Five Seasonal Thrillers to Set the Fall Mood By Tessa Wegert

I’m a mood reader down to my bones, and very often, my mood is dictated by the season. A chilling locked-room mystery January, a sizzling summer camp thriller in July…if the story or setting corresponds with the weather, I’m in. 

My latest thriller, The River Runs Black, is set around Halloween, and I’ve loaded it up with fall atmosphere, from moonlight parties in the woods to autumn bonfires and small-town trick-or-treating, all woven into a story about greed, deception, secrets, and life-altering lies. 

Here are a few other fall season thrillers I’ve loved. 

Bad Apples by Will Dean

I still remember how enthralled I was when I first discovered Will Dean’s Tuva Moodyson books five or six years ago. Every installment of the series drips with atmosphere, but Bad Apples is especially evocative and ideal for fall. Set in a remote Swedish village, it involves a harvest festival called Pan Night in which the townsfolk engage in an ancient ritual while wearing masks. Newspaper reporter Tuva must investigate a murder, but the locals close ranks and Tuva becomes a target. Fans of folk horror will love this one. 

Lights Out by Elise Hart Kipness

Greenwich, Connecticut at Halloween time is a delightful place to be, but Elise Hart Kipness takes readers beyond its flawless façade with her Kate Green series debut Lights Out. When basketball star Kurt Robbins is found dead in his palatial home, suspicion immediately falls on his wife, and it’s up to best friend and disgraced sports reporter Kate Green to unravel the family’s secrets and lies. As the divorced mother of teen twins, Kate works to solve the mystery and revive her career all while volunteering at the high school dance and decorating for Halloween. The setting grounds the crime in family drama and seasonal fare—and man, what a plot twist!

When I’m Dead by Hannah Morrissey

With When I’m Dead, Morrissey expands her Black Harbor series universe to introduce medical examiner Rowan and investigator husband Axel, whose lives are upended when their daughter Chloe goes missing right after her best friend is found murdered. Rowan and Axel’s proximity to the case complicates matters, but not as much as the discovery that other high school students may be in danger as well. 

Featuring Morrissey’s signature lush prose and somber setting, this exhilarating thriller—which plays out over Halloween and has all the requisite late fall vibes—is a must-read. I still have nightmares about the haunted house scene (if you know, you know). 

 The Secret History by Donna Tartt

There’s so much to love about Donna Tartt’s The Secret History that I think people forget it’s not just a modern classic but a seasonal dark academia thriller as well. Set at a fictional college in rural Vermont and involving a wealthy group of friends, a controlling professor, and a murder, the book has loads of sensory detail and a moody aesthetic; think ivy-draped libraries and amber-toned study halls. You’ll lose yourself in the gritty beauty of this world and want to go back for more. 

About The River Runs Black

Three days before Halloween, a young woman staggers down a quiet street in Clayton, New York. No shoes. No coat. Nothing but a bikini and a fist closed tight around something she won’t show anyone. She won’t say where she came from. She won’t say what was done to her. 

Then she runs.

After the recent death of a teenager by overdose, a record drug seizure along the Canadian border is a game changer for New York State’s criminal investigation team. The detectives are relieved that the haul will never make it to the idyllic small-town streets of Alexandria Bay. But drugs are still circulating, and the lab results confirm it: the cocaine that killed the teenager and the cocaine from the bust are not the same.

Investigator Tim Wellington and his team seem to be chasing a network of ghosts who use the North Country as their criminal playground. How long will it be until another Thousand Islands youth becomes not just a victim, but a target? Because the dangerous players won’t shy away from violence when protecting their valuable goods―even if it means gambling with innocent lives . . .

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Category: On Writing