I have just finished Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son) and was pleasantly surprised. I found his writing clear and engaging and *gasp* dare I say it better than his fathers!

I have also recently read two novels by Mike Carey in his Felix Castor series which were enjoyable. They tell the adventures of a modern day exorcist in London.

Can anyone else recommend any good horror/paranormal fiction books?

I like Dean Koontz books. He's wrote loads mind.

Some of his books were made into films, ironically, I never enjoyed the movies but his books have me captivated

Well I got Ring (the book The Ring was based on) by Koji Suzuki, he writes very well. There is Garth Nix, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Christopher Paolini (wrote Eragon and Eldest) and Jonathon Stroud. All excellent fiction writers. And yes, I read a whole lot! After all it is an escape from reality.

Thanks fellows, I think my partner has some Dean Koontz books so I will try them.

I loved the ring movie so I will try get hold of that as well as the others you have suggested. I was so scared after watching the movie I didn't want to get off the couch and go to bed!

I normally read gory detective/crime novels but I think all this looking at UM has made me obsessed!

Dean Koontz is a good choice.

Tanya Huff's detective books are pretty good. She has a series about a female PI with a vampire partner. Good msytery... rather Koontz-esque.

I enjoyed "The Hellbound Heart" by Clive Barker. He's a very good writer overall; "The Inhuman Condition" is a good collection of short stories.

A long time ago I found this book at the library by Harry turtle dove, it was called soemthing like "A misplaced legion" or "The misplaced legion", anways it was a GREAT book, very epic feel about it...however I havn't been able to find any of the sequals (its the first in a series) or the original, i think the library might have sold it..

Harry turtledove has written alot of alt-history books..havn't read alot of them, but hes famous for them..he'll have stuff like new technology given to a side during ww2,

If you don't mind stuff that can be a bit raw and weird/off the beaten path, try Christopher Moore. I just finished "A Dirty Job"...awesome! I'm into audiobooks, and must say the music and narrator Fisher Stevens were very enjoyable! Also, I loved "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins...have to say it's my favorite book of all time (not available in audio format).

I'm not a real big fan of the current horror writers out there, most of them over emphasize violence, and have very little substance to them, let alone actual frights. I would reccomend anyone to set their sights to some of the great supernatural writers of the past. First and foremost among them, I would reccomend anything by Algernon Blackwood. A good place to start would be The Best Ghost Of Algernon Blackwood. In my opinion he is the master of the supernatural tale; he creates such a powerful atmosphere in his tales, they will have you looking over your shoulder and raising an eyebrow when you here an odd noise. He's that good. One of the few who can actually scare you.

Others I'd suggest would be M.R. James, J.S. LeFanu, H.P. Lovecraft, and Arthur Machen. You can't go wrong with any of these writers. This is literary horror here, not the garbage put out by most so called horror writers.

Two modern writers you should check out are Clive Barker and Ramsey Campbell. Very good reading here too.

Many thanks for the above tips, and I will definitely check them out. A suitable paranormal book to recommend escapes me at the moment, but it will be mentioned here if it comes to mind (there is a reasonable collection in my home library : ) . However, for the time being, I can tell you that the most gripping introduction to a work of horror fiction is "Lay Buried Among Us". So much so, that I took the author's pen name as my login for this website.


Lay Buried Among Us - Pt1

Dean Koontz..... I love the book "The Taken". And lets not forget Stephen King