Selected Fiction Titles at the Springfield City Library

Stories

Murder for Halloween: Tales of Suspense, edited by Michele Slung & Roland Hartman    

A suspenseful collection of tales combines ghoulish tricks and supernatural treats, featuring the work of Peter Straub, Marcia Muller, Peter Lovesey, James Grady, Leo Bruce, Ray Bradbury, Gahan Wilson, Robert Bloch, and more.

The Haunted Hour, edited by Cynthia Manson & Constance Scarborough

Twenty edge-of-your-seat mystery and suspense stories include Robert Bloch's "A Most Unusual Murder," Patricia Highsmith's "The Pond," Bram Stoker's "Dracula's Guest," and Ray Bradbury's "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone."

Anton Chekhov A Night in the Cemetery, and Other Stories of Crime and Suspense

Collects crime and mystery tales penned by Chekhov throughout the early years of his literary career in a volume that includes such pieces as "Night of Horror," "Murder," and the title story.

Charlaine Harris A Touch of Dead

A collection of every short story featuring Sookie Stackhouse, the telepathic waitress heroine of the best-selling Southern Vampire novels.

Reginald Hill Asking for the Moon: Four Dalziel and Pascoe Adventures

Ghost stories permeate two adventures in this collection: "Pascoe's Ghost" and "Dalziel's Ghost." In the first, Pascoe hunts in vain for a missing woman; in the next, the duo sit out a long night in a haunted house, and Dalziel, after several good-sized hits on the whisky bottle, lets slip a few secrets from his past.

Novels

Susan Wittig Albert Witches' Bane

Texas herb shop owner and part-time private eye China Bayles sets out to catch a Halloween night killer when one of her friends turns up dead at witching hour.

Barbara Allan Antiques' Maul

As Halloween approaches, Brandy and her meddling mother must unmask a killer when a body is found at the antiques mall, supposedly mauled to death by a good-natured pit bull, launching an investigation that results in the disappearance of her ten-year-old son.

Donald Bain and Jessica Fletcher Trick or Treachery: A Murder She Wrote Mystery

Halloween brings some unexpected surprises to Cabot Cove, Maine, when a reclusive woman rumored to be a witch turns up dead during the town's local holiday festivities, and mystery writer Jessica Fletcher must sort through a host of suspects to find the killer.

Carol Lea Benjamin The Long Good Boy

Three transsexual prostitutes, working a warehouse district in lower Manhattan, enlist private detective Rachel Alexander to find the murderer of one of their coworkers, who was killed following the infamous Greenwich Village Halloween parade. As Rachel investigates, with the help of her pit bull, Dash, she finds the death tied to the murder of an undercover cop.

Kate Borden Death of a Trickster

The body of the police chief's teenage son is found during Cobb's Landing's annual Halloween pumpkin float, and full-time mayor Peggy Turner must turn part-time sleuth to catch the culprit.

Lillian Jackson Braun The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts

Determined to discover what frightened his ex-housekeeper to death, detective Qwilleran and his two feline assistants move into the house to search for the offending spirits.

Rita Mae Brown The Hunt Ball

When a faculty member from the local prep school turns up dead at the annual Halloween dance, "Sister" Jane Arnold discovers that the case is complicated by a controversy over local historical artifacts in the school collection that were made by slaves.

Leo Bruce Death on Allhallowe'en

Carolus Deene, an historian and amateur detective, investigates the connection between a series of deaths and a local coven of witches.

W J Burley Wycliffe and the Scapegoat

Every year, at Halloween, high on the Cornish cliffs, a life-sized effigy of a man is strapped to a blazing wheel and run into the sea -- a re-enactment of a hideous old legend where the figure had been a living sacrifice. And now Jonathan Riddle, well-known and respected local builder and undertaker, has disappeared -- and it seems all too likely that his corpse has gone the way of the historic 'scapegoat'. As Chief Superintendent Wycliffe begins to investigate, more and more unpleasant facts emerge until he is left with an incredible, and seemingly impossible, solution.

Ann Campbell Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

When one of her tenants turns up dead on Halloween night and her brother Tom, the woman's business partner, becomes the prime suspect in the crime, Annie O'Hara sets out to clear her brother's name and find the real killer, with the help of her canine sleuthing partner, Claudius.

R. Wright Campbell The Wizard of La-La Land

In a new La-La Land mystery, a male prostitute's death leaves some mysterious clues to another murder -- satanic books, a mummified finger, a phone with numbers on automatic dial -- leading Whistler on a grim search into a seething netherworld.

Laura Childs Frill Kill

When her friend Ava hires a sexy tarot reader to entertain during a Halloween bash at her New Orleans scrapbooking store, Carmela never expected to stumble upon the corpse of a beautiful model or be attacked herself on the way home, but as she and Ava launch their own investigation into the crime, they discover that something evil is lurking in the shadows of the French Quarter.

Agatha Christie Hallowe'en Party

Mystery writer Ariadne Oliver joins a Hallowe'en party where a girl falls victim to a game of apple-bobbing gone mysteriously wrong. Now she's joined forces with Hercule Poirot to unmask the killer.

Susan Rogers Cooper Not in My Backyard

The neighborhood harassment campaign against an ex-con who has moved to town gets out of hand when a dead body turns up on the newcomer's front lawn on Halloween night, and local romance writer E. J. Pugh is on the case.

Isis Crawford A Catered Halloween

The Simmons sisters, Libby and Bernie, owners of A Little Taste of Heaven, are ecstatic to cater the Halloween festivities at the Peabody School, a place rumored to be haunted. Businessman Mark Kane is going all out to include construction of a haunted house with high tech special effects that a Hollywood horror movie would envy. The event promises to be absolutely stunning--that is until the torso and severed head of Amethyst Applegate ends up on the caterers' table.

Mary Daheim Silver Scream

The arrival of a Hollywood film crew in sleepy Hillside Manor on Halloween portends trouble for B & B owner Judith McMonigle Flynn, who soon finds herself investigating the death of the producer.

Denise Dietz Throw Darts at a Cheesecake

Ellie Bernstein joins forces with homicide detective Peter Miller to investigate the murder of Jeannie Dobson and the "accidents" that are befalling her fellow members of Weight Winners.

John Dixon A Map of the Dark

A small Wisconsin town explodes one Halloween night in a domino effect of violence that leaves no one untouched.

P.C. Doherty Ghostly Murders: the priest's tale of mystery and murder as he goes on pilgrimage from London to Canterbury

Pilgrim Poor Parson narrates the story of Brothers Philip and Edmund, the newly appointed priests of the small Kent village of Scawsby, who, when they decide to build a new church, encounter a series of mysterious events, disappearances, and murders that put their own lives in jeopardy.

Carole Nelson Douglas Cat with an Emerald Eye

Rough-and-tumble tomcat Midnight Louie, and his redheaded human companion, Temple Barr, are up to their ears in trouble when a Halloween seance to resurrect the spirit of Harry Houdini results in supernatural murder, and it is up to them to find out who -- or what -- was responsible.

Susan Dunlap Not Exactly a Brahmin

When the car accident that kills wealthy Ralph Palmerson proves to be foul play, Berkeley cop Jill Smith uncovers a variety of suspects, including Palmerson's much younger wife, a secretive Vietnamese mechanic, and the mysterious Shareholders-5. Before finally bringing the killer to justice, she must deal with a cop-hating private detective and a strange Halloween party.

Rosemary Edghill The Bowl of Night

When a local resident is killed at an outdoor pagan festival in upstate New York, Bast -- a.k.a. Karen Hightower -- discovers that her suspects include modern-day witches, a ceremonial magician, a survivalist, a dominatrix, an ex-boyfriend, and a few would-be Klingons.

Loren D. Estleman The Witchfinder

Fresh from the pages of Never Street, Detroit's private investigator Amos Walker comes between a wealthy, famous, and ailing architect and his young, adulterous wife, on whom he seeks to wreak a terrible vengeance.

Jerrilyn Farmer Sympathy For The Devil

Madeline Bean, caterer to the stars, is in the middle of the biggest job of her career. She and her partner Wesley have pulled off Hollywood's most outrageous A-list Halloween party for notorious producer Bruno Huntley, complete with an eerie fortuneteller who is astonishingly accurate, and exotic food that's to die for. Before long, Bruno is thrashing and writhing out on the dance floor. Just one problem: he's not standing up, And soon, he's not even breathing.

Monica Ferris Blackwork

In the town of Excelsior, Minnesota, it's Halloween, and Betsy Devonshire, owner of the Crewel World needlework shop and part-time sleuth, is haunted by murder as she investigates the mysterious death of Wicca practitioner and microbrewery owner Leona Cunningham.

Joanne Fluke The Fudge Cupcake Murder

When bakery owner and sleuth Hannah Swensen discovers the body of Sheriff Grant behind the high school where she is teaching her cooking class, she must prove the innocence of the prime suspect, her brother-in-law Bill.

Shelley Freydont Halloween Murder

Asked to direct a theatrical revue for the Mischief Night Marathan Halloween celebration, former dancer and amateur sleuth Lindy Haggerty finds herself investigating a series of bizarre and frightening practical jokes that reveal all too much about Lindy's neighbors, but the tricks take a deadly turn when sexy dilettante Derrick Justin is found dead.

Leslie Glaister Trick or Treat

An unsettling sense of menace and violence link the eccentric lives of an obese yet still sensual senior citizen; a lonely eight-year-old boy; and an obsessive widow, living in adjoining houses in a seemingly placid English city.

Paula Gosling A Few Dying Words

Resigning himself to the annual mayhem of the Blackwater Bay Halloween Festival, sheriff Matt Gabriel is disturbed by the dying words of an old friend after a car crash and begins investigating an old town secret involving several prominent citizens.

Kerry Greenwood Trick or Treat

When a cut-price franchise bakery opens its doors just down the street from Earthly Delights and crowds flock to purchase the bread, Corinna Chapman is understandably nervous. Meanwhile, the gorgeous Daniel's old friend Georgiana Hope has temporarily set up residence in his house, and it doesn't take Corinna long to work out that she's tall, blonde, gorgeous and up to something. Daniel is making excuses and Corinna is worried about his absences and also the strange outbreak of madness which seems to be centred on Lonsdale Street.

Jane Haddam Skeleton Key

The death of a glamorous and fabulously wealthy debutante finds Gregor Demarkian investivating a quiet Connecticut town to find troubling passions lurking just under the surface.

Carolyn Haines Hallowed Bones

Sarah Booth Delaney is both a Southern lady and a skilled detective, but her latest case takes her into the murky world of New Orleans where motives for murder, and a list of suspects, are as numerous as the stories of spiritual malfeasance that permeate the air.

Carolyn Hart Southern Ghost

Bookstore owner Annie Darling must set aside her shame and do some serious sleuthing when her husband Max becomes the prime suspect in an unspecified crime involving a beautiful blonde.

Sparkle Hayter Revenge of the Cootie Girls

Now boss of the Special Reports unit for her news network, spunky Robin Hudson invites her new assistant and some other friends for a girls' Halloween night out, an invitation that turns deadly when Kathy never shows up.

Tony Hillerman The Fallen Man

Investigating the discovery of a skeleton on Halloween at one of the holiest places in Navajo religion, Jim Chee and the newly retired Joe Leaphorn realize that the body is that of a missing person from one of Joe's long-unsolved past cases.

Tony Hillerman The Wailing Wind

The mishandling of a murder scene places Navajo Tribal Police sergeant Jim Chee on the bad side of the FBI and brings ex-lieutenant Joe Leaphorn out of retirement into an old crime he hoped to forget involving an obsessive love and memories of a missing woman.

Susan Isaacs Long Time No See

Recently widowed, Judith Singer cannot get her former lover, Nelson Sharpe of the Nassau County Police Department, out of her mind, as she investigates the disappearance on Halloween night of Courtney Logan, the wife of a man with ties to the Long Island mob.

Jonnie Jacobs Murder Among Us

Schoolteacher, single mother, and detective extraordinaire, Kate Austen thinks her life cannot get much worse, until Julie Harmon, one of her students, is murdered, and as Kate unearths some startling secrets about Julie's past, she must race against time to unmask a killer.

Andrew Klavan The Animal Hour

When Nancy Kincaid arrives at her downtown office, she is chased from her building by her colleagues, who claim that they have never seen her before, while photographer Zach Perkins turns up missing after the headless corpse of a woman is found in his bed.

Joyce and Jim Lavene Ghastly Glass

Struggling with a fractious boss and her boyfriend's mistaken assumptions, Renaissance Village glassblower Jessie Morton busily prepares for Halloween activities, which are disrupted by the murder of a man who is costumed as the Grim Reaper.

Alex Matthews Satan's Silence

Oak Park therapist Cassidy McCabe violates client privilege when she confides a wild tale of child abuse and murder to her reporter boyfriend. At her boyfriend's instigation, however, the pair attempts to verify the story and embarks on a chilling adventure involving a satanic cult.

Ed McBain Tricks: an 87th Precinct mystery

On Halloween night in the 87th Precinct, a liquor store owner is shot by costumed children, a headless torso is discovered, and Detective First Class Eileen Burke, disguised as a hooker, hopes to trap a serial killer.

G.A. McEvett Poisoned Tarts

As Halloween approaches, full-figured P. I. Savannah Reid finds herself knee-deep in tricks and treats when a member of The Skeleton Key Three, a celebutante clique, goes missing, and the wealthy host of the annual Halloween bash is murdered.

Leslie Meier Trick or Treat Murder

While preparing for the annual Halloween festival in Tinker's Cove, Maine, Lucy Stone investigates a series of arson fires that are destroying local architectural treasures, crimes that claim the life of the owner of the town's oldest home and turn an arsonist into a killer.

Barbara Michaels The Dancing Floor

Grieving over her father's untimely death, Heather Tradescent embarks on a tour of England's historic gardens, an odyssey that leads to Troytan House, its intriguing lord of the manor, chilling tales of local witchcraft, and murder.

Helen R. Myers Dead End

The discovery of a bloody handprint on a Dead End sign and the disappearance of a troubled teenager, Hank Pugh, spell trouble for a small Texas town, but the mystery is complicated by Hank's return, the discovery that his sister Tracie is missing, and the realization that newcomer Sam Knight was the last person to see her alive.

Tamar Myers Nightmare in Shining Armor

After a fire ruins her costume party, Den of Antiquity proprietress Abigail Timberlake is shocked to discover the body of her ex-husband's new wife, Tweetie Timberlake, stuffed into a suit of armor, and she must race against time to catch a killer before she becomes the next victim.

Katherine Hall Page The Body in the Moonlight

Minister's wife, professional caterer, and amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild does not know if she can stand the heat in the kitchen when a woman drops dead, ostensibly from Faith's yummy but poisoned dessert.

Ellis Peters Flight of a Witch

When a young woman, missing for five days, suddenly reappears insisting she was gone only two hours, Inspector Felse must investigate the bizarre claim.

Nancy Pickard Twilight

Agreeing to help when a grieving widow enlightens her about a dangerous intersections where multiple tragedies have occurred, Jenny Cain is drawn into a long-running controversy that threatens to destroy everything dear to her.

Kat Richardson Poltergeist

Harper Blaine was your average small-time PI until she died--for two minutes. Now she's a Greywalker--walking the thin line between the living world and the paranormal realm. And she's discovering that her new abilities are landing her all sorts of "strange" cases. In the days leading up to Halloween, Harper's been hired by a university research group that is attempting to create an artificial poltergeist. The head researcher suspects someone is faking the phenomena, but Harper's investigation reveals something else entirely--they've succeeded. And when one of the group's members is killed in a brutal and inexplicable fashion, Harper must determine whether the killer is the ghost itself, or someone all too human.

Gillian Roberts A Hole in Juan

Philadelphia English teacher Amanda Pepper joins forces with her private eye husband, C. K. Mackenzie, to investigate when a yearly tradition in which children play harmless pranks throughout the city on the night before Halloween turns deadly, leaving a new teacher near death.

Corinne Holt Sawyer Murder Olè!

Angela Benbow and Caledonia Wingate, two savvy senior-citizen sleuths, find themselves embroiled in a south-of-the-border mystery when the residents of their California retirement home take a group trip for Halloween to Tijuana, Mexico, and two people fail to return.

Ray Sipherd Dance of the Scarecrows

A man is found dead in the cornfield the day after Halloween, and Jon Wilder thinks he knows who did the killing, but the police look upon him as a suspect, and he must use all his wits to find a way not only to clear his name but also not to become the next victim.

Michael Siverling The Sterling Inheritance

Working for his P.I. mother while trying to pursue a career as a musician, detective Jason Wilder keeps busy searching for a man who pulled a knife on him, dealing with an exploding office, looking for a mysterious woman, and investigating a brutal murder.

Denise Swanson Murder of a Royal Pain

When school psychologist Skye Denison stumbles over the body of pushy "Promfest" chairperson Annette Paine during a Halloween fundraiser, it looks like a clear-cut case of promicide. Annette was not the only prom mom desperate to see her daughter crowned queen. But she was also wearing the same witch costume as Skye, so which witch was the intended victim?

Kathleen Taylor Mourning Shift

Sassy waitress and amateur sleuth takes on greedy relatives, old secrets, and a killer when a mysterious old man, the long-estranged husband of the cook at the Delphi Cafe, turns up dead in the diner's restroom on Halloween.

Terri Thayer Inked Up

Joining a circle of craft-loving women upon launching her new career as a professional rubber stamper and restoration expert, April Buchert prepares for her Pennsylvania community's annual Pumpkin Festival before discovering a murdered body in a cornfield maze.

L.L. Thrasher Charlie's Web

Lizbet Lange is startled by the sudden appearance of Charlie, a ghost, who asks her to help him identify a murderer who abducted and killed Rachel Wright, a ten-year-old child, on Halloween in 1973.

Kathy Hogan Trochek Strange Brew

When a local business is forced to close in order to accommodate a microbrewery and the head of the brewery is found murdered, Callahan uncovers some disturbing secrets that are better left hidden.

Valerie Wolzien All Hallow's Evil

Following the murder of morning talk-show host Jason Armstrong, Susan invites the victim's cohost and new widow, Rebecca Armstrong, to stay in the guest room, but Susan cannot help poking her nose into the mysterious Halloween murders.

Looking for more holiday reading? Check out the MyShelf website for Halloween Reading Ideas: with mystery, romance, other fiction and non-fiction, and stories for young people.

10/09

Return to top