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 nightmare.
Then the floorboards creak.
You tell yourself it's the heating. The wind, perhaps. An old house settling into the night. Perfectly ordinary explanations for perfectly ordinary sounds.
But you still look towards the doorway.
That's the peculiar magic of a good ghost story. It follows you out of the pages and into your own surroundings. The bedroom suddenly seems darker. The hallway feels longer. And that pile of clothes hanging over the chair begins to look suspiciously like someone standing in the corner.
As a British author of supernatural mysteries, I've always been fascinated by stories that make the familiar feel threatening. The best ghost stories don't necessarily rely on violence or shocking revelations. They create uncertainty, allowing our imaginations to supply the things we'd rather not see.
With Halloween upon us, I've selected ten ghost stories that demonstrate just how effectively writers can turn silence, isolation and the unexplained into something genuinely frightening.
Some are classics. Others offer a more contemporary approach to the supernatural. All have the potential to make you think twice about switching off the bedside lamp.
1. The Woman in Black: Susan Hill
If there's one book that demonstrates the terrifying power of atmosphere, it's Susan Hill's The Woman in Black.
Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor, travels to a remote English village to attend the funeral of a client and settle her affairs. His work takes him to Eel Marsh House, an isolated property surrounded by treacherous marshland and accessible only by a causeway.
The house is unsettling enough, but the appearance of a mysterious woman dressed entirely in black suggests that something far more disturbing lies beneath its history.
Hill builds tension through isolation and anticipation. The marshes, the fog and the silence become as threatening as the apparition herself. The reader knows that something terrible is approaching, but the uncertainty makes the experience even more frightening.
What makes this story particularly effective is its sense of inevitability. Some hauntings are not content simply to frighten the living.
Why it will keep you awake: You'll never look at an isolated house, or a mysterious figure standing in the distance, quite the same way again.
2. The Haunting of Hill House: Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House remains one of the most influential haunted-house novels ever written.
When a group of people gathers at Hill House to investigate reports of paranormal activity, they discover a building whose strange architecture and oppressive atmosphere seem designed to undermine their sense of security.
At the centre of the story is Eleanor, a vulnerable young woman whose relationship with the house becomes increasingly disturbing.
Jackson's greatest achievement is the uncertainty she creates. Are the supernatural events genuine, or are we witnessing the psychological deterioration of someone desperate to belong?
The novel refuses to make that distinction comfortable.
Instead of presenting the house simply as a location where frightening things happen, Jackson gives it a personality. Its rooms, corridors and shadows seem to possess intentions of their own.
Why it will keep you awake: Because the most frightening possibility isn't that Hill House contains a ghost. It's that the house itself might be alive.
3. Dark Matter: Michelle Paver
Imagine being completely alone in the Arctic during the long polar night. No sunlight. No neighbours. No possibility of simply walking away when something begins to feel wrong.
That is the terrifying premise behind Michelle Paver's Dark Matter.
Set in 1937, the novel follows Jack, a young man who joins an expedition to a remote Arctic settlement. What begins as an adventure gradually becomes an ordeal as circumstances leave him isolated in an environment that seems increasingly hostile.
And Jack begins to suspect he isn't alone.
Paver uses the landscape brilliantly. The darkness is relentless, the cold is dangerous and the silence becomes almost unbearable. The suggestion of an unseen presence is enough to transform an already threatening environment into something far more sinister.
The supernatural element works because the physical circumstances are so convincing. Even without a ghost, the Arctic would be frightening. Add the possibility of something watching from the darkness, and the tension becomes extraordinary.
Why it will keep you awake: Because sometimes the worst place to encounter a ghost is somewhere nobody can hear you scream.
4. The Silent Companions: Laura Purcell
There are few things more unsettling than an object that looks almost human.
In Laura Purcell's The Silent Companions, a young widow arrives at her late husband's country estate and discovers a collection of painted wooden figures. Known as silent companions, these life-sized decorations were once fashionable household ornaments.
But something about them is profoundly disturbing.
Their expressions seem too knowing. Their positions become difficult to explain. And the longer the widow remains in the house, the more threatening their presence becomes.
Purcell combines Victorian Gothic atmosphere with a deeply uncomfortable central idea: what if the objects around us were not as lifeless as they appeared?
The novel also explores grief, isolation and the vulnerability of someone whose experiences are dismissed by those around her.
It's the sort of story that makes you reconsider the harmless ornaments sitting on your shelves.
Why it will keep you awake: Because that decorative figure in the corner might not be where you left it.
5. The Turn of the Screw: Henry James
Few ghost stories have generated as much debate as Henry James's The Turn of the Screw.
A young governess arrives at a remote country estate to care for two children. At first, the arrangement seems almost idyllic, but she soon becomes convinced that sinister figures are appearing around the property.
She believes the apparitions are connected to the children and that their influence poses a terrible danger.
But the reader faces an uncomfortable question.
Are the ghosts real?
Or is the governess interpreting events through a mind increasingly overwhelmed by fear and suspicion?
James never allows the uncertainty to disappear completely. The story becomes a psychological puzzle in which every observation can be interpreted in more than one way.
That ambiguity is precisely what makes it so effective.
Why it will keep you awake: Because sometimes the most disturbing question isn't whether ghosts exist, but whether we can trust the person who claims to see them.
6. The Little Stranger: Sarah Waters
Not every haunting announces itself with an apparition.
Sometimes it begins with a strange sound, an inexplicable mark or a small incident that could easily be dismissed as coincidence.
In Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger, a doctor becomes involved with the inhabitants of Hundreds Hall, a once-grand Warwickshire country house struggling to survive in post-war Britain.
The family is already under enormous pressure. Their home is deteriorating, their fortunes are declining and the world they once understood is disappearing.
Then disturbing events begin to occur.
Waters combines Gothic suspense with social change and psychological tension, creating a mystery in which the supernatural explanation is never entirely straightforward.
The house itself becomes a symbol of everything the family is losing, making its apparent hostility even more unsettling.
Why it will keep you awake: Because the most frightening hauntings may be those that exploit the weaknesses and fears already living inside us.
7. The Haunting of Maddy Clare: Simone St. James
Some ghosts appear to have unfinished business.
Others seem determined to make the living suffer for what happened to them.
Simone St. James's The Haunting of Maddy Clare follows a young woman in 1920s England who becomes involved in an investigation into a violent haunting.
The spirit of Maddy Clare is believed to be responsible for terrifying disturbances at a remote property, and the investigators must uncover the circumstances surrounding her death.
What begins as a paranormal investigation develops into a mystery involving trauma, secrecy and the consequences of past cruelty.
St. James combines historical atmosphere with a traditional ghost story, allowing the haunting to become both a source of danger and a clue to a hidden truth.
The emotional history behind the supernatural events gives the story additional weight.
Why it will keep you awake: Because some ghosts aren't merely trying to communicate. They're demanding justice.
8. The Family Plot: Cherie Priest
Most people would hesitate before spending the night in a supposedly haunted house.
But what if your job required you to spend several days dismantling one?
That's the premise of Cherie Priest's The Family Plot, in which a salvage crew arrives at an old property to recover valuable architectural materials before its demolition.
The house appears to offer a profitable opportunity, but the workers soon discover that its history is far from ordinary.
Unexplained occurrences become increasingly difficult to ignore, and the building's secrets begin to threaten the people working inside it.
What makes this story effective is the practical nature of the characters' situation. They're not paranormal investigators seeking an encounter with the dead. They're ordinary people trying to complete a job.
That makes their experiences feel particularly immediate.
Why it will keep you awake: Because sometimes the safest thing you can do with an old house is leave it standing and walk away.
9. The Invited: Jennifer McMahon
Most haunted-house stories begin when someone moves into an old property with a troubled history.
Jennifer McMahon's The Invited takes a different approach.
A couple decide to leave city life behind and build their dream home in rural Vermont. But as they begin construction, they become increasingly involved with the disturbing history of the land.
Local legends, unexplained events and long-buried secrets gradually transform their plans for a peaceful new life into something far more unsettling.
The novel asks an intriguing question: can a house become haunted before it's even finished?
McMahon combines family history, mystery and supernatural suspense, creating a story in which the past seems determined to influence the present.
Why it will keep you awake: Because you can build a new house, but you cannot always escape what happened on the ground beneath it.
10. The Shining: Stephen King
No list of terrifying ghost stories would feel complete without Stephen King's The Shining.
Jack Torrance accepts a position as winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel, bringing his wife Wendy and young son Danny with him.
When the hotel closes for the season, the family finds itself cut off from the outside world.
But the Overlook is far from empty.
Its history is filled with violence, corruption and disturbing events, and Danny's extraordinary abilities make him particularly sensitive to the forces inhabiting the building.
King combines supernatural horror with psychological tension, addiction, family conflict and the destructive consequences of isolation.
The hotel becomes a character in its own right, exploiting the vulnerabilities of the people trapped within its walls.
What makes The Shining so frightening is that the supernatural danger is intertwined with recognisable human fears. The ghosts are terrifying, but so is the possibility of someone you love becoming a threat.
Why it will keep you awake: Because the most dangerous thing in a haunted building isn't always the ghost.
What Makes a Ghost Story Genuinely Frightening?
Looking across these ten books, it's striking how rarely the most effective moments depend on showing us something monstrous.
Instead, the authors create fear through anticipation, uncertainty and the gradual erosion of everything their characters believe to be safe.
Isolation is a powerful ingredient. A remote house, an Arctic outpost or a deserted hotel becomes frightening partly because escape is difficult. When something inexplicable happens, the characters cannot simply seek reassurance from the outside world.
Ordinary objects become threatening. A wooden figure, a photograph, a locked door or a familiar room can acquire an entirely different meaning when something impossible occurs.
The past refuses to disappear. Many of these hauntings are connected to tragedies, injustices or secrets that have never been resolved. The ghost becomes a reminder that some events continue to shape the lives of those who come afterwards.
Our imaginations do much of the work. Perhaps the most important ingredient is uncertainty. When an author leaves enough unexplained, readers begin creating their own possibilities. And those possibilities can be far more frightening than anything explicitly described.
As a writer of supernatural mysteries, I find that last point particularly fascinating.
The challenge isn't necessarily to create the most terrifying ghost.
It's to make readers question what might happen if the impossible suddenly became part of their ordinary lives.
When the Dead Refuse to Stay Silent
One of the things I love about supernatural fiction is its ability to transform something familiar into the beginning of a mystery.
A photograph reveals something that should not be there. A disturbing vision points towards a crime. A telephone rings, and the person on the other end should have been dead for decades.
That final idea became the starting point for my novel The Last Caller.
Jacob works as a helpline operator, accustomed to answering calls from people seeking someone who will listen. But when a mysterious woman named Veronica begins contacting him, he finds himself drawn into a decades-old mystery involving a devastating house fire, concealed family secrets and questions about his own identity.
What interests me most about that premise isn't simply the possibility of a telephone call from the dead.
It's what happens when an impossible event forces someone to question everything they thought they knew about their life.
Because the best supernatural mysteries don't simply ask whether ghosts exist.
They ask why the dead might have something to tell us.
Looking for Your Next Supernatural Mystery?
If you've enjoyed these ten ghost stories, perhaps I can tempt you with something from my own imagination.
Some secrets are hidden for a reason. Others are waiting to be discovered.
On the mist-shrouded Misthaven Island, Lillie's disturbing psychic visions draw her into a mystery involving murder, suspicion and secrets hidden beneath the surface of an apparently ordinary community.
As danger grows, she must discover whether her extraordinary experiences can help reveal the truth before they destroy her.
Some mysteries refuse to remain in the past.
GHOSTED is a supernatural mystery short story for readers who enjoy unsettling questions, atmospheric fiction and the possibility that the world contains more than we can explain.
A shorter journey into the darker corners of my imagination.
Some calls should never be answered. Especially those from the dead.
When helpline operator Jacob receives a mysterious telephone call, he becomes entangled in a decades-old mystery involving a devastating fire, hidden family connections and a woman whose voice should not be reaching him.
With the help of his friend Raj, Jacob begins uncovering a disturbing history of deception, guilt and betrayal. But the closer he gets to the truth, the more his understanding of his own past begins to unravel.
The Last Caller is a supernatural mystery thriller about identity, loss and secrets that refuse to stay buried.
Explore the supernatural mysteries of E.M. Wallis and discover your next haunting read.
One Last Question Before You Turn Out the Light
Which ghost story has genuinely frightened you?
Perhaps it was a classic you read as a teenager, a modern supernatural thriller or a book you finished in a single sitting because you simply couldn't put it down.
Or perhaps there's a story you would never dare read alone at night. I'd love to hear your recommendations. You can contact me here: Contact | E.M. Wallis
And if you're reading this on Halloween, here's one final piece of advice.
Before you settle down with your next ghost story, make sure you've checked the doors, closed the curtains and switched off the lights.
Then, whatever you do, don't look behind you.
Happy Halloween!
Author of Whispers in the Fog, GHOSTED and The Last Caller