Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie

Fade to Black is the newest hit ghost hunting reality TV show. Led by husband and wife team Matt and Claire Kirklin, it delivers weekly hauntings investigated by a dedicated team of ghost hunting experts. Episode Thirteen takes them to every ghost hunter's holy grail: the Paranormal Research Foundation. This brooding, derelict mansion holds secrets and clues about bizarre experiments that took place there in the 1970s. It's also famously haunted, and the team hopes their scientific techniques and high tech gear will prove it. But as the house begins to reveal itself to them, proof of an afterlife might not be everything Matt dreamed of. A story told in broken pieces, in tapes, journals, and correspondence, this is the story of Episode Thirteen -- and how everything went terribly, horribly wrong.

Pages: 437
 

Exactly my kind of haunted house horror book :) 

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

 

In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father is executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost. But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.

When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark its doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano?

Desperate for help, Beatriz clings to the young priest, Padre Andrés, as an ally. No ordinary priest, Andrés will have to rely on his skills as a witch to fight off the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda and protect the woman for whom he feels a powerful, forbidden attraction. But even he might not be enough to battle the darkness.

Pages: 352

Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

 

In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their dream home, the same home where Ronald DeFeo had murdered his parents, brothers and sisters just one year earlier.

the psychic phenomena that followed created the most terrifying experience the Lutz family had ever encountered, forcing them to flee the house in 28 days, convinced that it was possessed by evil spirits.

I have my feelings on whether this is based in truth, but overall it was a good, creepy haunted house story. 

Pages: 315

The Family Plot by Cherie Priest

Chattanooga Tennessee is full of lots of things, including the century and half old estate owned by the Winthrow family. Augusta Winthrow, the only remaining Winthrow wants it demolished, but first she approaches Music City Salvage to see if they would be interesting in gutting the house for all it's valuables. Chuck Dutton wagers the future of the salvage company on the floors and woodwork inside of the Winthrow Estate, and out, and sends a small crew to get everything that they can. Led by his daughter, Dahlia -- a recently divorced lover of all houses old and spooky -- they operate on a shoestring budget trying to get the house emptied in four days.

Quickly the crew realizes that there are certain things that Ms. Winthrow has left out of her story of the estate, like the small cemetery plot that they happen upon on the very first day and the spirits that inhabit the estate, long after the last living Winthrow had stepped foot on the property.

What better time of the year to rediscover the joy(is that the right word) of reading a well put together haunted house story. Cherie Priest manages to bring a feeling of a classic Southern Gothic horror story and blends it with a modern ghost story. It does succumb to the modern horror tropes from time to time, but overall The Family Plot is a well written ghost story with characters you care about, and a ghost that is downright evil.

365 pages

House by Frank E. Peretti and Ted Dekker

 House (Books of History Chronicles)
by Frank E. Peretti and Ted Dekker
Pages: 368
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Two writers of supernatural thrillers with a Christian viewpoint join forces for this haunting story of the darkness inside all of us.

Two couples are stranded on a back-roads highway in the middle of the woods in rural Alabama. Separately, each couple arrives at the only shelter for miles. An unassuming house in the middle of nowhere inhabited by an elderly couple and their adult son. Unfortunately, the family does not have a phone to call for help and their is no cell reception. They all sit down to supper together when they are locked inside the house a psychotic killer. He loves to play games and this one will be over at dawn.

This story had it's scary moments, a few moments of the characters personal discovery and some internal soul-searching, but I think it could have been something more. Each of the four main characters has some trauma from their past to face as well as mistakes and sins to own up too. But there just isn't enough time given for the characters to face both their psychological demons and spiritual demons as well as the physical ones that are the eminent threat in the house. The ending felt rushed to me and as a fan of both writers previous works, it was a disappointment. 

My friends who enjoy really creepy traditional horror wouldn't like the psychological and spiritual components of this book and it is not religious enough for my friends who only read Christian fiction to enjoy.