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What makes a supernatural mystery linger in your imagination long after you've turned the final page? Author E.M. Wallis explores five essential ingredients, from believable characters and atmospheric settings to the secrets that refuse to stay buried.

Why some stories stay with us

I can remember finishing books years ago and still being able to picture a particular scene, a character or a place. Sometimes I can't recall every detail of the plot, but the feeling the story created remains...

An isolated island, a young woman troubled by psychic visions and a murder mystery where nothing is quite as it seems. Author E.M. Wallis explores the thinking behind Misthaven Island, the atmospheric setting of his supernatural mystery novel, Whispers in the Fog.

An island with secrets

There's something about an island that appeals to the imagination. Perhaps it's the isolation, knowing that the mainland is somewhere beyond the horizon but reaching it isn't always straightforward or perhaps...

Ghosts, visions and mysterious telephone calls might draw readers into a supernatural mystery, but it's the people caught up in those extraordinary events who make them care. Author E.M. Wallis explores why believable characters are at the heart of the stories we remember.

It starts with a person, not a ghost

Imagine receiving a telephone call from someone who died twenty years ago.

You recognise the voice. You know the person is dead. Yet they're speaking to you as clearly as if they were...

An isolated island, a familiar room, a telephone ringing in the middle of the night. Supernatural mystery author E.M. Wallis explores why the places we know can sometimes become the most unsettling places of all.

A perfectly ordinary place

There's something rather unsettling about walking into a familiar room and feeling that something isn't quite right.

Nothing has changed. The furniture is where it should be. The windows are closed. The clock is ticking away on the mantelpiece.

Yet something...

From haunted houses and mysterious disappearances to impossible telephone calls and secrets buried for decades, author E.M. Wallis explores ten supernatural thrillers that demonstrate why the unexplained makes such compelling fiction.

When mystery meets the supernatural

I've always enjoyed a good mystery. Give me a suspicious death, a secret from the past or a character who knows more than they're prepared to admit, and I'm interested.

Introduce something that appears to defy explanation, and...

Why can an unexplained sound, a shadow in an empty room or a mysterious telephone call be more frightening than anything we can actually see? Supernatural mystery author E.M. Wallis explores the psychology of fear and the extraordinary power of the imagination.

The sound in the darkness

You're alone in the house. It's late, the lights are off and everything is quiet. Then you hear something upstairs.

A footstep, perhaps. A faint creak of the floorboards. Nothing particularly dramatic, but enough...

What makes a supernatural mystery linger in your imagination long after you've finished reading? Author E.M. Wallis explores the ideas behind GHOSTED, the appeal of short ghost stories and why the unexplained continues to fascinate him.

There's something particularly unsettling about the possibility that the world isn't quite as ordinary as we believe.

We go about our lives surrounded by familiar things. We follow routines, visit familiar places and generally assume that what we see is what we...

From haunted houses and restless spirits to unexplained footsteps and voices from beyond the grave, discover ten chilling ghost stories that prove the most frightening things are often those we cannot see.

There's something wonderfully unsettling about reading a ghost story late at night. The house is quiet, the lights are low and the rest of the world seems to have gone to sleep. You settle into a comfortable chair, open your book and allow yourself to become absorbed in someone else's...

From the newsroom to public health communications and supernatural mysteries, E.M. Wallis reflects on a career spent telling stories and the experiences that have shaped his fiction.

I've spent much of my working life telling stories. Some were factual, others were intended to inform, explain or encourage people to take action. More recently, I've found myself telling stories about things that may not exist at all.

Ghosts, unexplained events, mysterious telephone calls and secrets that refuse...

Why do we enjoy being frightened by things we cannot explain? From haunted houses to voices from beyond the grave, E.M. Wallis explores the psychology of ghost stories and why the supernatural continues to captivate our imaginations.

There's something wonderfully contradictory about our relationship with ghost stories. We know we're reading fiction, yet we still glance towards the darkened doorway. We understand that the footsteps belong to a character in a book, yet the slightest creak from...

From isolated haunted houses and fog-shrouded landscapes to ghostly encounters and secrets buried for generations, discover 25 supernatural mystery books that will stay with you long after the final page.

There is something irresistible about a good supernatural mystery. Perhaps it is the creeping suspicion that the world is not quite as ordinary as we believe. Perhaps it is the thrill of discovering a secret that someone, somewhere, desperately wanted to keep hidden. Or perhaps we simply...