Book picks similar to
The Mourning Vessels by Peter Luther


first-in-series
gothic
paper-read
supernatural

Bewitched by the Nephilim


S.J. Hosken - 2017
    She’s a human. Or so she thinks...Catherine’s nightmare of massive wolf-like beasts hunting her breaks through again and again. And long after she wakes, pain and heartbreak linger. Tormented by night and restless by day, she decides to blow off some steam with an old friend. Little does she know that such a simple outing will forever change her life. She discovers that witches and wizards exist, and the Cornish myths and legends of her childhood actually have a grain of truth.Trent is a guardian of humans and peacekeeper of all the supernatural species. For almost 200 years he has waited for his Soul Pair. Finally, she is within his grasp. But a traitor in their midst threatens her safety and causes Trent to question himself. He has two choices. Put his duty as a Nephilim first or follow his instincts.Bewitched by the Nephilim is the first instalment in a paranormal fantasy series. If you’re a fan of English banter and realistic characters, and like a little tension woven into your love stories, then you’ll love S.J Hosken’s Soul Pair series.This book contains mild violence and adult language.

Broken


A.E. Rought - 2013
    Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.

Long Lankin


Lindsey Barraclough - 2011
    . . .When Cora and her younger sister, Mimi, are sent to stay with their elderly aunt in the isolated village of Byers Guerdon, they receive a less than warm welcome. Auntie Ida is eccentric and rigid, and the girls are desperate to go back to London. But what they don't know is that their aunt's life was devastated the last time two young sisters were at Guerdon Hall, and she is determined to protect her nieces from an evil that has lain hidden for years. Along with Roger and Peter, two village boys, Cora must uncover the horrifying truth that has held Bryers Guerdon in its dark grip for centuries -- before it's too late for little Mimi. Riveting and intensely atmospheric, this stunning debut will hold readers in its spell long after the last page is turned.

A Ghost In The Store


Gillian Larkin - 2016
     Ruby Laurel is a ghost hunter. She locates ghosts who are haunting places – or people. In this first story, Ruby is called upon to investigate a haunting in a supermarket. She soon discovers the ghost of a young woman called Mary Jackson. How is Mary connected to the supermarket? And why is she haunting it? Ruby’s investigation is made more difficult by the arrival of her troublesome younger sister, Nessa. Will Nessa help, or hinder, the investigation?

Once Upon a Death


Dzintra Sullivan - 2019
     Now I choose change. Kaah Maah had been the reaper for over a millennia. The mundane repetition of collecting souls night after night from an ever-increasing population was beginning to grind on him. Kaah had witnessed an ocean of unique faces, all confronted with their final moments on earth. Though different in appearance they all showed one final emotion—fear. Kaah wanted a change. He craved quiet serenity, where he could perfect his yoga poses while listening to his favorite singer Michael Bublè. Kaah wanted nothing more than to retire and become a ‘no one special’ in a ‘nowhere special’ town. When strange things began happening in Deadend, Ohio, the question had to be asked. You might be able to take the reaper away from death, but can you ever actually take death away from the reaper?

Thorn Jack


Katherine Harbour - 2014
    These words from Lily Rose Sullivan the night of her death haunts her seventeen-year-old sister, Finn, who has moved with her widowed father to his hometown of Fair Hollow, New York. After befriending a boy named Christie Hart and his best friend, Sylvie Whitethorn, Finn is invited to a lakeside party where she encounters the alluring Jack Fata, a member of the town's mysterious Fata family. Despite Jack's air of danger and his clever words, Finn learns they have things in common.One day, while unpacking, Finn finds her sister's journal, scrawled with descriptions of creatures that bear a sinister resemblance to Jack's family. Finn dismisses these stories as fiction, but Jack's family has a secret—the Fatas are the children of nothing and night, nomadic beings who have been preying on humanity for centuries—and Jack fears that his friendship with Finn has drawn the attention of the most dangerous members of his family—Reiko Fata and vicious Caliban, otherwise known as the white snake and the crooked dog.Plagued with nightmares about her sister, Finn attempts to discover what happened to Lily Rose and begins to suspect that the Fatas are somehow tied to Lily Rose's untimely death. Drawn to Jack, determined to solve the mystery of her sister's suicide, Finn must navigate a dangerous world where nothing is as it seems.

The Infinity Caverns (Parallel Society Book 1)


Stuart Jaffe - 2017
    Other universes. And sometimes, they slip into our own. When Veronica “Roni” Rider discovers this, she also learns that there are three people tasked with saving our universe — her grandmother and two seventy-year-old friends. But it’s hard to defend your world with a bad back and arthritis. Tossed into a new reality that she never expected, Roni must decide if she will step up and join the team or forever leave behind all she has learned and all she cares about. Oh, and she’ll have to save the universe, too.

The Haunting of Shadow Hill House


Caroline Clark - 2017
    Something dark lurks in Shadow Hill House and it is waiting. DOWNLOAD FOR FREE WITH KINDLE UNLIMITED After her husband lost his job Jenny moves her family to the remote and beautiful Shadow Hill House. It is to be a new start. A safe place for daughter Abby to grow up and a new business teaching art for her. Only she cannot shake the feeling that something is wrong. Why won’t the stains go from the carpets? Who is Abby taking to and why is she behaving so badly? Though her husband can’t see it Jenny feels there is something evil lurking in the house and she sets out to discover what it is. As things begin to unravel Jenny fears for the safety of her family. Suddenly she wants to leave behind her dream, her home and everything they have, only leaving may not be possible. In a desperate race against evil she must find the answer or lose all. Find out if the family can escape Shadow Hill House for FREE on Kindle Unlimited. Also available by Caroline Clark The Haunting of Brynlee House The Haunting of Seafield House

The Crow: Wicked Prayer


Norman Partridge - 2000
    In an instant, his heart and his redemption have been blown away by a postmodern witch and her sadistic goth-giant companion on their gor-soaked joyride to immortality.But even as one life ends in pain and anguish for Dan Cody, another begins . He is about to join those chosen to walk beneath the shadow of the Crow's wing. Revenge will be the sole reason for his return; revenge on tow who are speeding into the night in a '49 lamb's-blood Mercury on the fast track to Hell..or Nevada. And thought Kyra Damon and Johnny Church have embraced evil with a zealor's fervor, they underestimate the power of what's pursuing them from beyond the grave-the rough beast that's now slouching toward Vegas with murderous rage in its dead eyes.

The Greyfriar


Clay Griffith - 2010
    It is now 2020 and a bloody reckoning is coming. Princess Adele is heir to the Empire of Equatoria, a remnant of the old tropical British Empire. When she becomes the target of a merciless vampire clan, her only protector is the Greyfriar, a mysterious hero who fights the vampires from deep within their territory. Their dangerous relationship plays out against an approaching war to the death between humankind and the vampire clans.The first book in a trilogy of high adventure and alternate history. Combining rousing pulp action with steampunk style, the Vampire Empire series brings epic political themes to life within a story of heartbreaking romance, sacrifice, and heroism.

Halton Cray


N.B. Roberts - 2014
    While a near constant fog envelopes the estate, Alex begins questioning the bizarre things she’s seeing around him, as gossip circulates that Thom is more than just different. Determined not to let rumours influence her, Alex tries to learn who he really is, even as he provokes her with his dark sense of humour. But discovery of Thom’s terrible secret propels Alex’s life in a direction she could have never predicted.Halton Cray is a contemporary paranormal romance and dark adventure inspired by Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. The first book in the Shadows of the World series.

Dearly, Departed


Lia Habel - 2011
    But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead - or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie? The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria - a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible - until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses. But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead - and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.

The Book of the Damned


Tanith Lee - 1988
    Three novellas linked by their setting in the strange magical city of Paradys, in a timeless France, evoke an alternate world of dark fantasy, bizarre imagination, and decadent atmosphere.

Possessed


Kate Cann - 2008
    But the retreat soon turns into a nightmare -- the mansion is creepy, the legends of ghosts keep Rayne up at night, and she doesn't feel safe anywhere. Can Rayne figure out why she's so freaked -- before she becomes a ghost story herself?

Monkspike: You Are Not Forgiven


S.E. England - 2019
    During the reign of King Stephen laws were lax, and landowners exacted high tithes from peasants forced to hand over their produce or face torture. One sector in society however, did not have to pay, and those were the monks. A fact which enraged local tyrant, Baron John Rivers. Today, nearly 900 years later, the forest village of Monkspike sits brooding. There is a sickness here passed down through ancient lines, one which is noted and deeply felt by Sybil Massey, the new psychologist. What is wrong with nurse, Belinda Sully's, son? Why did her husband take his own life? Why are the old people in Temple Lake Nursing Home so terrified? And what are the lawless inhabitants of nearby Wolfs Cross hiding? It is a dark village indeed, but one which has kept its secrets well. That is until local girl, Kezia Elwyn, returns home as a practising Satanist, and resurrects a hellish wrath no longer containable. Burdo, the white monk, will infect your dreams....This is pure occult horror and definitely not for the faint of heart...