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 I'm hooked.
That's what I love about supernatural thrillers. They combine the intrigue of traditional crime and mystery fiction with the unsettling possibility that the world might not operate quite as we imagine.
Of course, there's a difference between a supernatural thriller and a straightforward horror story. Horror often sets out to frighten us, sometimes quite deliberately. A supernatural thriller, at least the kind I enjoy writing, is more interested in making us question what we think we know.
Is the strange event genuinely paranormal? Is someone manipulating the characters? Could there be a perfectly rational explanation that nobody has considered?
And, perhaps most importantly, what happens when the answers begin to emerge?
As the author of Whispers in the Fog, The Last Caller and the short story GHOSTED, I'm particularly interested in stories where the supernatural becomes part of a much larger mystery.
So I've put together ten books worth exploring. Some are established classics, others are more contemporary, and two are my own contributions to the genre.
This isn't a ranking based on sales or literary awards. It's a selection of stories that demonstrate different ways of combining suspense, mystery and the unexplained.
1. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Few supernatural novels have influenced the genre quite like The Haunting of Hill House.
First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's story follows Eleanor Vance, who joins a small group investigating a supposedly haunted mansion.
Hill House has a disturbing reputation, but what makes the novel so effective isn't simply the possibility that the building is haunted.
It's the uncertainty surrounding Eleanor's experiences.
As strange events unfold, the reader is left questioning whether the house possesses some malevolent influence or whether Eleanor's own psychological vulnerability is shaping what she experiences.
Jackson understood something that remains central to effective supernatural fiction: the reader's imagination can be more powerful than any detailed description of a ghost.
Why it's worth reading: A masterclass in psychological suspense, unreliable perception and the unsettling relationship between a character and their surroundings.
Find The Haunting of Hill House on Amazon
2. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
There's something wonderfully traditional about The Woman in Black.
A young solicitor, Arthur Kipps, travels to an isolated house to settle the affairs of a deceased client. What begins as an ordinary professional assignment becomes increasingly disturbing as he encounters a mysterious woman dressed in black.
Susan Hill uses isolation, atmosphere and a gradual sense of dread to extraordinary effect.
Eel Marsh House, surrounded by marshland and cut off by the tide, is almost a character in its own right.
What I particularly admire about this type of story is the restraint. The supernatural doesn't need to dominate every page. A glimpse of something unexpected, followed by uncertainty and anticipation, can create far more tension.
Why it's worth reading: An excellent example of how a traditional ghost story can become a compelling supernatural mystery through atmosphere and carefully controlled revelations.
Find The Woman in Black on Amazon
3. The Last Caller by E.M. Wallis
I'll admit to a little self-promotion here, but it would seem rather strange to write about supernatural thrillers without mentioning one of my own.
The Last Caller begins with something entirely ordinary.
A telephone rings.
Jacob, who works for a bereavement support service, answers it.
But the woman on the other end of the line should be dead.
That impossible conversation becomes the starting point for a mystery involving a devastating fire, hidden family relationships and secrets that have remained buried for years.
When I developed the story, I was particularly interested in the way an apparently supernatural event could force someone to question their own history.
Jacob doesn't simply have to establish who is calling him. He has to confront the possibility that the people closest to him have concealed important truths about his life.
For me, that's where the supernatural thriller becomes particularly interesting. The mystery isn't simply about whether ghosts exist. It's about the consequences of discovering something you were never supposed to know.
Why it might appeal to you: If you enjoy supernatural mysteries involving family secrets, psychological tension and a central puzzle that gradually reveals its connections to the past, this is the sort of story I set out to create.
Discover The Last Caller on Amazon
4. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
Imagine moving into an unfamiliar country house and discovering a collection of painted wooden figures that look disturbingly lifelike.
Now imagine that one of them resembles you.
That's the premise behind Laura Purcell's The Silent Companions, a Gothic supernatural mystery set largely in Victorian England.
The central character, Elsie, is recently widowed and finds herself living at her late husband's remote family estate. The household is unwelcoming, the atmosphere is oppressive and the discovery of a strange wooden figure raises increasingly troubling questions.
What makes this premise so effective is the use of something that should be completely harmless.
A wooden figure cannot think, move or threaten anyone.
At least, that's what we believe.
Purcell takes that certainty and gradually undermines it.
Why it's worth reading: A particularly unsettling Gothic mystery that demonstrates how ordinary objects can become frightening when their behaviour appears to contradict everything we understand.
Find The Silent Companions on Amazon
5. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
An isolated roadside motel, a mysterious disappearance and events separated by decades.
Those ingredients are more than enough to capture my attention.
In The Sun Down Motel, Simone St. James tells the story of Carly Kirk, who travels to a small American town to investigate the disappearance of her aunt, Viv, many years earlier.
Viv had been working the night shift at the motel when she vanished.
As Carly begins asking questions, she discovers that the building and its history hold considerably more secrets than she anticipated.
The story moves between two timelines, allowing the reader to follow both the original events and Carly's investigation.
I enjoy mysteries that use the past and present in this way. Information revealed in one period can transform our understanding of events in another.
Add supernatural elements, and the result becomes even more intriguing.
Why it's worth reading: An engaging combination of missing-person mystery, haunting and investigative suspense.
Find The Sun Down Motel on Amazon
6. Whispers in the Fog by E.M. Wallis
My novel Whispers in the Fog takes readers to Misthaven Island, where Lillie's disturbing psychic visions draw her into a murder mystery.
I've always liked isolated settings, particularly those where a close-knit community may be concealing secrets.
An island provides a natural sense of separation from the outside world. People know one another, rumours travel quickly and the past can have an uncomfortable habit of resurfacing.
For Lillie, the mystery is complicated by experiences she cannot easily explain.
Her visions suggest that something important is hidden beneath the surface, but understanding what they mean is another matter entirely.
And when suspicion begins to fall upon her, discovering the truth becomes increasingly urgent.
One of the ideas I wanted to explore was the difficulty of convincing other people about something they have no reason to believe.
What happens when you know something that seems impossible?
And what happens when that knowledge places you in danger?
Why it might appeal to you: If you enjoy atmospheric island mysteries, psychic phenomena, murder investigations and secrets that refuse to stay buried, Whispers in the Fog brings those elements together.
Discover Whispers in the Fog on Amazon
7. The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
Some buildings seem to absorb the events that have taken place within their walls.
An abandoned boarding school is an especially effective setting for a supernatural mystery.
In The Broken Girls, Simone St. James introduces Idlewild Hall, a school with a troubled reputation and rumours of a haunting.
The novel moves between the experiences of girls attending the school in the 1950s and a journalist investigating events connected to the building decades later.
It's the combination of personal tragedy, institutional secrets and an unresolved mystery that makes the premise so compelling.
There's something particularly unsettling about the idea that a place associated with education and protection might conceal something deeply disturbing.
And when a journalist begins investigating the past, questions arise about whose version of events can be trusted.
As someone with a background in journalism, I'm naturally drawn to stories where an investigation begins to reveal connections that others would prefer to keep hidden.
Why it's worth reading: A compelling mixture of historical mystery, investigative suspense and supernatural atmosphere.
Find The Broken Girls on Amazon
8. The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
Some thrillers work best when you know as little as possible before opening the book.
The Last House on Needless Street is one of them.
The story centres on a secluded house near a forest and the deeply unusual lives of the people connected to it.
There's a missing child, disturbing memories and a growing sense that something about the situation isn't what it appears to be.
Catriona Ward plays with perspective, assumptions and the information available to the reader.
It's a novel that sits at the darker, more psychological end of this selection, and its relationship with the supernatural is deliberately less straightforward than that of a conventional ghost story.
I think that ambiguity is part of its appeal.
A good mystery encourages us to form theories, but a particularly clever one also makes us question why we believed those theories in the first place.
Why it's worth reading: An intricate psychological thriller that challenges expectations and rewards readers who enjoy stories with carefully concealed truths.
Find The Last House on Needless Street on Amazon
9. The September House by Carissa Orlando
Most people who discovered their house was haunted would probably consider moving.
Margaret, the central character in The September House, takes a rather different approach.
She has no intention of abandoning her home simply because it happens to contain some deeply unpleasant supernatural activity.
That premise introduces an unusual mixture of domestic life, dark humour and genuinely disturbing events.
Every September, the house becomes increasingly difficult to ignore. But when Margaret's husband disappears and her daughter arrives looking for answers, the situation becomes considerably more complicated.
What interests me about this story is the contrast between the extraordinary and the mundane.
Margaret's determination to carry on with everyday life creates a very different atmosphere from the usual haunted-house narrative.
And beneath the supernatural events lie more personal questions about family relationships and what people are prepared to endure.
Why it's worth reading: An inventive haunted-house mystery that combines unsettling supernatural events with family tensions and unexpected humour.
Find The September House on Amazon
10. The Shining by Stephen King
No selection of supernatural thrillers would feel complete without acknowledging Stephen King.
The Shining follows Jack Torrance, who takes a winter caretaker's job at the isolated Overlook Hotel, accompanied by his wife Wendy and young son Danny.
The hotel has a disturbing history, and Danny possesses an extraordinary sensitivity to events and influences that others cannot perceive.
As winter closes in, isolation and the hotel's malevolent atmosphere place the family under increasing strain.
What makes the novel particularly effective is the interaction between supernatural danger and recognisable human problems.
The characters bring their own difficulties into the hotel, and those vulnerabilities become part of the unfolding story.
King also demonstrates how an isolated setting can intensify psychological tension.
The Overlook isn't simply somewhere frightening things happen. Its physical isolation makes escape increasingly difficult, while its history adds another layer of menace.
Why it's worth reading: A landmark supernatural novel combining psychological deterioration, family conflict and a setting that has become one of the most recognisable in modern horror fiction.
What makes a great supernatural thriller?
Looking at these ten books, several common themes emerge.
There's usually a mystery that demands an explanation. Someone has disappeared, a secret has been concealed or something apparently impossible has taken place.
There's often a setting that contributes to the uncertainty. An isolated hotel, a remote island, an abandoned school or a house with a disturbing history.
But perhaps the most important element is the human story.
The characters need something to lose.
They might be searching for someone they love, trying to understand their past or struggling to make sense of experiences that challenge their beliefs.
Without that emotional investment, even the most elaborate supernatural mystery risks becoming little more than a collection of strange events.
It's something I try to remember when writing my own fiction.
The ghost, the vision or the impossible telephone call might provide the initial intrigue.
But the characters and their decisions are what give the mystery meaning.
A shorter supernatural mystery for your reading list
If you enjoy supernatural fiction but don't always have time to settle down with a full-length novel, you might also like my short story GHOSTED.
I deliberately kept it separate from the main ten because this selection focuses on novels, but it belongs to the same world of unexplained events, atmosphere and mystery.
Writing a short supernatural story presents a particular challenge. You have less time to establish the characters, build tension and deliver a satisfying conclusion.
For me, that's part of the attraction.
I like stories that readers can enjoy in a single sitting, particularly when they leave a question or two lingering afterwards.
You can discover GHOSTED on Amazon, or read more about the inspiration and writing process in my earlier article, GHOSTED: The story behind my supernatural mystery.
One final thought
The wonderful thing about supernatural thrillers is their ability to make us question the ordinary.
A telephone call becomes something impossible.
A familiar building conceals a disturbing history.
A person experiences something that challenges everything they thought they knew.
And suddenly, the world feels a little less predictable.
That's what draws me to the genre, both as a reader and as a writer.
I enjoy the mystery, the atmosphere and the anticipation. But most of all, I enjoy that moment when a story makes me stop and reconsider something I thought I understood.
If you're looking for your next supernatural read, I hope this selection gives you a few ideas.
And if you've already read some of these books, I'd love to know which ones stayed with you.
What supernatural thriller would you add to the list? You can contact me here: Contact | E.M. Wallis
E.M. Wallis
Author of Whispers in the Fog, The Last Caller and GHOSTED
Explore my fiction, discover more book recommendations and read my latest articles at the E.M. Wallis author website.