Some are creepy, some are nice,
Some are cheery, some full of vice.
Some are bent on causing fright,
And some go gently into that good night.

Joan Aiken
The Haunting of Lamb House. St. Martin's, 1993, 1991.
In Lamb House Toby Lamb documents his dark and troubled youth in a manuscript that he hides in the house. After his death, Toby's apparition tries to convince author Henry James to publish his manuscript, but it is finally up to the new owner of Lamb House, E. F. Benson, to interpret Toby's memoirs and put the past to rest.

David Ambrose
Superstition. Warner, 1998, 1997.
University psychologist Sam Towne is convinced that the human mind has the psychic ability to create a ghost. He compels a group of volunteers to create a fictitious spirit and the result is Adam, a tragic Revolutionary War hero. But the malevolent Adam is determined to remain in the world at any cost.

Kingsley Amis
The Green Man. HBW, 1969.
Maurice Allington is the dissipated and engaging landlord of a medieval coaching inn called The Green Man which, as an old inn should, has a resident ghost in the person (sort of) of Dr. Thomas Underhill, a 17^th century practitioner of the black arts and a sexual deviant suspected of two murders. While dealing with a number of mundane distractions: major staff crises, a withdrawn adolescent daughter, middle-aged hypochondria aggravated by twenty years of aggressive drinking, and a compulsion to arrange a romp with himself, his wife and his mistress, Allington is finally driven to a climactic confrontation with the supernatural visitant.

Linda Anderson
The Secrets of Sadie Maynard. Pocket Star, 1999.
World-renowned photojournalist Memphis Maynard returns to her family home in the small West Virginia town of Yancey to unearth the secret of her grandmother Sadie's murder back in 1936. She soon finds herself guided by an otherworldly presence, but is it leading her to the answers she seeks or warning her away from a long dormant-now awakened-danger?

Clive Barker
Coldheart Canyon. HarCol, 2001.
Coldheart Canyon is a corner of Hollywood so secret it doesn't appear on any maps. When actor Todd Picket takes refuge from a plastic surgery mishap in the manse of a former 1920s vamp, he discovers not only the long-dead woman in residence, but a number of other ghostly presences of stars from George Sanders to Mary Pickford. Why are they there? The secret lies in the mysterious room on the home's lowest level.

Veronica Black
My Name is Polly Winter.St. Martin's, 1993.
When historical researcher Jessica Cameron takes a room at The Cedars to study mid-19th century domestic life she is prompted by a child's apparition and some mysterious words inscribed on a shred of paper to investigate a century-old murder.

James P. Blaylock
The Rainy Season. Ace, 1999.
After the sudden death of his young wife, Phil Ainsworth senses an eerie presence in the big old house he inherited from his mother. Soon afterwards his sister dies, leaving her 10-year-old daughter Betsy-the only family he has left--in his care. What Phil doesn't know is that Betsy is a very special child who can sense powerful emotions from the past, hear voices of the dead, and see the uncanny powers closing in around the house.

Josephine Boyle
Holy Terror. St. Martin's, 1995.
Newlyweds Emily and John Wakelin move to the quaint cottage of their dreams in Essex. Emily, a talented embroideress, is hired by her eccentric neighbor to create a wall hanging of Walter Tappet, a 16^th century martyr. She subsequently discovers a strange secret about the house next door and finds herself racing against an unknown force to complete the embroidery before something terrible happens to herself or the people she loves.

Orson Scott Card
Treasure Box. HarperCollins, 1996.
When Quentin Fears was 10, his sister was killed in a car accident, and he withdrew from the world. Years later he falls in love with Madeleine Cryer, a beautiful, mysterious woman he quickly marries. But Madeleine is not what she seems as Quentin discovers after he meets her cantankerous, eccentric family in a creepy old Hudson River mansion. And only Quentin can stop Madeleine from unleashing an ageless malevolence that will rule the world.

Helen Chappell
Ghost of a Chance. Dell, 1998.
Sam Wescott wasn't much of a husband while he was alive, but now that he's a ghost and can converse with the dead, he comes in handy to his reporter wife Hollis Ball when untimely deaths need to be solved. Followed by: Giving Up the Ghost (1999).

Will Clarke
The Worthy. S&S, 2006.
Comic story of Conrad Avery Sutton III, a frat pledge at Louisiana State University who dies as the result of a hazing incident and plots to exact his revenge on the fraternity's chapter president responsible for his death.

Douglas Clegg
The Abandoned. Dorchester, 2005.
Harrow House has been long abandoned, but it is by no means "unoccupied." A terrifying evil is waiting to be unleashed.

Phillip DePoy
Easy as One, Two, Three. Dell, 1999.
Deep in the hollows of Georgia's wild Appalachians, the ghost of a young girl can sometimes be seen in the moonlight, still wandering the paths of Black Pine Mountain, where she vanished more than fifty years ago. Now another little girl has gone missing, the only child of a troubled backwoods couple guarding a dark secret of their own. Along comes Flap Tucker, a Zen p.i. with a knack for finding missing things, and nightclub owner Dalliance Oglethorpe. Flap's special talents become a little girl's last hope against a ghost's final revenge. Earlier titles in the series: Easy (1997) and Too Easy (1998).

R.A. Dick
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Ziff-Davis, 1945.
Determined to make a life for herself and her daughter, a young widow moves into a cottage overlooking the windswept English coast. She soon learns that it's haunted by the ghost of its former owner, a salty sea captain. But the Captain's effort to scare off his new tenant soon develops into a most unlikely, if unconsummated, love affair.

Glen Duncan
Death of an Ordinary Man. Black Cat, 2004.
Nathan Clark, who cannot remember the circumstances of his own death--seems, in fact, to be surprised to learn that he is dead--seeks insight into his untimely demise as he hovers around his wake and funeral. By the author of I, Lucifer (2002).

Tananarive Due
Joplin's Ghost. Atria, 2005.
After a falling piano nearly kills her, young Phoenix Smalls is suddenly able to play Joplin tunes. Years later Phoenix is a budding R&B singer, but she also seems to become a channel for the famous ragtime composer whose own career was thwarted by racism, personal loss and illness.

Barbara Erskine
House of Echoes. Dutton, 1996.
When Joss Gram inherits Belheddon Hall in Essex from a mother she never knew, she and her husband, Luke, move in with their young son, Tom. All Joss knows of the house is that her two young brothers died there many years ago, but local townspeople whisper darkly of a curse on both the house and Joss's family. Before too long it becomes chillingly clears that something is definitely wrong at Belheddon Hall and Joss worries that some force is determined to ruin her family.

Flo Fitzpatrick
Ghost of a Chance. Zebra, 2004.
Dancer/choreographer Kiely Davlin is offered a job in a re-staging of a supposedly cursed musical called "Bad Business on the Brazos" and soon finds herself haunted by the ghost of Don Mueller, the actor who was killed during the last performance of this show fifty years ago.

Abby Frucht
Polly's Ghost. Scribner, 2000.
Love, Polly Maymiller comes to realize, is not a state of mind but a way of being. After having given birth to three sets of twins, she dies in childbirth without ever holding or touching one of her children--her son, Tip. But the determined Polly finds a way to become his guardian from "beyond the grave."

Deborah Grabien
The Weaver and the Factory Maid. Minotaur, 2003.
English folk musician and architect Ringan Laine becomes the owner of a restored eighteenth-century cottage and barn, he discovers the buildings come fully equipped with the ghosts of a lovelorn weaver and the girl he loved, both murdered in 1817--their story the subject of a song that is a staple in Ringan's repertoire. Only a full-scale musical exorcism to lay the ghostly couple to rest. Followed by: The Famous Flower of Serving Men (2004), Matty Groves (2005), and Cruel Sister (2006).

Heather Graham
The Presence. Mira, 2004.
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time: rent an old Scottish castle and entertain guests with a made-up story about a former Laird's strangled wife.But things get complicated when the castle's rightful owner shows up, a serial killer seems to be on the loose, and a ghost appears to let them know that the tale they created may have bee all too real. For more paranormal romantic suspense, read: The Haunted (2003).

Beth Gutcheon
More Than You Know. Morrow, 2000.
On the coast of Maine, elderly Hannah Gray recounts her long-ago love affair with Conary Crocker disrupted by a ghost and the discovery that their distant relations were involved in a 19^th century scandal.

John Harwood
The Ghost Writer. Harcourt, 2004.
A tale in the tradiiton of Turn of the Screw and Dorian Gray. Lonely librarian Gerard Freeman is in love with a woman he has never met--his long-time pen-pal, Alice. At the same time Gerard begins to piece together his mother's mysterious past with the aid of short stories written by his great-grandmother, Viola. At first, the stories seem to be scary Victorian tales of the supernatural. But Gerard discovers some disturbing connections in the way the stories mirror event in real life.

Judith Hawkes
Julian's House. T&F, 1989.
Parapsychologists David and Sally Curtiss investigate the secrets of their rented haunted house. It takes a sweet old librarian named Colin to unwind the enshrouded past of Gilfoy house, exhuming a tragedy that has sunk deep into the ancient floorboards and is rising from them now with the power to destroy David and Sally.

My Soul to Keep. Dutton, 1996.
Returning home to Tennessee after a failed marriage, Nan Lucas moves into the old farmhouse inherited from her grandmother. At first she is unconcerned that her son has developed an imaginary playmate, but she soon begins to fear that "Woody" is both real and dangerous, and Nan must try to recover her memory from a tragedy from her past that left her childhood friend, Tucker Wills, dead in an abandoned quarry.

Daniel Hecht
City of Masks. Bloomsbury, 2003.
Clinical psychologist Cree Black, who has learned she is very sensitive to the presence of ghosts, investigates a reported haunted house in the Garden District of New Orelans. She is soon bset by bad guys both spectral and flesh-and-blood. First in a series. Followed by: Land of Echoes (2004) & Ghosts of the Barbary Coast (2006).

James Herbert
Haunted. Putnam's, 1989. 1988.
David Ash, a talented but skeptical investigator of the supernatural arrives at a house called Edbrook, where the Mariell family-whose past contains some unspoken horror--has been plagued by freezing rooms, heat-choked halls, and the sound of children's laughter. They believe their house is haunted and challenge Ash to prove otherwise. While he struggles to maintain his pragmatic perspective, Ash cannot explain the shockingly real vision of a familiar girl whose embrace is dangerously irresistible. Followed by: The Ghosts of Sleath (1994).

Elizabeth Ann Hill
Genevra. Severn, 2002.
Soon after moving intoa large house in a remote part of Cornwall, England, Christine Elford begins to see a woman Genevra Penhale, the home's former owner who supposedly went mad and died ears earlier.

Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House. Viking, 1959.
The four visitors at Hill House-- some there for knowledge, others for adventure-- are unaware that the old mansion will soon choose one of them to make its own.

Henry James
The Turn of the Screw. Dover, 1991, 1898.
A neurotic governess, believing that the two children in her care are being haunted by malevolent ghosts, seeks to exorcize them.

Peter James
Possession. Doubleday, 1988.
On the day Fabian Hightower is killed in a head-on collision in France he appears before his mother, Alex, in a "dream." Then strange things begin to occur. The words "Help me, Mother," flash across her computer screen. Fabian's face appears on newly developed photographs. Objects move by themselves. Haunted by Fabian's pleas at every turn, Alex searches for answers and unearths the terrifying secrets of her son's bizarre past.

Tamara Siler Jones
Ghosts in the Snow. Bantam, 2004.
Dubric Bryerly, the head of security of Faldorrah's castle keep has more problems than just the serial killer on the loose. He has been cursed to see the ghosts of those murdered until their killer has been caught and brought to justice.

Alice Kimberly
The Ghost and Mrs. McClure. BPC, 2004.
Soon after she buys her aunt's old bookstore, young widow Penelope Thornton-McClure learns that it is inhabited by the spirit of murderd p.i. Jack Shepard. His expertise soon comes in handy when an author is poisoned during a book signing. Followed by: The Ghost and the Dead Deb (2005) & The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library (2006).

Stephen King
The Shining. Doubleday, 1990, 1977.
Wendy and Jack Torrance, whose young son has clairvoyant powers, spend the winter in an isolated old resort hotel as caretakers. But the place is possessed by an evil that tries to corrupt and destroy the family.

Andrew Klavan
The Uncanny. Crown, 1998.
Hollywood producer Richard Storm has reached the top of his profession making horror movies based on classic English ghost stories. Now, with his life beginning to unravel, he flees to England and joins the two-man staff of Bizarre!, a magazine about the paranormal that he respects and that may actually lead him to a few hard facts in proof of an afterlife. But his search uncovers more than he bargained for and Storm's nightmares are about to step down off the screen into real life.

Deborah LeBlanc
House Divided. Dorchester, 2006.
In Crowly, Louisiana, an avaricious building contractor seeks to move a grand old house and needs to cut in the half to do so, but his actions trigger a series of supernatural events.

Marc Levy
If Only It Were True. Pocket, 2000.
After a car accident leaves her in what appears to be an irreversible coma, the spirit of Lauren Kline returns to her old apartment where she is discovered by the new tenant, Arthur. The two become lovers but when Lauren's mother decides to pull the plug on Lauren, Arthur and his best friend, Paul, who thinks his buddy has gone over the edge, must "kidnap" Lauren's body from the hospital.

David Long
The Inhabited World. HM, 2006.
Evan Molloy, who had shot himself to death for reason he cannot recall, has seen people come and go in the house he still inhabits, but he finds himself espcially drawn to Maureen Keniston, a single woman having difficulty ending an affair with a demanding married man. As he observes her struggle, Evan looks back on the events that took him from happily married man to suicidal failure.

Gregory Maguire
Lost. Regan, 2002, 2001.
Winifred Rudge attempting to write a novel about a woman haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper finds herself the object of spectral phenomena when she arrives in London to find a friend who has gone missing.

Richard Matheson
Earthbound. TOR, 1994.
David and Ellen Cooper return to the lonely beachside cottage where they honeymooned in the hopes of saving their troubled marriage. But the house is cold and inhospitable, and they learn that they are not alone. Who or what is Marianna, who turns her enigmatic charms on David, who slowly realizes that her secrets lie deep in the past and beyond the grave.

Dennis McFarland
A Face at the Window. Broadway, 1997.
After sending their only daughter off to boarding school, Cookson Selway, a recovering alcoholic, and his wife, Ellen, travel to London where they register at a quiet hotel. There Cookson is drawn into a series of mysterious encounters with a young girl who died in a fall from his hotel window sixty years earlier. Soon the characters of her life become more real to him than those of his own as he secretly relishes the chance to move from his lackluster reality into the high drama of the girl's past. But as he begins to do so, he jeopardizes his marriage and the lives of those around him, and the consequences of his escape are far greater than he could ever have imagined.

Clare McNally
Stage Fright. TOR, 1995.
Five years ago, Hayley was the director of a hit play--then Bruce, the playwright, murdered her lover Jack and her best friend Kelly before committing suicide. Now Hayley has begun to pick up the pieces of her life directing for a new theater company. Then accidents begin to happen and threats begin to appear that echo the final message of the killer: "Wait For Me." The ghostly figures of Jack and Kelly appear, but are they merely dreams, or really ghosts? Has the obsessed, vengeful spirit of Bruce found a way to reach her from beyond the grave?

By the same author:

Good Night, Sweet Angel. TOR, 1996.
Blood Relations. TOR, 1997.

Brent Monahan
The Bell Witch: an American haunting : Being the eye witness account of Richard Powell concerning the Bell Witch haunting of Robertson County, Tennessee 1817-1821. St. Martin's, 1997.
A cruel and noisy poltergeist known as "Old Kate" takes up residence with John Bell's family in 1818 and brings death into the household. This chilling horror tale, passed down by local schoolteacher who witnessed the events to his daughter, claims to be the only "documented" incident in which a spirit actually caused the death of a human being.

Cherie Priest
Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Tor, 2005.
As orphan Eden Moore digs into the dark and tangled past of her family, three ghosts keep watch in order to protect her from the violence that took their lives a century ago. Followed by: Wings to the Kingdom (2006).

Anne Rice
Violin. Knopf, 1997.
Triana, who once dreamed of becoming a great musician, is preyed upon by a demonic fiddler named Stefan, the tormented ghost of a Russian aristocrat who tries to dominate her and draw her into a state of madness through the music she loves.

Nora Roberts
Blue Dahlia. Jove, 2004.
Young widow Stella Rothchild moves with her two sons to the Harper Estate just oustide Memphis, TN, where she becomes the new manager of adjoining nursury called In the Garden. Stella finds unexpected romance with sexy landscape designer Logan Kitridge, but the spirit of a tragic bride is determined to destroy their happiness. Followed by: Black Rose (2005) and Red Lily (2005).

Barbara Rogan
Suspicion. S&S, 1999.
Novelist Emma Roth was convinced that New York City was the only place to live, until the day she encountered an isolated old Victorian mansion overlooking the Long Island Sound and moves in with her husband, Roger, and son Zack. She scoffs at the rumors that the place is haunted...until inexplicable things begin to happen.

John Saul
Second Child. Bantam, 1990.
Ostracized by children her own age, her beautiful half-sister, and even her own mother, Melissa Holloway finds solace in her friendship with the ghost of D'Arcy Malloy, a servant who died in her house a century before.

By the same author:

Black Creek Crossing. Ballantine, 2004.

Robert Serling
Air Force One is Haunted. St. Martin's/Marek, 1985.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt comes back from the grave to take command of a Depression-crippled America on the brink of Armageddon.

Jean Simon
Ghost Boy. Kensington, 1994.
Twenty-five years ago, in a small town paralyzed with fear, a sadistic human monster moved undetected, leaving a terrifying trail of bloody death. Today, two more children have just been found brutally murdered. And the strange new boy named Martin knows who the killer is... because he was the first victim.

Dan Simmons
A Winter Haunting. Morrow, 2002.
Dale Stewart returns home on Halloween to pull his life back together, but when he moves into the long-deserted farmhouse where a friend met with a grisly "accident" years before, he soon learns that he is not alone.

T. M. Simmons
Dead Man Haunt. FiveStar, 2006.
Alice Carpenter and her Aunt Twila see dead people. They can talk to them, too. This talent comes in handy when they find themselves in a dilapidated hotel about to be torn down in Mineral Springs, Texas, faced with a very sexy ghost named Patrick, who is having difficulties "crossing over." And things really get complicated when they find a body at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

Alexandra Sokoloff
The Harrowing. St. Martin's, 2006.
Alone on an isolated college campus over the Thanksgiving holiday, five students become aware of a sixth presence in the residence hall. Are they the victims of a simple college prank taken way too far? Or does something more ominous have designs on them?

Sean Stewart
Perfect Circle. Small Beer, 2004.
For "alternative exorcist" DK Kennedy, life is a continous struggle as he deals with his ghosts--both figuratively and literally. A story about loss, about grief, about responsibility, about family, and about coming to terms with one's lot in life.

Antoinette Stockenberg
Dream a Little Dream. St. Martin's, 1997.
Years ago an eccentric millionaire bought a castle in England named Fair Castle, and had it transported to the Hudson Valley in New York. Today, it is the home of his heiress, Elinor MacLeish, her family, and the ghosts who followed their ancestral dwelling to America. Now Fair Castle's former owner, his fortunes reversed, wants the castle back.

Thomas Tessier
Fog Heart. St. Martin's, 1998, 1997.
When Carrie is horrified by visits from her dead father, her hard-nosed businessman husband, Oliver, thinks she's being ridiculous. Jan believes she is receiving messages from her daughter who died as an infant. Her husband, Charley, is skeptical. The two couples consult a young medium named Oona, who knows things that no other living person should know. But Oona has her own dark past, and no one can be truly sure of her motivations. Even if she can help release the spirits that are surrounding the couples, there is a strong chance that all their lives could be destroyed in the process.

Tamara Thorne
Haunted. Zebra, 1995.
Best-selling author David Masters moves himself and his 16-year-old daughter, Amber, into Baudey House, a spooky Victorian mansion with a grisly past, in an effort to gain inspiration for his next book.

Ralph Vallone
Second Vision. Dutton, 1994.
Reclusive financier Henry Somerset, one of America's wealthiest men, wakes up one morning to discover that he is dead. He has no idea how he got that way. Always resourceful, he finds a remarkable way to interact with those he left behind, meddle in their lives, and find out who murdered him.

Stuart Woods
Under the Lake. S&S, 1987.
A burnt-out Pulitzer prize-winning journalist ghostwriting an autobiography discovers a strange presence in his borrowed cabin by a man-made lake. The bizarre events he experiences are somehow linked to a long-ago crime that certain locals want to remain buried under the lake.

T.M. Wright
Goodlow's Ghosts. TOR, 1993.
Sam Goodlow isn't sure if he's dead or not. Is he? And if he is, who killed him and why? Psychic detective Ryerson Biergarten is just the person to help Sam, because he has the ability to track down the "gateways" between our world and the next--the portals that allow people and ghosts to exchange places.

The School. TOR, 1990.
Still grieving over the loss of their young son in a tragic accident, Allison and Frank Hitchcock buy an old school building and transform it into a B&B. Having found sanctuary, they rediscover their love for each other, but unnatural forces inhabit the school. It begins with laughter of children heard in the basement. Then Frank glimpses shadowy figures in the halls and Allison, who sees the children more clearly, searches their faces for the child she lost. The entity that has existed in the school for 20 years now feeds on the emotions of the Hitchcocks. Soon the walls of the school will no longer contain it.