Books like 'Painted Devils'
Readers who enjoyed Painted Devils by Robert Aickman also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
fantasy horror supernatural paranormal ghosts gothic noir spooky
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Came Back Haunted by Karina Halle
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDex & Perry return in Book #10 of the Experiment in Terror series.A lot can change in three years.For Perry and Dex Foray, it’s been a step in the right direction, a step toward living a normal life. They’re happily married, they have their own media company, they’ve done what they can to leave their sordid and scary past behind them.But something has changed recently... -
Tales from the Gateway: A Companion Novel to the World of the Gateway by E.E. Holmes
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsExperience the world you love as you've never seen it before... From best-selling author E.E. Holmes comes a collection of short stories that will take you on an unforgettable journey into the lives of your favorite characters from The Gateway Trilogy and The Gateway Trackers. Go back in time and explore Fairhaven Hall with Karen and Elizabeth when they were just Apprentices... -
Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural by Herbert A. Wise, John Collier
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen this longtime Modern Library favorite--filled with fifty-two stories of heart-stopping suspense--was first published in 1944, one of its biggest fans was critic Edmund Wilson, who in The New Yorker applauded what he termed a sudden revival of the appetite for tales of horror... -
The Dark Descent by David G. Hartwell, Clive Barker
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis highly acclaimed anthology traces the evolution of horror, from Nathaniel Hawthorn and Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King. Adopted by colleges across the country to be used in literature courses, The Dark Descent showcases some of the finest horror fiction ever written.Contents: Pt. 1 - The Color of EvilThe Reach / Stephen KingEvening Primrose / John CollierThe Ash-Tree / M. R... -
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Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural by Marvin Kaye, Saralee Kaye,
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA gripping, chilling collection of 47 stories and six poems, dating back to Shelley and Stevenson, but also including modern masters... -
Poltergeist by James Kahn
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom a dimension beyond the living, a terror to scare you to deathFrom the imageless eye of the TV set, from the flickering snowy light, it calls to Carol Anne, six years old and innocent.From beyond the world of the living, reaches out in unholy anger, ripping her from the arms of her family, into the thrall of the POLTERGEIST... -
Callie by Bill Thompson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDeep in the bayous of southern Louisiana, an ancient mansion called Beau Rivage sits empty and abandoned. Arceneaux family members built the house and lived there for two hundred years. The house is inherited by Callie Pilantro, a down-on-her-luck granddaughter of Juliet Arceneaux, its most recent owner who died there a few months ago... -
The Dead End by Mimi McCoy
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPoison Apple Books: Thrilling. Bone-chilling. These books have bite! Casey Slater can't believe her bad luck. It's the summer before seventh grade, and instead of the perfect vacation she'd planned with her best friend, Casey is in a remote country town, where her parents are restoring an old, creaky, creepy house. Worst of all, everyone else in town thinks the old house is haunted... -
Dark and Dangerous Things by Kelly Martin
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe final showdown has begun. With Abel in the hospital and Molly stronger than ever, it is up to Elise and newly released Silas Ford to figure out a way to send Molly back to Hell for good. She won't make it easy, of course. She has bargains to keep. Elise Morgan is ready for this to all be over... -
The Body at Auercliff by Amy Cross
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"We'll bury her so deep, even her ghost will have a mouth full of dirt!" When Rebecca Wallace arrives at Auercliff to check on her aged aunt, she's in for a shock. Her aunt's mind is crumbling, and the old woman refuses to let Rebecca stay overnight. And just as she thinks she's starting to understand the truth, Rebecca makes a horrifying discovery in one of the house's many spare rooms... -
Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Haunting of Hill House meets Sadie in this evocative and mind-bending psychological thriller following two teen girls navigating the treacherous past of a mysterious mansion ten years apart.Daisy sees dead people—something impossible to forget in bustling, ghost-packed Toronto. She usually manages to deal with her unwanted ability, but she’s completely unprepared to be dumped by her boyfriend... -
The Vengeful Dead by Darcy Coates
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHow far will she go to save the damned?Keira is caught in a deadly battle. Her ability to help ghosts move on from the mortal world has made her a threat to Artec, a powerful corporation intent on trapping the tortured dead for profit. They've been tracking her for years and now, finally, there's nowhere left for her to run.Artec fears Keira and everything she's capable of... -
The Collected Ghost Stories of E.F. Benson by E.F. Benson, Richard Dalby
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsContents:Room in the tower --Dust-cloud --Gavon's eve --Confession of Charles Linkworth --At Abdul Ali's grave --Shootings of Achnaleish --How fear departed from the long gallery --Caterpillars --Cat --Bus-conductor --Man who went too far --Between the lights --Outside the door --Terror by night --Other bed --Thing in the hall --House with the brick-kiln --"And the dead spake-" --Outcast... -
Perron Manor by Lee Mountford
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDescriptionPerron Manor—a place evil calls homeSisters Sarah and Chloe inherit a house they could never have previously dreamed of owning. It seems too good to be true.Shortly after they move in, however, the siblings start to notice strange things: horrible smells, sudden drops in temperature, as well as unexplainable sounds and feelings of being watched... -
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The Twisted Dead by Darcy Coates
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsKeira is ready for her life to return to normal. Though, to be fair, normal is a tall ask when your ability to see ghosts has landed you the job of groundskeeper in a small town’s cemetery.When Keira receives an invitation to dinner at Dane Crispin’s crumbling ancestral estate, she knows she can’t refuse. The last living descendant of the Crispin family is reclusive... -
Selected Writings by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 27 ratings'And much of Madness and more of Sin And Horror the Soul of the Plot'This selection of Poe's critical writings, short fiction and poetry demonstrates his intense interest in aesthetic issues, and the astonishing power and imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind... -
The Hanging of Hettie Gale by Tess Burnett
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA mother's love will never die. Neither will a mother's fury . . . The moor is a difficult place for a young woman to grow up in the eighteenth century, and life for Hettie Gale is no different. Abused by her father and abandoned by her family, she builds a new life for herself and her young son... -
Twisted Little Things and Other Stories by Amy Cross
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA man accidentally receives two dangerous wooden figures in the mail... A woman is preparing breakfast for her children when she hears a dangerous voice in her head... Late one night, an old man meets a strange girl on a canal towpath... Twisted Little Things and Other Stories is a collection of short horror stories... -
The Ghost Tree by Sara Bain
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA newcomer to a small town must contend with a 17th century poltergeist intent on murder Five years after the death of his wife, MacAoidh Armstrong moves into a smallholding in southern Scotland with the intention of living a self-sufficient existence. Although he’s heard the steading has a reputation for being haunted, the pragmatic Highlander does not believe in ghosts... -
In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsContents:In the PinesWhere the Summer EndsSticksThe Fourth Seal... -
Night Gallery by Rod Serling, Jim Benson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Night Gallery is one of three books written by Rod Serling based on stories he created for the 1970 television series by the same name. Similar to his Stories From The Twilight Zone books, he novelized six of the show’s scripts for this volume, including They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar, which was nominated for an Emmy award... -
A Haunting in Rose Grove by Rockwell Scott
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA malevolent entity. A violent haunting. A house with a bloody history. Jake Nolan left it all behind, but now he must return. Jake has it all — a new home, an amazing girlfriend, and nearing a promotion at work. Best of all, he feels he’s finally moved on from the horrors of his traumatic past... -
Dark and Dreadful Things by Kelly Martin
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsYou can't believe everything you see. Reeling from the events that took place at the King House, Abel Hale and Elise Morgan have been sent to a new haunting at the house of Cody Cain. Except thanks to overhearing a private conversation between Abel and the evil Silas Ford, Elise isn't sure she can trust Abel, much less work with him... -
Dark and Devious Things by Kelly Martin
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNow that Abel Hale and Elise Morgan have been forced to hunt ghosts for Silas Ford's television show, things are about to get all kinds of freaky. Their first case involves Shonda King, a mother in Kentucky whose friendly childhood ghost has turned into an adult nightmare. Shonda, terrified for the safety of her family, wants Abel and Elise to get rid of the ghost-- by any means necessary... -
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Carnival of Bones by Penn Cassidy
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBienvenue à la maisonThe song beckons me. Haunting, tragic and utterly lovely. It calls me to a place deep in the Louisiana Bayou, where impossible things creep in the shadows.Following the voice on the wind, I scratch at the blood coating my skin and dance along the swamps with the crickets. Hands caress my arms and lips coax at mine, begging for me to let them inside. Begging me to surrender... -
Hauntings: Tales of the Supernatural by Henry Mazzeo, Henry James
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCollection of 17 tales of the supernatural. These are all in the best tradition of the supernatural story -- authentically eerie, but more about the human spirit than about spooks and specters. Well-known authors are presented here in what, for them, is an unusual manner: a rich vein of British and American imaginative fiction... -
The Unsettled Dust by Robert Aickman, Reece Shearsmith
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsRobert Aickman, the supreme master of the supernatural, brings together eight stories in which strange things happen that the reader is unable to predict. His characters are often lonely and middle-aged, but all have the same thing in common: they are brought to the brink of an abyss that shows how terrifyingly fragile our piece of mind actually is... -
The Ghost Next Door by Wylly Folk St. John
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSherry Alston had never been told about her dead half-sister Miranda. So when Sherry came to visit her Aunt Judith, no one could explain the odd things that started to happen... -
The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights by Bridget Collins, Susan Stokes-Chapman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the creators of The Haunting Season comes a dazzling collection of never-before-seen ghostly tales.The tradition of a haunted tale at Christmas has flourished across the centuries... -
American Gothic Tales by Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Brockden Brown
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJoyce Carol Oates has a special perspective on the “gothic” in American short fiction, at least partially because her own horror yarns rank on the spine-tingling chart with the masters. She is able to see the unbroken link of the macabre that ties Edgar Allan Poe to Anne Rice and to recognize the dark psychological bonds between Henry James and Stephen King... -
Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce by Ambrose Bierce
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis volume contains 24 of Bierce's best tales of the unknown. Morbid, cynical, eerie, they take you to a twilight region of flesh and spirit — and into the darkest recesses of the human mind... -
House of Echoes by Barbara Erskine
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe past isn't always dead or buried...When Joss Grant, adopted at birth, inherits Belheddon Hall – a beautiful old house on the East Anglian coast – it is like a dream come true. Eager to begin a new life there with Luke, her husband, and Tom, her small son, she is also impatient to find out about her newly discovered family who lived there for generations... -
The Haunting of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAveline Jones loves reading ghost stories, so a dreary half-term becomes much more exciting when she discovers a spooky old book. Not only are the stories spine-tingling, but it once belonged to Primrose Penberthy, who vanished mysteriously, never to be seen again. Intrigued, Aveline decides to investigate Primrose's disappearance.Now someone... or something, is stirring... -
Curfew by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOn the border between England and Wales lies the tiny town of Crybbe, not picturesque enough for the tourist trade, quietly sliding into decay. Max Goff means to change all that. Goff has made millions in the record business, but his heart is in New Age philosophy. He has learned that Crybbe was once a spiritual center of sorts, surrounded by ancient standing stones that were emblems of power... -
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The Haunting of Leigh Harker by Darcy Coates
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSometimes the dead reach back...Leigh Harker’s quiet suburban home was her sanctuary for more than a decade, until things abruptly changed. Curtains open by themselves. Radios turn off and on. And a dark figure looms in the shadows of her bedroom door at night, watching her, waiting for her to finally let down her guard enough to fall asleep... -
GHOSTS: 2014 edition by Noel Hynd
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsPerhaps the scariest book you will ever read.... Enter a world where the departed return to the world of the living....where ghosts walk and intermingle among us..... Nantucket Island. Quiet. Peaceful. Idyllic. For Oscar-winning actress Annette Carlson, it is the perfect refuge from a demanding career... -
The Farm by Amy Cross
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOne farm. Two tragedies, thirty years apart. And a tortured figure whose presence connects both incidents... In 1979, the Bondalen family farm in Norway is home to three young girls. As winter fades to spring, Elizabeth, Kari and Sara each come to face the secrets of the barn, and they each emerge with their own injuries... -
Unrest by Michelle Harrison
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Elliott hasn’t slept properly for months. Ever since the accident that nearly killed him, a shadowy figure has made its presence felt – a figure only he can see. Elliott is convinced his near death experience has enabled him to contact the dead... -
Quarter to Midnight: Fifteen Tales of Horror and Suspense by Darcy Coates
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"Push past the curtains of the rational, safe world and explore the un-nameable horrors living in the darkest corners of our conscience... -
The Apparition Phase by Will Maclean
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSome ghosts never leave us.SHORTLISTED FOR THE MCKITTERICK PRIZE 2021'A wild rural gothic with some slick plotting . . . the perfect novel for our phantom present' Guardian'Outstanding . . -
The Ghosts of Lakeforth Hotel by Amy Cross
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDo ghosts get to choose where they haunt? Do they get to choose what they become once they're dead? When Beth Hayes arrives at Lakeforth Hotel, she's expecting a quiet, sedate and maybe even boring night. What she finds, however, is a crumbling old ruin that has clearly been left abandoned for many years. She wants to turn around and leave immediately, but her boyfriend has other ideas... -
The Little Ghost Who Lost Her Boo! by Elaine Bickell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsPerfect for Halloween! A charming read-aloud about a little ghost who tries to find her lost "boo!"--ideal for fans of Five Little Pumpkins and Room on a Broom ! Little Ghost went out in the middle of the night and flew up to someone to give them a fright.She opened her mouth--but her BOO wasn't there! All that came out was a rush of cold air... -
The Glass Guardian by Linda Gillard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsRuth Travers has lost a lover, both parents and her job. Now she thinks she might be losing her mind.When death strikes again, Ruth finds herself the owner of a dilapidated Victorian house on the Isle of Skye: "Tigh na Linne", the summer home she shared as a child with her beloved Aunt Janet, the woman she'd regarded as a mother... -
End Game by Damien Graves, Robin Wasserman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDamien Graves presents three terrifying stories to thrill and chill you. Will you dare to be scared?Damien Graves has spent many years searching for the most spine-chilling stories in existence. Now, at last, he has chosen to share with you the best of his collection...Simon prefers computer games to reality. But a shockingly real turn of events might mean "Game Over" -- forever... -
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Seven Ghosts by Chris Priestley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJake and the other finalists in a writing competition have been invited to a stately house for a tour like no other. As their guide leads them through grand rooms, hidden nooks and magnificent grounds, they hear the stories of seven ghosts who haunt the halls... -
Ghosts: A Treasury of Chilling Tales Old & New by Marvin Kaye, Nigel Kneale
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMarvin KayeSaralee KayeIntroduction (Ghosts) • Marvin KayeA Prologue of Last Words • Marvin KayeMinuke • (1949) • Nigel KnealeThe Wind in the Rose-Bush • (1902) • Mary E. Wilkins FreemanLegal Rites • (1950) • Isaac Asimov and Frederik PohlSmee • (1929) • A.M... -
Monkspike: You Are Not Forgiven by S.E. England, Sarah E. England
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings1149 was a violent year in the Forest of Dean. During the reign of King Stephen laws were lax, and landowners exacted high tithes from peasants forced to hand over their produce or face torture. One sector in society however, did not have to pay, and those were the monks. A fact which enraged local tyrant, Baron John Rivers... -
The Big Book of Ghost Stories by Otto Penzler, M. Rickert
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTHE BIG BOOK OF GHOST STORIES is a spirited Black Lizard anthology with over a thousand pages of haunted—and haunting—tales. The ghost story is perhaps the oldest of all the supernatural literary genres and has captured the imagination of almost every writer to put pen to the page... -
The Haunting of RedRise House by Caroline Clark
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDark things happened in RedRise House. Acts so bad they left a stain on the soul of the building. Now something is lurking there... waiting... dare you enter this most haunted house? Rosie is running from her past. Looking for peace and a new beginning. House sitting in the luxurious and romantic RedRise House seemed like a perfect plan to rediscover herself and rebuild her life... -
The Ruin of Delicate Things by Beverley Lee
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBarrington Hall is a place of secrets - something Dan Morgan has worked hard to forget. But when a heart-breaking loss brings him back to the place where he spent his childhood summers, Barrington Hall will do what it must to make him remember.Faye Morgan blames her husband for the death of their teenage son. She doesn’t want to leave the place Toby called home...
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