9 books to get you in the spooky season mood - from cosy crime to psychological thrillers

If there's anyone who knows how to write gripping, twisty, eerie novels, it's Freida McFadden, author of the world-famous The Housemaid. The witch is her latest novel, following Julia. Homeless and jobless, she retreats to her family’s centuries-old estate, only to discover that its unsettling secrets are far from buried. With strange occurrences, a dark history of witchcraft and generations of family lies.

From the author of How To Kill Your Family, comes a wickedly funny new murder mystery of North London ambition gone very wrong. Diana Leyland has already buried three husbands and is closing in on her fourth: David Farrand, a self-satisfied psychiatrist-turned-author with a grand house in Hampstead. Standing in her way is David's daughter Cat, entitled, sharp-eyed, and increasingly convinced that Diana's late husbands didn't all die of natural causes.

After a traumatic event leaves a gap in her memory, seventeen-year-old Anna moves with her family to the farming town of Harper’s Creek for a fresh start. But the isolated town is steeped in dark secrets, from the murders of two local girls to rumours of sacrifices and cover-ups. As Anna’s grandmother Evelyn slips deeper into dementia, her strange ramblings make Anna question whether the dead are trying to tell them something and whether another tragedy is about to strike.

Kirkill House stands alone on the North York Moors, dwarfed by a pylon that hums when the wind turns. When a man buys it, without ever setting foot inside, what was supposed to be a clean break from his bitter divorce takes a turn for the supernatural. The unnerving house is full of the previous owners’ belongings, even their diaries are still on the shelves. Reading them reveals lives that haunt the house - awakening fear, dread, and an unnerving presence that doesn’t quite add up.

You might recognise this author's name from The Traitors UK series - and she doesn't disappoint. When 18-year-old Christian Shaw is found murdered in an Edinburgh park, her best friends Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth are charged with her death, sending shockwaves through the city. As rumours of bullying, rituals and a teenage pact swirl around the trial, the girls take the stand with a startling defence that forces the jury to reconsider the evidence and who they can trust.

Nearly thirty and newly homeless after a break-up, Danielle is surprised when her wealthy boss, Jeannie, offers her a place to stay at her sprawling Yorkshire childhood home, Westerley. But the house is unsettling, and as Danielle’s sleep paralysis follows her from London, the boundaries between employee and employer, servant and master, begin to blur. Part psychological thriller, part gothic mystery, this is haunting and complicated beyond comprehension.

Anna Fox is a child psychologist who lives alone in her New York City home, spending her days drinking wine, watching old films and spying on her neighbours through the window. When a new family moves in across the street, she becomes fascinated by them, but what she witnesses one evening makes her question everything she thought she knew. What's real and what's not? Will we ever find out?

Amy, Rosie and Steve are back in business, taking on their first official case after a body is discovered at a glamorous Italian villa with a sinister note attached. The second book in Richard Osman's We Solve Murders series more delivers with the perfect cosy crime for the season.

The Fairway Players are back, but rehearsals for their latest production take a sinister turn when a devastating secret threatens to derail opening night. Told through a collection of documents, messages and evidence, this clever whodunnit is packed with suspicious characters, theatrical squabbles and plenty of twists and turns.