Mystery Authors Also Writing Horror For The Win
Thanks to some traumatizing childhood films—looking at you, Freddy Krueger—and middle grade books that, to this day, have me checking the backseat of my car before I get in, I avoided the horror genre for a long time. It wasn’t until the film Scream that I even dared give something in the genre a try again, and that was because it was sold to me as “fun” and “not scary at all.” The latter was a lie, I’m a chickenshit, but it was fun.
Cut to grown me, who has lived some lives, working at Book Riot and expanding into reading even more widely. Did I just jump into reading horror? No, don’t be silly; I still scare easily and have a brain that is excellent at coming up with nightmares. But I did start paying attention when fellow Rioters would rave about a horror book they loved and I realized that it left me feeling like I was missing out. So I started adding them to my TBR. Then I got up the nerve to start attempting to read some—only in the mornings, sun fully out, while not being home alone.
After a bit of time, I realized that horror books don’t scare me the way horror movies did (and still do) and that I’ve read much scarier books in the mystery/thriller genre (Perfect Days by Raphael Montes), since those are based on real crimes that can/do happen, whereas in supernatural horror, I turn into a member of the Ghostbusters team, and “I ain’t afraid of no ghost.”
The more I read the more I realized I had wrongly assumed that horror was just one thing—in reality, it’s as immense as all other genres with tons of different subgenres. Ultimately, it’s been nice to let go of a long-held fear, to have even more reading options, and to discover the world of social horror. While I continue to read and discover new things in the horror genre, I love seeing authors who I’m already a fan of for their mysteries now writing in horror. So here are some authors who write mysteries and horror books.
Ruin Road by Lamar Giles
I am a sucker for the witness protection trope, so I jumped to read Lamar Giles’ debut YA mystery Fake ID, and then he became an automatic read for me. In YA mysteries, he offers many different fun tropes and great reads: Endangered has a vigilante teen and a deadly game; Spin follows three teen girls, a murder mystery, and the dark side of social media and fame; and Overturned follows a teen with too much on her plate who needs to solve the mystery of who framed her father.
Giles entered the horror genre with his 2022 release The Getaway, which is a near-future apocalypse setting that has a billionaire-created theme park refuge where the employees will band together to try and save themselves. And his newest horror release, Ruin Road, follows an on-scholarship football star who makes a wish for people to stop acting so scared around him, and he finds out the cost of wishes coming true and the extreme reality of people no longer having fears and only courage…
Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
You may know Kelley Armstrong from her popular series: City of the Lost (Rockton), a unique procedural set in a community of people who are hiding–some are victims and some are criminals and no one knows who is who; A Rip Through Time (A Rip Through Time), a time-traveling historical procedural that puts a modern-day detective in the 1800s.
Armstrong also put out a horror title in 2023, Hemlock Island, which is an island mystery that strands a group of people who don’t like each other—including exes—in a house after the renters report blood found in a closet. And her newest release, I’ll Be Waiting, puts a grieving widow in a haunted house with seances, where she hopes to finally understand what her husband’s final words to her meant…
Tiny Threads by Lilliam Rivera
I was already a fan of Lilliam Rivera for her contemporary YA novel The Education of Margot Sánchez, so hearing that she’d be the author to adapt the fun Goldie Vance graphic novel series to middle grade books made them must-reads for me. There’s Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit and Goldie Vance: The Hocus-Pocus Hoax.
Now she has a YA horror title, Tiny Threads, that follows Samara after she gets what she thinks is her big break into the fashion world. But soon the question becomes: is she overstressed, self medicating, and imagining things, or is there something sinister at play at her new job…
Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville
Stuart Neville has two procedural series that are set in Ireland: Those We Left Behind (DCI Serena Flanagan) starts with DCI Serena Flanagan taking on a case from her past when a probation officer comes to her with concerns; The Ghosts of Belfast (Jack Lennon Investigations) starts this series following a former IRA hit man released from prison who sets out to avenge the people he killed by murdering those who ordered the killings.
Neville’s most recent release, Blood Like Mine, merges his dark thriller writing with horror as dual storylines follow a mother and daughter on the run hiding a giant secret, and Marc Donner with the FBI as he hunts for a serial killer.
White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson
Tiffany D. Jackson has been putting out hit after hit in the YA mystery and thriller genre, each with a different mood and focus. Allegedly is a psychological thriller, Monday’s Not Coming is a friendship mystery about grief, Let Me Hear A Rhyme is a genre blend mystery that brings ’90s Brooklyn to life, and Grown is a crime novel ripped from the headlines.
Jackson then stepped into the horror genre with White Smoke which starts with a blended family moving into a new home and neighborhood and leans into the “is-the-house-haunted?!” trope. Her second horror novel, The Weight of Blood, is a smart reimagining of the horror classic Carrie, set in 2014.
Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!
Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and Litsy.
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