7 Maine thrillers for Halloween (that weren’t written by Stephen King)
Maine can be a pretty scary place.
There are isolated islands, windswept mountain peaks and foreboding forests all promising some hidden horror or secret. It’s also a place of interminable winters, spooky old houses and storied shipwrecks.
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All those things make it fertile ground for horror stories, something Maine native Stephen King has proven over the course of his 50-year career. But Maine has inpired lots of other writers to craft tales of horror or suspense. Every year there are more scary books by Maine writers, or terrible tales set in Maine. Following are some suggestions for recent Maine horror or suspense books, to help you get in the proper mood for the spooky season.
‘Carry Me to My Grave’ by Christopher Golden
Golden, a New York Times best-selling author who lives in Massachusetts, has won the Bram Stoker Award and Shirley Jackson Award for previous works of horror. This one, which came out in August, stems from supernatural happenings in the fictional Maine town of Shediak. The story is set in the 1950s and focuses on Malcom Wise and his mother, Maggie.
As a boy, Malcolm was taunted by other kids calling his mother a witch. Now as she’s dying, Maggie makes Malcom promise to return her body to her Maine birthplace, by train. But she needs to be buried before sunrise on the second morning after her death. But as soon as Maggie dies, there are “things” digging themselve up out of the ground all over the country.
‘The Ghosts of Riddell House’ by Kevin St. Jarre
This gothic ghost story came out in September and focuses on two paranormal investigators hired to get to the bottom of some spooky stuff at a notorious and remote Maine house. One, Tanya Libby, feels cursed by her abilities to hear the dead. The other, Burch Kinney, makes his living pretending he’s something he’s not. St. Jarre lives in Cape Elizabeth and grew up in Madawaska.
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‘How to Survive in the Woods’ by Kat Rosenfield
This domestic thriller is set in Maine’s 100-Mile Wilderness, the last stretch of the Appalachian Trail. Emma Sharp, raised by a doomsday prepper, is feeling trapped and controlled in her marriage as she sets out to hike the trail with her husband and his former girlfriend. It’s a story of desire and dread and deadly things happening in the darkness of the woods.
Rosenfield spent childhood summers on Deer Isle, where her grandparents lived, as well as on Sebec Lake. Monson and Cloud Pond are a couple of the Maine locations in the book, which came out in March. She’s also written for Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times.
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‘The Siren of Groves Peak’ by Glenn Rolfe
In the small lobstering town of Groves Peak, a violent murder at sea creates chaos and hints at darker secrets. Rolfe, who lives in Gardiner, says the fictional town is on the coast between Portland and Rockland. The book came out in June. One of Rolfe’s previous books, “When Night Falls,” was set in Old Orchard Beach in the ’90s and featured a serial killer and unnatural creatures.
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‘Unspeakable Things’ by Elizabeth Hand
In 1920s Cornwall, on the coast of England, two young women go on the run when they’re implicated in the disappearance of a famous author. They seek refuge at a country house filled with “a debauched coterie of London’s Bright Young Things” as well as the estate’s mysterious owner. Sinister intrigue ensues. The book came out in October.
Hand, who lives in Lincolnville, wrote the 2023 novel “A Haunting on the Hill,” a new story about the namesake structure in Shirley Jackson’s 1959 classic “The Haunting of Hill House.”
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‘We, the Missing’ by Arwyn Sherman
An anxious teenager tries to protect her mother from a rash of disappearances in their city, loosely based on Portland. The teen discovers a world of darkness, deadly creatures and monstrous angels. It’s the debut novel for Sherman, who lives in West Bath. Sherman will talk about the novel at a book launch at the Portland Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 29, with fellow horror writers Katherine Silva and Nicole Mann.
There will be book launch Oct. 29 at the Portland Public Library for Arwyn Sherman’s debut novel, “We, the Missing.” (Photo courtesy of Arwyn Sherman)
‘Where the Soul Goes’ by Katherine Silva
A gay, asexual chef goes on a road trip with Death to save an alternative 1980s human race from a degenerative illness, through gastronomy. Silva, who lives in Waldoboro, says several locales in the book were inspired by small towns and cities across Maine. Her writing often highlights her love of wilderness. The book came out in September 2025.
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Ray Routhier has written about pop culture, movies, TV, music and lifestyle trends for the Portland Press Herald since 1993. He is continually fascinated with stories that show the unique character of. More by Ray Routhier
