It’s Halloween. Traditionally, tonight is the night for trick or treating and telling scary stories. However, as much as we like a story that might have us on the edge of our seats or hiding behind the sofa, here at CFL we like our thrills with a dash of murder, mayhem and mystery added in. To give you a flavour of just what paranormal crime fiction has to offer we’ve put together our top five places to start, and they’re all available for Kindle…
Edinburgh police are in celebratory mood when the killer of a prominent local figure is found dead less than 24 hours after the crime was committed. Meanwhile, DI Anthony McLean is investigating the discovery of a dead girl walled up in the basement of an old mansion. Her internal organs have been removed and placed in preserving jars around her. But this isn’t a recent killing – the evidence suggests that she could have been there for 60 years and that she may have been the key ingredient in an ancient ceremony to trap a demon and gain immortality. McLean’s a cop with a lot on his plate. His grandmother has recently died and he also has a caseload of unusual, violent suicides and a cat burglar who targets the homes of the recently deceased. Then a second prominent figure is murdered. In each case the same names keep cropping up. Could they all be linked to the killing of the dead girl? Is an old evil stalking the city? Can McLean stop it?
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She’d only been gone for five minutes, but when Patrice Marcum accepts a sweet little old lady’s offer to mind her son Jeremy while she gets her car, it ends in tragedy. When she gets back to the front of the supermarket, Jeremy, the old lady and a shop assistant have gone missing and a search for them proves fruitless. Mary O’Reilly is a private investigator with a special talent – she can communicate with the dead. So, when the ghost of six-year-old Joey Marcum turns up in her office asking her to find his baby brother, Mary accepts. Soon she finds herself caught up in a dangerous web of child trafficking. Mary and her band of helpers must strive to find Jeremy in time.
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Merrily Watkins is the vicar of the parish church at Ledwardine in Herefordshire. She’s also the Church of England’s newest deliverance minister… that’s an exorcist to you and me! It’s early winter and strange things are happening in and around the old city of Hereford. A body has been discovered in the River Wye, an ancient church has been desecrated, there are signs of dark rituals being performed on a hill overlooking the city, and there are reports of psychic unrest within the Cathedral itself. Merrily finds herself battling an evil that could have a very human form, whilst dealing with opposition to her appointment.
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A 14th century alchemist’s journal is about to land manuscript archivist Patty Doyle in a whole heap of trouble. Well, that and the drunken blog post. Arriving at work the next morning, she finds her boss in a rage and her work colleagues brutally murdered, and the killer is still in the building. To her rescue comes Alex Seton, a mysterious Scotsman on a quest to find the missing pages of the Concordances of the Red Serpent. It’s a journey that will take them to the US, Canada and Scotland, all the while being pursued by a killer who is after what Patty holds – the secret to eternal life. Can Patty and Alex stay alive long enough to solve this mystery? Who is Alex anyway, and why is he so interested in the Concordances? Find out – it’s only 77p on Kindle.
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When Beth Trevithick takes up her post as the new parish priest at Crowsmoor she finds her parishioners are living in fear of an ancient curse. However, it’s not long before she realises that their fears are justified and her own life is in danger. However aid comes from an unexpected source. Mike Travis is an ex-RAF helicopter pilot with an interest in the paranormal, and together they fight for her sanity as well as her life.
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Happy Halloween everyone!