October’s New Books Are Here to Haunt, Hex, and Hook You

Cordelia Beecher has only one goal: find her missing brother. Escaping the charity school that caged her childhood, she follows his letters to Farrow, a town where no one claims to know his name. Even the man who was supposed to be Edward’s employer denies he ever existed. Lost and desperate, Cordi finds refuge at Edenfield, a sprawling estate run by Lady Evangeline, a botanist with a reputation for rescuing vulnerable young women. There, Cordi becomes companion to the enigmatic daughters, Prim and Briar. With Briar, something tender sparks. Yet beneath Edenfield’s lush gardens lurk dangerous secrets. Clues suggest Edward was once there. Now every whisper of the past threatens to twist Cordi’s search into a revelation too terrifying to face.

She thought her demons were hers alone. Sleep paralysis monsters that vanish with the dawn. Holy oil vials tucked in her purse. A life stitched together with survival after conversion therapy, bad jobs, and worse exes. But when a malevolent force begins stalking her through New York, more powerful than anything she has faced, she runs. Her refuge is Herculine, an all-trans girl commune hidden in Indiana’s woods, founded by her ex-girlfriend. At first, it feels like sanctuary. Community. Belonging. Yet secrets cling to the air, cryptograms fill the library shelves, and silence follows her into every room. Pigs are slaughtered. Rituals unfold. Breakfast turns sinister. And the demons she thought she escaped? They are here, and they are hungry.

Serena Paris was meant to unite worlds. The first Human-Were hybrid, her existence should have bridged the centuries-long divide between species. Instead, it marked her as prey. Now every faction, Weres, Vampyres, even Humans, sees her as leverage, a pawn to control. With enemies closing in, Serena’s only hope lies with Koen Alexander, Alpha of the Northwest pack. Ruthless, commanding, and unwavering, Koen claims her as his mate. His word alone can protect her, even if her heart resists his claim. But safety has a cost. Serena’s past stalks her, promising destruction that even Koen may not be able to stop. As betrayal sharpens and power struggles turn bloody, one truth becomes clear: fate may have bound them, but survival is not guaranteed.

Private Investigator Evander “Andy” Mills is used to trouble, but this case drags him back to the one place he swore he would never return: Los Angeles. When the Mattachine Society, a secretive queer rights group, hires him to track down missing members, Andy finds himself dodging biker gangs, shady fixers, and an old nemesis he never planned to face…his mother. Her psychiatric clinic becomes the epicenter of a mystery filled with hidden files, dangerous drugs, and secrets buried too long. Every clue tightens the noose around Andy’s time and choices. If he cannot find the missing soon, the cost will be measured in lives. And if he is not careful, Los Angeles may swallow him whole before he can escape back to San Francisco.

Adam has always felt the pull of his grandfather’s legends, tales of a ruined manor hidden in the Scottish Highlands. When the chance comes to finally see it, he cannot resist. Nicola, his closest friend, follows—hungry for adventure and secretly aching for Adam himself. The storm that strands them there is only the beginning. Eileen, the manor’s strange mistress, and Finley, her darkly magnetic groundskeeper, welcome them with secrets of their own. Soon, Adam and Nicola realize they are trapped in more than just bad weather. Ancient faery magic coils through the halls, twisting their desires into something neither of them expected. Entangled in deceit, seduction, and spells, Adam and Nicola must decide if freedom is worth fighting for, or if surrender is sweeter.

Christmas morning should bring peace. Instead, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Virginia’s chief medical examiner, is called to a fresh horror. The Phantom Slasher has struck again. For months, the killer has stalked the region, armed with technology that lets him invade homes and watch his victims before attacking. Survivors see only a ghostly hologram before the knife falls. No one has been able to stop him. No one has even come close. Now, two brutalized bodies on Mercy Island point to connections Scarpetta cannot ignore, one victim tied to her own past, the other to a case already fraying at the edges. Scarpetta knows she is running out of time. And if she cannot outwit the Phantom Slasher, she may soon become his final masterpiece.

Hong Kong, 1953. Mei has tried to bury the past she carried from Shanghai, but one invitation changes everything. A competition is announced in a notorious haunted house: six mediums, six nights, six séances. The prize is wealth. For Mei, the prize is revenge against the man who once destroyed her life and whose wife now hosts the event. When the final night ends in a blood-soaked legend, the police find no evidence and call it mass hysteria. The house is left untouched, its secrets festering. Decades later, Mei is drawn back. Someone knows what she saw, and what she did. The ghosts of her past wait behind those pristine doors. Some truths refuse to stay buried, and some houses never forget.

Sophia DeWinter has spent her life shackled to her uncle, the Collector, by a cruel blood bond. The only escape lies in Killmarth College, an elite academy for magic wielders that promises freedom. But entry comes at a cost: survival in the Ordeals, brutal trials designed to weed out the weak and leave only the strongest standing. Sophia’s illusionist skills falter under pressure, and she survives the first challenge only by allying with Alden Locke, a botanist as powerful as he is infuriating. Together they must navigate trials riddled with sabotage, treachery, and murder. Every failed spell, every misplaced trust, brings Sophia closer to death. To claim her freedom, she must outlast the Ordeals—if the killer among the competitors doesn’t claim her first.

One moment she’s scrubbing toilets, the next she wakes up drugged with a killer looming over her. Death feels certain, until masked men storm in, slaughter her attacker, and change her life forever. They call themselves Murder Squad. A secret brotherhood that kills only monsters. Dangerous, unhinged, and utterly irresistible. X hides obsession behind twisted humor. Whip is gruff, commanding, and drawn to every curve she never thought anyone would want. Levi is the prison pen pal whose words once saved her, and now he fights his own demons to save her again. But Saint View has more predators in the shadows. A sadistic game begins, marked by rhyming threats and mounting bodies. The killers she trusts may be the only thing standing between her and certain death.

Singapore, 1972. Magic is vanishing under the weight of modernization, but in the back alleys, secret societies still channel the power of migrant gods. Adeline Siow has always been a loner, content with the fire she can summon at her fingertips. That changes when her mother dies in a blaze marked by the symbol of a butterfly. Hunting for answers, Adeline collides with the Red Butterflies, a fearsome girl gang sworn to a fire goddess and led by her mother in secret. Now, Adeline’s bloodline holds the goddess’s power, and rival gangs are circling. Bodies are piling up with traces of unfamiliar magic, and a dangerous world demands her loyalty. Can Adeline claim her place among the Butterflies, or will she burn with them?

Grace needs quiet. After her mother’s death, she flees to her mom’s hometown in Florida, planning to spend the summer transcribing tapes for the local historical society. The work is dull, the town stifling, but at least grief can be contained. Then she hears Jake Underwood’s voice on a cassette from 1992. When he answers back, Grace realizes they can talk across time through the tapes. What begins as connection soon deepens into something stranger. Hermitage is full of silences, tragedies no one mentions, and names no one says aloud. A hurricane decades ago claimed Jake’s uncle, yet the town insists on forgetting. As Grace unravels the mystery, she learns some wounds are buried, not healed. And Jake’s silence hides the darkest secret of all.

The birdwatchers of the Cotswolds are dying, and Agatha Raisin is certain it is not natural causes. Behind the genteel hobby lies a tangle of grudges, romances, and long-buried secrets. Someone in the flock has murder on their mind. Agatha and her team at Raisin Investigators dig deep into decades of rivalries, but danger circles closer with every clue. Even worse, her personal life is in chaos. John Glass has been whisked away by his cruise ship job, and Sir Charles Fraith is all too eager to fill the gap. Between simmering scandals, romantic entanglements, and a killer who sees her as the next target, Agatha has her hands full. Can she crack the case before she ends up as the final casualty?

Zeb Wyckham thought his family could not surprise him anymore. Then he is summoned to Lackaday House, a looming Dartmoor manor that feels as haunted as its inhabitants. Waiting inside are every ghost from his past: his estranged brother, his smug cousin, and the ex-lover who shattered his heart, Gideon Grey. The patriarch’s announcement makes everything worse. The family fortune will go to whoever marries his young ward. Greed turns violent, and when Zeb tries to walk away, the doors slam shut. The gates are locked, the mists close in, and whispers hint at something inhuman stalking the halls. Surrounded by enemies, Zeb must join forces with Gideon to survive. But love and trust may prove as dangerous as the knife in the dark.

In the peatlands of northwest England, a body surfaces from the bog. Preserved for more than two thousand years, she should be dust, yet her face still stares back. Forensic anthropologist Agnes is brought in to investigate, but science alone cannot explain what she finds. The Iron Age woman buried in the bog feels unsettlingly close, as if her story reaches across centuries. The discovery sparks conflict in the present. Developers want profit, activists demand preservation, and the bog itself seems to guard its own secrets. As Agnes digs deeper, the past bleeds into her life, forcing her to question her gift, her independence, and her identity. Can she bring justice to the woman in the bog, or will the land consume them both?

Soojin Han has always known the rules: never resurrect anything larger than the palm of your hand. But when her sister Mirae drowns in the river that winds through their coastal town, rules no longer matter. Her magic brings Mirae back, and for a while it feels like a miracle. The sisters share laughter, secrets, and the joy of stolen time. Yet Mirae begins to change. She is restless, hungry, and drawn to the past that destroyed their family. As storms batter the town and bodies turn up in the floodwaters, Soojin realizes she may have unleashed something far darker than grief. Can she protect her family and uncover the truth, or will the river drag them all under once more?

He swore he could never love again. Life taught him that promises are easier kept when the heart stays closed. But when he finds her stranded in a blizzard, fierce and beautiful, with a child and grandmother depending on her, every vow begins to unravel. He offers her shelter at his motel, telling himself it is only protection, nothing more. Yet one kiss sets him on fire, one touch strips away his defenses, and suddenly he cannot imagine life without her. But his past is dangerous, filled with shadows that do not forgive. When enemies resurface, both her secrets and his demons collide. To save the woman who changed everything, he will risk it all. The question is—will love be enough?

Ella is a ghost, murdered at sixteen and bound to her father’s house. For years she has raged in silence, unseen by the world except for her cruel stepmother and spiteful stepsisters. Every midnight she is dragged back to the staircase where she died, a haunting trapped in endless repetition. When a fairy charm-seller offers her three nights of freedom, Ella seizes the chance to be seen, touched, and remembered. For the first time since death claimed her, she can dance. But bargains with fairies always demand a price. Her story is not the one you think you know. No glass slippers, no happily ever after. Will three nights of freedom be enough, or will love and vengeance keep her tethered forever?

Ruth has always felt trapped. Trapped in her small Kentucky hometown. Trapped in the closet. Trapped under the shadow of New Creations, a craft store run by the megachurch that controls every aspect of local life. When her boss discovers she lives with her girlfriend, Ruth is fired without a second thought. One desperate act of shoplifting becomes a nightmare when the employees lock her inside the store and reveal their true nature. Armed only with yarn, scissors, and her will to survive, Ruth must fight through aisles of glitter and glue guns against believers who worship something much darker than scripture. The New Creationists have a secret that could destroy the whole town. To survive, Ruth must craft her own salvation.

1968 is a year on fire. Civil unrest rages at home while the Vietnam War intensifies abroad. Amid the chaos, a captured spy ship, a compromised NSA official, and disappearing special operations teams ignite a deadly game of espionage. Navy SEAL Tom Reece, newly assigned to the covert MACV-SOG unit, finds himself pulled into a mission where the lines between military duty and intelligence intrigue blur beyond recognition. From the jungles of Laos to the streets of Saigon, from the White House to the Kremlin, Reece becomes a pawn in a Soviet plan that could shift global power. But he has his own mission, one that is not in the files. To survive, Reece must confront enemies both seen and unseen before the war consumes him.