happy to share these recommendations with you.

I started the Edge of Empire series which includes Beside Turning Water when I was a Park Guide at Boston’s National Historical Park. As a guide I gave tours on the Freedom Trail which preserves the buildings and stories from the era of the American Revolution. I wanted to create a book like the ones I love full of romance a bit of sex, and with historical accuracy. Books that would help readers fall in love with the characters and understand the history of the events in the Revolution without that dry history-class feeling.

I specialize in writing Young Adult Fiction with an emphasis on the Romance genre, and my debut novel, Kismat Connection, releases from Inkyard Press and HarperCollins in Summer 2023. Growing up as an Indian American, I remember searching for bits and pieces of my identity in the media. Most of the time, I wouldn’t find any representation at all—so it wasn’t long before I decided that if I couldn’t find the representation that I so desperately wanted to see, I’d have to make it myself. Kismat Connection was born from this moment in my life, and it will forever serve as the foundation for my career in publishing.