Books like 'The Key In The Lock'
Readers who enjoyed The Key In The Lock by Beth Underdown also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery horror 20th century fantasy gothic historical-fiction suspense crime spooky
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The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsThe internationally acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author returns to the magnificent universe he constructed in his bestselling novels The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, and The Prisoner of Heaven in this riveting series finale—a heart-pounding thriller and nail-biting work of suspense which introduces a sexy, seductive new heroine whose investigation shines a light on the dark... -
![The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón]()
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 91 ratingsBarcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written...Categorized as:
crime drama gothic historical-fiction suspense 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure -
![Boy's Life by Robert McCammon]()
Boy's Life by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsAn Alabama boy’s innocence is shaken by murder and madness in the 1960s South in this novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of Swan Song. It’s 1964 in idyllic Zephyr, Alabama. People either work for the paper mill up the Tecumseh River, or for the local dairy. It’s a simple life, but it stirs the impressionable imagination of twelve-year-old aspiring writer Cory Mackenson... -
![The Complete Fiction by H.P. Lovecraft]()
The Complete Fiction by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Nameless CityThe FestivalThe Colour Out of SpaceThe Call of CthulhuThe Dunwich HorrorThe Whisperer in DarknessThe Dreams in the Witch HouseThe Haunter of the DarkThe Shadow Over InnsmouthDiscarded Draft of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"The Shadow Out of TimeAt the Mountains of MadnessThe Case of Charles Dexter WardAzathothBeyond the Wall of SleepCelephaïsCool AirDagonEx OblivioneFacts... -
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![Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales by H.P. Lovecraft]()
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOriginally written for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, H. P. Lovecraft's astonishing tales blend elements of horror, science fiction, and cosmology that are as powerful today as they were when first published. This tome presents original versions of many of his most harrowing stories, including the complete Cthulhu Mythos cycle, in order of publication... -
![Complete Ghost Stories by M.R. James]()
Complete Ghost Stories by M.R. James
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsM. R. James wrote his ghost stories to entertain friends on Christmas Eve, and they went on to both transform and modernize a genre. James harnesses the power of suggestion to move from a recognizable world to one that is indefinably strange, and then unforgettably terrifying... -
![The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón]()
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsBarcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife Bea have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's dark past... -
![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... -
![More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz]()
More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAll those who enjoyed shuddering their way through Alvin Schwartz's first volume of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark will find a satisfyingly spooky sequel in this new collection of the macabre, the funny, and the fantastic... -
![Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories by Shirley Jackson]()
Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories by Shirley Jackson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAcclaimed in her own time for her short story “The Lottery” and her novel The Haunting of Hill House—classics ranking with the work of Edgar Allan Poe—Shirley Jackson blazed a path for contemporary writers with her explorations of evil, madness, and cruelty... -
![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... -
![Dagon and Other Macabre Tales by H.P. Lovecraft, T.E.D. Klein]()
Dagon and Other Macabre Tales by H.P. Lovecraft, T.E.D. Klein
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsH.P. Lovecraft. Dagon and Other Macabre Tales. [Sauk City]: Arkham House, [1986]. Corrected fifth printing. Octavo. 448 pages. Publisher's binding and dust jacket... -
![Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón]()
Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 54 ratingsFifteen-year-old Oscar Drai meets the strange Marina while he's exploring an old quarter of Barcelona. She leads Oscar to a cemetery, where they watch a macabre ritual that occurs on the last Sunday of each month. At exactly ten o'clock in the morning, a woman shrouded in a black velvet cloak descends from her carriage to place a single rose on an unmarked grave... -
![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...Categorized as:
gothic historical-fiction spooky suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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![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... -
![Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz]()
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 54 ratingsThe iconic anthology series of horror tales that's now a feature film!This is a new edition of the complete original book. Stephen Gammell’s artwork from the original Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark appears in all its spooky glory... -
![How Much It May Storm by A.N. Willis]()
How Much It May Storm by A.N. Willis
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTheir secret didn’t die with her.Colorado, 1918: Millie Boylan is a nurse who sees darkness marking those soon to die. When she falls for a doomed soldier named Edward Gainsbury, she vows to save his life. But Millie soon finds the greatest danger is the one she cannot see.Colorado, 1943: With a brother gone to war, Dinah must learn how to fend for herself... -
![Bubba Ho-Tep by Joe R. Lansdale, Don Coscarelli]()
Bubba Ho-Tep by Joe R. Lansdale, Don Coscarelli
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe companion book to the popular movie starring Bruce Campbell as Elvis and Ossie Davis as JFK. Stuck in an East Texas old folks home, they must face off against a redneck mummy... -
![The Haunted Looking Glass by Edward Gorey]()
The Haunted Looking Glass by Edward Gorey
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Haunted Looking Glass is the late Edward Gorey's selection of his favorite tales of ghosts, ghouls, and grisly goings-on. It includes stories by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, M. R. James, W. W. Jacobs, and L. P. Hartley, among other masters of the fine art of making the flesh creep, all accompanied by Gorey's inimitable illustrations.ALGERNON BLACKWOOD, "The Empty House"W.F... -
![The Between by Tananarive Due]()
The Between by Tananarive Due
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Hilton was just a boy, his aged grandmother saved him from drowning by pulling him out of a treacherous ocean current, sacrificing her life for his. Now, thirty years later, Hilton begins to think his borrowed time is running out... -
![The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy]()
The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhat if the ordinary things in life suddenly…disappeared?Aila Quinn’s mother, Juliet, has always been a mystery: vibrant yet guarded, she keeps her secrets beyond Aila’s reach. When Juliet dies, Aila and her younger brother Miles are sent to live in Sterling, a rural town far from home--and the place where Juliet grew up.Sterling is a place with mysteries of its own...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age -
![The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken]()
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWicked wolves and a grim governess threaten Bonnie and her cousin Sylvia when Bonnie's parents leave Willoughby Chase for a sea voyage. Left in the care of the cruel Miss Slighcarp, the girls can hardly believe what is happening to their once happy home. The servants are dismissed, the furniture is sold, and Bonnie and Sylvia are sent to a prison-like orphan school... -
![The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick, Josephine Leslie]()
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick, Josephine Leslie
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsBurdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg... -
![The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman]()
The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsPeter Straub called Robert Aickman 'this century's most profound writer of what we call horror stories'. Aickman's 'strange stories' (his preferred term for them) are a subtle exploration of psychological displacement and paranoia. His characters are ordinary people that are gradually drawn into the darker recesses of their own minds... -
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![The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston]()
The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsL. M. Boston's thrilling and chilling tales of Green Knowe, a haunted manor deep in an overgrown garden in the English countryside, have been entertaining readers for half a century.There are three children: Toby, who rides the majestic horse Feste; his mischievous little sister, Linnet; and their brother, Alexander, who plays the flute. The children warmly welcome Tolly to Green Knowe..Categorized as:
family gothic historical-fiction season-winter 20th-century action-adventure animals audiobook -
![The Haunting of H. G. Wells by Robert Masello]()
The Haunting of H. G. Wells by Robert Masello
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA plot against England that even the genius of H. G. Wells could not have imagined. It’s 1914. The Great War grips the world—and from the Western Front a strange story emerges…a story of St. George and a brigade of angels descending from heaven to fight beside the beleaguered British troops. But can there be any truth to it?H. G...Categorized as:
gothic historical-fiction suspense 20th-century adult alternate-history audiobook book -
![The Thing on the Doorstep by H.P. Lovecraft]()
The Thing on the Doorstep by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 27 ratings"The Thing on the Doorstep" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft, part of the Cthulhu Mythos universe of horror fiction. It was written in August 1933, and first published in the January 1937 issue of Weird Tales... -
![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... -
![The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs]()
The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJohnny Dixon doesn't believe that the ghost of mad Father Baart haunts the town church. But then he takes an old scroll and a seemingly harmless figurine from the church basement, accepts a magic ring from a mysterious stranger--and is plunged into a terrifying adventure that may cost him his life...Categorized as:
gothic historical-fiction spooky suspense 20th-century action-adventure book children -
![O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker]()
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn the tradition of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, a darkly humorous modern classic of Scottish literature about a doomed adolescent growing up in the mid-20th century—featuring a new introduction by Maggie O’Farrell, award-winning author of Hamnet...Categorized as:
historical-fiction gothic family europe british-isles united-kingdom scotland fiction -
![The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb]()
The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAt an end-of-London-season soiree, the young Hungarian scholar-dilettante Janos Batky is introduced to the Earl of Gwynedd, a reclusive eccentric who is the subject of strange rumors...Categorized as:
crime gothic historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult arthurian audiobook -
![Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite]()
Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsONCE A PERSON LEAVES THE MOUNTAIN, THEY NEVER COME BACK, NOT REALLY. THEY’RE LOST FOREVER. Nellie Clay married Hobbs Pritchard without even noticing he was a spell conjured into a man, a walking, talking ghost story. But her mama knew. She saw it in her tea leaves: death. Folks told Nellie to get off the mountain while she could, to go back home before it was too late... -
![Agnes Cecilia by Maria Gripe]()
Agnes Cecilia by Maria Gripe
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAfter experiencing several inexplicable incidents, lonely Nora receives a strangely lifelike doll, which leads her to discover long-hidden secrets about her family... -
![The Lost Ones by Anita Frank]()
The Lost Ones by Anita Frank
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSome houses are never at peace. England, 1917 Reeling from the death of her fiancé, Stella Marcham welcomes the opportunity to stay with her pregnant sister, Madeleine, at her imposing country mansion, Greyswick – but she arrives to discover a house of unease and her sister gripped by fear and suspicion... -
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![Come Along With Me by Shirley Jackson]()
Come Along With Me by Shirley Jackson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA haunting and psychologically driven collection from Shirley Jackson that includes her best-known story "The Lottery"At last, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" enters Penguin Classics, sixty-five years after it shocked America audiences and elicited the most responses of any piece in New Yorker history... -
![American Supernatural Tales by S.T. Joshi, Thomas Ligotti]()
American Supernatural Tales by S.T. Joshi, Thomas Ligotti
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAs Stephen King will attest , the popularity of the occult in American literature has only grown since the days of Edgar Allan Poe. American Supernatural Tales celebrates the richness of this tradition with chilling contributions from some of the nation’s brightest literary lights, including Poe himself, H. P... -
![The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle]()
The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBrother and sister Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald flee their busy London lives for the beautiful but stormy Devon coastline. They are drawn to the suspiciously inexpensive Cliff End, feared amongst locals as a place of disturbance and ill omen. Gradually, the Fitzgeralds learn of the mysterious deaths of Mary Meredith and another strange young woman... -
![Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom by James Kahn]()
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom by James Kahn
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn his newest adventure, Indiana Jones travels to India accompanied by a female torch singer named Willie Scott and an eleven-year-old boy named Short Round, his self-appointed side-kick... -
![The Dark Secret of Weatherend by John Bellairs]()
The Dark Secret of Weatherend by John Bellairs
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen Anthony Monday stumbles upon the diary of J.K. Borkman, he thinks he's unearthed a worthless piece of junk. But Borkman's mysterious writings turn out to be much more--plans to turn the world into an icy wasteland. By the time ghastly weather sets in and Anthony realizes it's Borkman's fanatical son who is bent on carrying out his father's horrific work, it may be too late to stop him... -
![The Cruel Dark by Bea Northwick]()
The Cruel Dark by Bea Northwick
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsMillicent Foxboro is haunted.Not by ghosts but by the anguish of her past and the uncertainty of her future. After all, even in the progressive year of 1928, most people would balk at hiring a woman who’d spent two months in a mental ward for traumatic amnesia... -
![Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers]()
Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIllustrated English translation of Hanns Heinz Ewers' decadent novel, Alraune, the second volume in his Frank Braun trilogy: The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Alraune, and Vampire... -
![Prisoner of Midnight by Barbara Hambly]()
Prisoner of Midnight by Barbara Hambly
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsVampire Don Simon Ysido has been captured and held aboard a ship heading to the US to act as a slave, and Dr Lydia Asher must stop it . . . at any cost. March, 1917. The goal of every government involved in the Great War has been achieved: industrialist Spenser Cochran has drugged and enslaved a vampire, Don Simon Ysidro, to do his bidding, and is now on the way to the US aboard a luxury ship... -
![The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux]()
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsFirst published in French as a serial in 1909, The Phantom of the Opera is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her... -
![Quitters, Inc by Stephen King, Eric Roberts]()
Quitters, Inc by Stephen King, Eric Roberts
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsDick Morrison's life has become a nightmare of addictions, filling his days with overeating, overworking, and smoking way too much. When an old friend tells him about a surefire way to quit, he's more than willing to give it a shot. But what Dick doesn?t know is that Quitters, Inc... -
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![Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James]()
Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn 1919, Kitty Weekes, pretty, resourceful, and on the run, falsifies her background to obtain a nursing position at Portis House, a remote hospital for soldiers left shell-shocked by the horrors of the Great War. Hiding the shame of their mental instability in what was once a magnificent private estate, the patients suffer from nervous attacks and tormenting dreams... -
![An Inquiry Into Love and Death by Simone St. James]()
An Inquiry Into Love and Death by Simone St. James
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAfter her ghost-hunting uncle Toby dies, Oxford student Jillian must drive to the seaside village of Rothewell to pack up his belongings. Almost immediately, terrifying events convince Jillian that an angry spirit is trying to enter the house... -
![Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Tales by Bram Stoker]()
Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Tales by Bram Stoker
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsMenacing tales from one of the masters of horror fictionAlthough Bram Stoker is best known for his world-famous novel Dracula, he also wrote many shorter works on the strange and the macabre... -
![Through a Darkening Glass: A Novel by R.S. Maxwell]()
Through a Darkening Glass: A Novel by R.S. Maxwell
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA mesmerizing World War II mystery about a Londoner who flees the city to write a novel and finds a truth stranger than fiction.England, 1940. Literature student Ruth Gladstone evacuates Cambridge University for Martynsborough, a tiny English village with a shadowy history... -
![The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs]()
The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Rose Rita is saved from a dull summer when Mrs. Zimmermann inherits a farm and a magic ring from an eccentric uncle....A successful finale that adroitly blends the everyday with the supernatural."—School Library Journal.Rose Rita wishes she could go to camp like her best friend Lewis. She's sure that boys get to have all the fun - until Mrs. Zimmermann offers her an adventure of her own. Mrs...Categorized as:
gothic historical-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure book children children-books -
![Angel Down by Daniel Kraus]()
Angel Down by Daniel Kraus
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe critically acclaimed author of the “crazily enjoyable” (The New York Times) Whalefall returns with an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war...
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