Books like 'Creatures of the Pool'
Readers who enjoyed Creatures of the Pool by Ramsey Campbell also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
fantasy horror mystery supernatural folk-horror rural gothic
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Serafina and the Splintered Heart by Robert Beatty, Битти Роберт
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe storms are coming.... Something has happened to Serafina. She has awoken into a darkness she does not understand, scarred from a terrible battle, only to find that life at Biltmore Estate has changed in unimaginable ways. Old friends do unthinkable things and enemies seem all around... -
![Friends of the Dusk by Phil Rickman]()
Friends of the Dusk by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA medieval legend spawns an unhealthy cult, and a terrifying 13th case for Merrily Watkins When autumn storms blast Hereford, centuries-old human bones are found among the roots of a tree blown down on the city's Castle Green... -
![To Dream of the Dead by Phil Rickman]()
To Dream of the Dead by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe village of Ledwardine has never been flooded in living memory, but as the river continues to rise with December rains, within days it will be an island. Electricity has been cut and the church is serving as a temporary mortuary for two people who drowned... -
![All of a Winter's Night by Phil Rickman]()
All of a Winter's Night by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt begins in the fog, with a bleak village funeral. In the early hours of the following morning, Merrily Watkins and her daughter Jane are made aware that Aidan Lloyd, son of a wealthy farmer, will not be resting in peace. A rural tradition is displaying its sinister side as an old feud re-ignites... -
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![Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom, Бром]()
Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom, Бром
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger – only to become quickly widowed when her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. All alone in this pious and patriarchal society, Abitha fights for what little freedom she can grasp onto, while trying to stay true to herself and her past... -
![The Fabric of Sin by Phil Rickman]()
The Fabric of Sin by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsCalled in secretly to investigate an allegedly haunted house with royal connections, Merrily Watkins, deliverance consultant for the Diocese of Hereford, is exposed to a real and tangible evil. A hidden valley on the border of England and Wales preserves a longtime feud between two old border families as well as an ancient Templar church with a secret that may be linked to a famous ghost story... -
![The Prayer of the Night Shepherd by Phil Rickman]()
The Prayer of the Night Shepherd by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAt Stanner Hall, a Victorian mansion-turned-hotel, Ben Foley hosts murder-mystery weekends and strives to prove that his hotel is the house on which Arthur Conan Doyle based his immortal Baskerville Hall. As the days shorten and the weather worsens, Foley’s dabbling uncovers more than he can handle... -
![The Cure of Souls by Phil Rickman]()
The Cure of Souls by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAs high summer bakes the rich earth of north-east Herefordshire, dark shadows gather around a converted hopkiln where the last owner was savagely murdered. Though the local vicar dismisses claims by its current occupants that the place is haunted, their story is soon splashed over a Sunday newspaper—and Merrily Watkins is directed by the Bishop of Hereford to defuse this situation... -
![The Lamp of the Wicked by Phil Rickman]()
The Lamp of the Wicked by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt appears that the unlovely village of Underhowle is home to a serial killer. But as the police hunt for the bodies of more young women, Rev. Merrily Watkins fears that the detective in charge has become blinkered by ambition. Meanwhile, Merrily has more personal problems, like the anonymous phone calls, the candles and incense left burning in her church, and the alleged angelic visitations... -
![Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories by M.R. James]()
Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories by M.R. James
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe only annotated edition of M. R. James's writings currently available, Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories contains the entire first two volumes of James's ghost stories, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary... -
![The Best Ghost Stories Of Algernon Blackwood by Algernon Blackwood]()
The Best Ghost Stories Of Algernon Blackwood by Algernon Blackwood
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSelected from the entire body of Algernon Blackwood’s work, this collection contains some of his finest writing. Blackwood’s ability to create and sustain an atmosphere of unrelieved horror is witnessed in ‘The Willows’, a starkly terrifying tale of another dimension impinging on our own. In contrast, ‘The Other Wing’, is a chilling but delicate evocation of the mysteries of childhood... -
![I Am The River by T.E. Grau]()
I Am The River by T.E. Grau
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings~ Nominated for the 2018 Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. ~During the last desperate days of the Vietnam War, American soldier Israel Broussard is assigned to a secret CIA PSYOP far behind enemy lines meant to drive terror into the heart of the North Vietnamese and end an unwinnable war... -
![Sleepy Hollow: Bridge of Bones by Richard Gleaves]()
Sleepy Hollow: Bridge of Bones by Richard Gleaves
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"My earliest memory is of discovering my grandfather's severed head." The HEADLESS HORSEMAN has risen and rides. JASON CRANE is the Horseman's target. But Jason must stay and fight, to protect those he loves. For Sleepy Hollow is falling to evil. Now Jason Crane lives under a tyrannical guardian. Jason Crane must descend into fearful darkness. And Jason Crane has an appointment with death.. -
![The Collected Ghost Stories of E.F. Benson by E.F. Benson, Richard Dalby]()
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... -
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![The Quiet Boy by Nick Antosca]()
The Quiet Boy by Nick Antosca
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBut there was no Goldilocks in his story. There were only the Wolfs, who lived together in a cave above a town. Big Wolf, Middle Wolf, and Little Wolf. Big Wolf was a brute. Little Wolf was timid. Middle Wolf was the peacemaker... -
![The Remains of an Altar by Phil Rickman]()
The Remains of an Altar by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn 1934, the dying composer Sir Edward Elgar feebly whistled to a friend the theme from his Cello Concerto and said, "If you're walking on the Malvern Hills and hear that, don't be frightened. It's only me... -
![Midwinter of the Spirit by Phil Rickman]()
Midwinter of the Spirit by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLibrarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.The post of Diocesan Exorcist in the Church of England has changed to the preferred term Delivery Ministry. It sounds less sinister, more caring, so why not a job for a woman? When offered the post the Rev. Merrily Watkins cannot easily refuse, having suffered uncanny experiences of her own... -
![Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James]()
Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsM. R. James is widely regarded as the father of the modern ghost story, and his tales have influenced horror writers from H. P. Lovecraft to Stephen King. First published in the early 1900s, they have never been out of print, and are recognized as classics of the genre... -
![The Willows by Algernon Blackwood]()
The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsTwo friends are midway on a canoe trip down the Danube River. Throughout the story Blackwood personifies the surrounding environment—river, sun, wind—and imbues them with a powerful and ultimately threatening character... -
![My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due]()
My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsWhen Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach... -
![The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales by Ruth Ann Musick]()
The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales by Ruth Ann Musick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings" West Virginia boasts an unusually rich heritage of ghost tales. Originally West Virginians told these hundred stories not for idle amusement but to report supernatural experiences that defied ordinary human explanation. From jealous rivals and ghostly children to murdered kinsmen and omens of death, these tales reflect the inner lives-the hopes, beliefs, and fears-of a people... -
![Witch Wood by John Buchan]()
Witch Wood by John Buchan
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsSet against the religious struggles and civil wars of seventeenth century Scotland, John Buchan's Witch Wood is a gripping atmospheric tale in the spirit of Stevenson and Neil Munro.As a moderate presbyterian minister, young David Sempill disputes with the extremists of his faith, as all around, the defeated remnants of Montrose's men are being harried and slaughtered... -
![The Man in the Moss by Phil Rickman]()
The Man in the Moss by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPerfectly preserved in black peat, the Man in the Moss is one of the most fascinating finds of the century. But for the isolated community of Bridelow, his removal is a sinister sign—a danger to the ancient spiritual tradition. In the weeks approaching the Celtic feast of the dead, tragedy strikes again and again in Bridelow... -
![Gather Her Round by Alex Bledsoe]()
Gather Her Round by Alex Bledsoe
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn critically-acclaimed Alex Bledsoe’s latest Tufa novel, a monster roams the woods of Cloud County, while another kind of evil lurks in the hearts of menLove and tragedy are not strange bedfellows among the Tufa. Young Kera Rogers disappears while hiking in the woods by Needsville... -
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![The Ghosts of Tullybrae House by Veronica Bale]()
The Ghosts of Tullybrae House by Veronica Bale
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsTHE PATH TO HER DESTINY LIES IN SOLVING A CENTURIES-OLD MYSTERY Emmie Tunstall is in over her head. Not yet thirty, and she’s been hired as curator at Tullybrae House. A three-hundred year old manor in the Scottish Highlands, Tullybrae has more antique and historically significant artefacts than a museum. It will fall to Emmie to inspect, research and catalogue every last one... -
![Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti]()
Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSongs of a Dreamer was Thomas Ligotti’s first collection of supernatural horror stories. When originally published in 1985 by Harry Morris’s Silver Scarab Press, the book was hardly noticed. In 1989, an expanded version appeared that garnered accolades from several quarters... -
![Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron]()
Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWinner of the Shirley Jackson Award, nine stories of cosmic horror from the heir apparent to Lovecraft’s throne.Laird Barron has emerged as one of the strongest voices in modern horror and dark fantasy fiction, building on the eldritch tradition pioneered by writers such as H. P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, and Thomas Ligotti... -
![Small Favors by Erin A. Craig]()
Small Favors by Erin A. Craig
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTHE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the critically-acclaimed author of House of Salt and Sorrows comes a mesmerizing and chilling fairy-talesque novel about Ellerie Downing, a young woman in a small town with monsters lurking in the trees and dark desires hidden in the shadows--in Amity Falls, nothing is more dangerous than a wish come true. Unique, enchanting, and haunting... -
![The Elementals by Michael McDowell]()
The Elementals by Michael McDowell
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOn a split of land cut off by the Gulf, three Victorian summer houses stand against the encroaching sand. Two of the houses at Beldame are still used. The third house, filling with sand, is empty...except for the vicious horror which is shaping nightmares from the nothingness that hangs in the dank, fetid air... -
![Lanny by Max Porter]()
Lanny by Max Porter
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThere’s a village sixty miles outside London. It’s no different from many other villages in England: one pub, one church, red-brick cottages, council cottages and a few bigger houses dotted about. Voices rise up, as they might do anywhere, speaking of loving and needing and working and dying and walking the dogs... -
![The Man With No Shadow by Bonnie Quinn]()
The Man With No Shadow by Bonnie Quinn
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsThis book is the physical edition of a series of posts from Reddit’s r/nosleep subreddit, containing the first major storyline of “How to Survive Camping”. It is largely unaltered, with only minor edits for readability in print form.Every year, campground manager Kate sends out a pamphlet titled “How to Survive Your Camping Experience... -
![Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson]()
Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsKnock Knock, Open Wide weaves horror and Celtic myth into a terrifying, heartbreaking supernatural tale of fractured family bonds, the secrets we carry, and the veiled forces that guide Irish life.Driving home late one night, Etain Larkin finds a corpse on a pitch-black country road deep in the Irish countryside. She takes the corpse to a remote farmhouse... -
![The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron]()
The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe title story of this collection - a devilishly ironic riff on H. P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's model" - was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, while "Proboscis" was nominated for an International Horror Guild award and reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19. In addition to his previously published work, this collection contains an original story... -
![Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman, Reece Shearsmith]()
Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman, Reece Shearsmith
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsCold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full. The listener is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul... -
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![Noctuary by Thomas Ligotti]()
Noctuary by Thomas Ligotti
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis collection of horror stories, many previously unpublished, includes "The Medusa," "Conversations in a Dead Language," and "Mad Night of Atonement." By the author of Grimscribe... -
![Curfew by Phil Rickman]()
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... -
![The Ghost Woods by C.J. Cooke]()
The Ghost Woods by C.J. Cooke
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLook out for C.J. Cooke's atmospheric new novel . . . In the midst of the woods stands a house called Lichen Hall. This place is shrouded in folklore—old stories of ghosts, of witches, of a child who was not quite a child. Now the woods are creeping closer, and something has been unleashed. Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth... -
![Revelator by Daryl Gregory]()
Revelator by Daryl Gregory
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of Spoonbenders comes the gripping tale of a family's mysterious religion, and the daughter who turns her back on their god. In 1933, nine-year-old Stella is left in the care of her grandmother, Motty, in the backwoods of Tennessee... -
![The Farm by Amy Cross]()
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... -
![The Cold Calling by Will Kingdom]()
The Cold Calling by Will Kingdom
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLife isn't easy for Detective Inspector Bobby Maiden. Death is even harder. When Maiden is revived in hospital after dying in a hit and run incident, his memories are not the familiar ones of bright lights and angelic music, only of a cold, harsh place, he has no wish to revisit - ever... -
![Mist Over Pendle by Robert Neill]()
Mist Over Pendle by Robert Neill
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAgainst a background of witchcraft in 17th-century rural Lancashire, ROBERT NEILL has woven an extraordinary novel of the power of evil.. -
![The Apparition Phase by Will Maclean]()
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 . . -
![Search and Rescue Woods by Kerry Hammond]()
Search and Rescue Woods by Kerry Hammond
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSearch and Rescue Woods is an eight-part Creepypasta by Kerry Hammond, published on Reddit under the username searchandrescuewoods. It was originally posted to the Nosleep subreddit in August of 2015, with its final update being in December of that year. Currently, a novelization is in progress... -
![Hell’s Belles! by Paul Magrs]()
Hell’s Belles! by Paul Magrs
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBrenda never meant to tell anyone the truth. She's got used to keeping secrets over the years. But in Whitby, people have a habit of working it out. Especially best friends like Effie, who sniff out the unusual, and expect the unexpected. And Brenda needs friends. She can't keep us safe all by herself. Not any more... -
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![The Searching Dead by Ramsey Campbell]()
The Searching Dead by Ramsey Campbell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDominic Sheldrake has never forgotten his childhood in fifties Liverpool or the talk an old boy of his grammar school gave about the First World War. When his history teacher took the class on a field trip to France it promised to be an adventure, not the first of a series of glimpses of what lay in wait for the world... -
![Creeping Jenny by Jeff Noon]()
Creeping Jenny by Jeff Noon
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe third book in Jeff Noon's widely acclaimed 'Nyquist Mysteries' find our protagonist caught up in a new mystery that delves into nightmares, Saints and the answer to his father's disappearanceNyquist finds himself in a village where everyday is a different type of nightmare and whose bizarre rules are governed by whichever Saint rules that day...Categorized as:
folk-horror gothic rural 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies -
![The Devil's Woods by Brian Moreland]()
The Devil's Woods by Brian Moreland
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFear wears many skins. Deep within the Canadian wilderness, people have been disappearing for over a century. There is a place the locals call “the Devil’s Woods,” but to speak of it will only bring the devil to your door. It is a place so evil that even animals avoid it... -
![Eternity by Tamara Thorne]()
Eternity by Tamara Thorne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIf you always wanted to see Dexter visit Eureka or Haven, the small town of Eternity is the place for you to be.WELCOME TO ETERNITYA LITTLE BIT OF HELL ON EARTHWhen Zach Tully leaves Los Angeles to take over as sheriff of Eternity, a tiny mountain town in northern California, he's expecting to find peace and quiet in his own private Mayberry. But he's in for a surprise... -
![The Fisherman by John Langan]()
The Fisherman by John Langan
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true... -
![The Howling by Gary Brandner]()
The Howling by Gary Brandner
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsKaryn and her husband Roy had come to the peaceful California village of Drago to escape the savagery of the city. On the surface Drago appeared to be like most small rural towns.But it was not.The village had a most unsavory history. Unexplained disappearances, sudden deaths.People just vanished, never to be found...
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