All the Spooky, Thrilling, and Mysterious Books We’re Reading in October
By Erin Roll
October is just around the corner, which means it’s almost time for that most wonderful time of the year: spooky season! Pour yourself a big mug of something pumpkin-spiced—or not, per the needs of your taste buds—and curl up with some of these scary-good reads.
Maggie McCabe was once a well-respected army surgeon, saving lives in risky situations, until a series of tragic misfortunes destroys her career and causes her to lose her medical license. She is adrift in life and in work until a colleague presents her with an unexpected new opportunity: working in a plastic surgery clinic that caters to the highest echelons of the elite, no questions asked. Out of options, Maggie agrees—and she is asked to treat a patient who is one of the most mysterious men in the world. When that patient vanishes while still under Maggie’s care, Maggie has to go on the run and find out the truth before she is the next one to disappear.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 14, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
It’s Christmas morning, but there’s no celebrating for Kay Scarpetta. The Phantom Slasher, a serial killer that has been terrorizing northern Virginia, has claimed two more victims. The Slasher is as clever as he is dangerous, using technology to track his prospective victims and to cause them to see a ghostly hologram in their rooms before he strikes. Kay goes to Mercy Island, the site of a now-abandoned psychiatric hospital, where the two latest victims have been found. And one of them is someone that Kay knows—which means that the Slasher may have her in his sights.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 7, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Seven-year-old Layla wants to be more independent. She wants to decide where she wants to go and what she wants to do. And one of those dreams is to be able to ride a donkey out beyond the boundaries of her neighborhood. But that becomes increasingly impossible when a man is murdered behind a shop: the first of many murders. There are whispers of a female spirit preying on men, and the local men start blaming the women and girls. Over time, Layla grows up and starts to become a woman: a woman that men will fear and run from.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 7, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Kicking the habit can kill you—possibly in the most literal sense. Madison, dealing with a bad case of heartbreak, has been overindulging in junk food. But a “fitness boot camp” for women may be just what she’s looking for. She can’t help but notice, however, that there is something strange, even possibly dangerous, about the camp’s ex-military director and her methods—but Madison is getting into shape, so it can’t be that bad—right? Meanwhile, musician Johnny, addicted to pain pills since a bad accident, is trying to detox in a secluded cottage. But he has an unexpected roommate: an unearthly creature who issues Johnny an ultimatum: kick the pain pills, or be eaten alive. ou want it?
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 14, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
There is a serial killer haunting Chicago, known only as the Pied Piper. For Detective Lauren Medina, stopping the Piper is personal as well as professional; her own sister was one of the Piper’s victims. But when a teenager is found dead in the same lagoon where Lauren’s sister was found, Lauren remembers the promise she made to her sister’s killer a long time ago. And now the Piper has come to collect—and she may have to destroy her own life in order to stop him.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 21, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
It was a dark and stormy night—in the most literal sense for Casey, who’s in her little cabin in the woods as a hurricane threatens to hit. A young girl shows up at her door, drenched in blood and holding a knife. She won’t tell Casey what has happened, or let go of the knife. Casey soon finds out that the girl is hiding a terrible secret, one that she would literally kill to keep quiet. And this knowledge means that Casey’s life is in danger.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 7, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
It’s November 2001, and all of New York is traumatized by the raw wounds of the 9/11 attacks. Chloe Harlow, an assistant at an exclusive art gallery, is no exception. She wakes up one morning, with no memory of how she got home the night before, and arrives at work only to find the police there. A promising new artist has been killed, and the police want to know about Chloe’s movements the night before. As Chloe starts to dig into what happened, she finds there is a definite difference between what she remembers happening, and what other people tell her what happened. She wonders if there is some kind of conspiracy afoot to keep her from finding out the truth. And her search could have deadly consequences.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 14, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
The Brake Inn Motel, in a remote part of west Texas, is not the kind of lodging people would seek out when they’re on vacation. They stay here only because they have to. Seven travelers, three pairs plus solo traveler Sarah Powers, have found themselves here through desperate circumstances, and most of them are trying to hide from something, or someone. One night, Sarah is found dead. The motel owners order the guests to find out who the killer is before midnight, or else the protective lights around the motel will be shut off. And something is lurking in the desert outside the motel, waiting for the opportunity to feed.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 21, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
It’s a sexy relationship full of tricks and treats–and more than a few skeletons in the closet. Goldie and Noah cross paths in the local drugstore one Halloween. She’s looking for fake blood, he’s looking for candy, and they immediately hit it off in a very big way. But Goldie discovers that Noah is hiding a dark secret, which puts the relationship at risk. When the two of them end up at a “slasher” camp for adults, it seems that history is about to repeat itself with deadly and tragic results. Will Goldie and Noah—and their relationship—survive the night?
Format
Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 14, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Margaret is fighting two monsters. One of them is the rare disease that is destroying her immune system and killing her little by little. The other monster is whatever is lurking—or rather, what Margaret thinks is lurking—in the halls of Graceview Memorial. Margaret has been admitted to the hospital, as a participant in a clinical trial that could save her life, but there are certain conditions she must follow, including living as a full-time patient at the hospital. While there, Margaret senses a sinister presence lurking within the hospital. It will be a battle to find out what that sinister something is, and to figure out what’s real and what’s delusion, as the disease and the medicines slowly consume her.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 14, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Erin Roll is a freelance writer, editor, and proofreader. Her favorite genres to read are mystery, science fiction, and fantasy, and her TBR pile is likely to be visible on Google Maps. Before becoming an editor, Erin worked as a journalist and photographer, and she has won far too many awards from the New Jersey Press Association. Erin lives at the top floor of a haunted house in Montclair, NJ. She enjoys reading (of course), writing, hiking, kayaking, music, and video games.
