The Reading Lounge: Books With Fall Vibes 🍂

Backlist and under the radar literary & thriller reads for chilly fall reading

Like many of you, I love fall reading. I especially love that we all approach our fall reading in different ways. Some of us enjoy gothic mysteries, some horror, some new literary fiction, some long books, some nonfiction….and the list goes on. Last week I shared a mini ode to one of my favorite authors- Stephen King - whose books give me huge fall vibes. Today, I’m digging into my backlist and sharing backlist books that I think have fall vibes for one reason or another. They might be set during the fall and have atmospheric descriptions of beautiful fall leaf colors, or have vivid descriptions of houses that are quite possibly haunted. A few of the books I’m sharing have chilling plots that, if you’re like me and like to be scared, beg to read at night under a blanket, lights dimmed, with a flickering candle nearby.

Whatever you’re looking for in your fall reading, I hope you find something that sparks your interest in the list below. ** I’ve rated all the books I’m sharing 4 stars & up

Atmospheric Fall Reads

• The Mountain King by Anders De La Motte - Detective Leonore Asker seems to have the leading position at Malmö’s Major Crime Division within reach. But things go awry when, in the middle of a high profile kidnapping case, management relegates her to the so-called Department of Lost Souls—the unit for odd, cold cases banished to the basement of the police station.
  It’s not long before a opercular case grabs her attention and leaves her questioning whether there’s a serial killer in their midst

• The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff - A thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about one spirited girl alone in the wilderness, trying to survive

• The Grownup by Gillian Flynn - A homage to the classic ghost story

• The Bear by Andrew Krivak - a gorgeous fable of Earth’s last two human inhabitants, and a girl’s journey home

• Here On Earth by Alice Hoffman - After nineteen years in California, March Murray returns to the small Massachusetts town where she grew up. For all this time, March has been avoiding her own troubled history, but when she encounters Hollis—the boy she loved so desperately, the man who has never forgotten her—the past collides with the present as their reckless love is reignited. This dark romantic tale asks whether it is possible to survive a love that consumes you completely

• The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton - A young cop tries to trace the disappearances of a small town's teenagers.

• The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young - A Southern Gothic mystery debut that combines literary suspense and romance with a mystical twist

• The Current by Tim Johnston - In the dead of winter, outside a small Minnesota town, state troopers pull two young women and their car from the icy Black Root River. One is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene—half frozen but alive. What happened was no accident, and news of the crime awakens the community’s memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river ten years earlier, and whose killer may still live among them

• The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon - A woman returns to the old family home after her sister mysteriously drowns in its swimming ​pool…but she’s not the pool’s only victim

• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - Ten people, each with something to hide and something to fear, are invited to an isolated mansion on Indian Island. One by one, the guests share the darkest secrets of their wicked pasts. And one by one, they die…

  

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What atmospheric fall reads have you loved?