One of the eight-and-a-half-cent books I picked up from the local library this morning is Ruth Rendell's "The Babes in the Wood." I've read a couple of her books before and liked them, and seeing this one on the sale table was like . . . . . . an omen. ;-)
Went through my list and I think some of these may be helpful for bingo players?
The Genealogical Crime Mysteries by Steve Robinson; the mystery/crime/thriller books by Alex Kava; the September Daye books by Shojai, Amy; Paw Enforcement series by Diane Kelly and the Chet and Bernie Mysteries by Spencer Quinn will probably fit some of the squares, especially the murder, mystery, serial spree and some location squares. Some of those sets contain dogs and cats and some have dogs as one of the main character. Some are light, fun mysteries, others more thriller type.
Janny Wurts - Cycle of Fire has demons. One of the most original books I've ever read. Combination of fantasy and sci-fi.
Faery in Shadow by C.J. Cherryh - just plain strange and somewhat dark. Includes a pooka and other Celtic elements. The setting is pre-Christian Scottish highlands.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and The Dresden Files by Butcher can fit lots of different categories (depending on the book).
Robin Cook and John Saul also write freaky horror type books, usually well-written stand-alones and there are a lot of different books.
The Blood Books by Tanya Huff all have a vampire, some have werewolves, demons, mummies etc. They are all set somewhere in Canada.
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness has a monster.
Mira Grant has a variety of books with a variety of monsters and zombies.
R.L. Naquin has a whole bunch of different series (complete and incomplete) with a bunch of different monsters. None of these are horror books and a lot are chick-lit light but the incorporated mythology makes them fun to read.
Seanan McGuire has 2 novellas in the Wayward Children series that can be considered horror. The first novella can be considered a serial killer/ murder/ mystery novel, the second has vampires/re-animated dead and murder. Both are portal fantasy novels.
Seanan McGuire - Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day - about ghosts.
Amanda Stevens' Graveyard Queen series (complete) involves horror, sometimes murder, always graves and other spooky things.
Lost Gods by Brom - horror, hard to explain.
Patricia Briggs - Mercy Thompson series - has vampires, werewolves, fairies, usually some sort of mystery and a fair amount of blood-shed (depending on the book).
Kim Wilkins - Giants of the Frost - murder, mystery, norse mythology, set in Europe
Kim Wilkins - Autumn Castle - fantasy horror, set in Europe, has fairies.
Ursual Vernon - Castle Hangnail - more a teenager or younger kiddies book but it has witches and other creatures usually found in the castle of evil witches. This author also uses the pen-name T. Kingfisher and writes lovely stories under that name for adults. You might find something there too.
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding - weird, gothic horror
A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark by Harry Connolly - murder mystery with supernatural etc elements. Original.
Monster Hunter series by Larry Correia if you want fast action, lots of murder and mayhem, and amusement and a variety of monsters. A werewolf is one of the main characters.
Bobby Dollar Trilogy by Tad Williams if you want angels and demons - original but not his best work.
Blue Moon Rising by Simon R Green - horror fantasy, has dragon and demons and murder mystery.
Mulengro by Charles de Lint has gypsies, murder mystery and supernatural stuff. Urban fantasy
Yarrow by Charles de Lint also has murder, supernatural stuff and a type of vampire. This is a short urban fantasy that is still original and entertaining after all these years.
Dragon World by Byron Preiss - fantasy with dragons.
The Loch by Steve Alten - horror mystery thriller with lock ness monster.
Meg by Steve Alten - horror mystery thriller with giant shark
Dubric Bryerly trilogy by Tamara Siler Jones - gory murder mystery horror, original fantasy
Cloven Hooves by Megan Lindholm involves a forest/woods and a satyr and sex. So if that freaks you out, don't read it. Urban fantasy.
Bell, Book, and Murder: The Bast Mysteries by Rosemary Edghill - supernatural murder mysteries - various settings.
The Little Country by Charles de Lint - Portal fantasy if I remember correctly. Not sure if you have a square for portals?
Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist - still original gothic horror/urban fantasy novel with scary elves, kidnapping and murder.
Sunshine by Robin McKinley - vampire urban fantasy (standalone)
In the Forests of Serre by Patricia A. McKillip has a forest and a witch, among other things. Fantasy.
Child of an Ancient City by Tad Williams - horror, dark, short travel story. Tales within tales. Includes a monster.
Otherland series by Tad Williams - science fiction-urban fantasy. Serial killer is involved and other cyber mysteries. Sometimes dark. One of the most original quartets I've ever read. Complex plot, variety of rich characters. Rather fat and you do need to read all 4 books.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman - portal urban fantasy, creepy, dark.
Good Omens by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman - the apocalypse is neigh! More comedy than horror, but has an angel and a demon and the 4 horses of the apocalypse.
A variety of books by Sarah Addison Allen - all have a sort of paranormal element.
Some books by Roald Dahl might fit some squares i.e. The Witches, The BFG
Struwwelpeter: Fearful Stories and Vile Pictures to Instruct Good Little Folks by Heinrich Hoffmann
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - has a ghost and a serial murderer. I didn't like the book that much but it was apparently very popular.
William Shakespeare - Hamlet - has a ghost. I'm sure there are other Shakespeare plays that fit a square?
Dracula related books - Dracula by Bram Stoker; Stoker's Manuscript by Royce Prouty; The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Michael Scott Rohan, particularly the second book, The Forge in the Forest is set in a forest.
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland - apocalyptic fiction
Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood and Brian Catling's The Vorrh both have forest settings.
Mary Victoria's Chronicles of the Tree are epic fantasy set in a "world tree"...a giant tree with different societies living on different branches
Elven Star, Book 2 of the Deathgate Cycle by Weis and Hickman takes place on a world with 4 suns, so the entire world is overgrown jungle and forest with entire cities and even lakes and oceans held in the trees. This is the only one of seven books that takes place in this setting, but the whole series is well worth a read.
Martha Wells' Wheel of the Infinite largely takes place in a jungle or rain forest type setting
Thanks for this fabulous input -- I've added your suggestions (and also MR's and everybody else's in the comments) to the combined list of everybody's reading plans / suggestions posts (for the reading lists created by MbD), and thanks to your input alone, "In The Dark, Dark Woods" is now one of our most extensive categories! Not to mention that several other categories have also grown substantially ...
Hope I didn't crash the blog with that looooong list. ;)
I couldn't think of anything with aliens except a Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and you already have that on the list.
Patricia A McKillip also has a whole bunch of short stand-alone novels that cover all sorts of topics, usually with some sort of paranormal/mystical/magical bent.
Well, go figure, I've got The Riddle Master on my TBR ... :D
OK, so we don't have a "fantasy" square, but I can see it fitting "supernatural" and "zombies". Are there any werewolves among the shape-shifting creatures? Would they qualify as monsters?
What about "The Forgotten Beasts of Eld" -- "supernatural" and almost certainly also "witch" (if you don't equate "witch" with "evil", but simply with "sorceress") ... anything else there? (Again: werewolves and / or monsters?)
Atrix Wolfe by McKillip has a sort of shape shifting wolf thing in it. Nearly all her books have some sort of sorceress/sorcerer/witch/wizard in it. Od Magic is a good one if you want a wizard/sorcerer and a magic school.
I would normally avoid serial killers, but Cabal by Clive Barker has been high on my tbr for ages so I went for it.
Ghost stories are plentiful. I love a good ghost story! If anyone needs a short one for that square, Ghost Story by Jeff Brackett is really good.
Darkest London gave me an excuse for one that has also been begging me to read it, Stalking Jack by Madison Kent. If the writing is half as good as the cover, I'll be seeing Jack the Ripper in London!
https://www.amazon.com/Babes-Wood-Inspector-Wexford-Book-ebook/dp/B0012RMVE8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1503454684&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Babes+in+the+Wood
The Genealogical Crime Mysteries by Steve Robinson; the mystery/crime/thriller books by Alex Kava; the September Daye books by Shojai, Amy; Paw Enforcement series by Diane Kelly and the Chet and Bernie Mysteries by Spencer Quinn will probably fit some of the squares, especially the murder, mystery, serial spree and some location squares. Some of those sets contain dogs and cats and some have dogs as one of the main character. Some are light, fun mysteries, others more thriller type.
Janny Wurts - Cycle of Fire has demons. One of the most original books I've ever read. Combination of fantasy and sci-fi.
Faery in Shadow by C.J. Cherryh - just plain strange and somewhat dark. Includes a pooka and other Celtic elements. The setting is pre-Christian Scottish highlands.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and The Dresden Files by Butcher can fit lots of different categories (depending on the book).
Robin Cook and John Saul also write freaky horror type books, usually well-written stand-alones and there are a lot of different books.
The Blood Books by Tanya Huff all have a vampire, some have werewolves, demons, mummies etc. They are all set somewhere in Canada.
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness has a monster.
Mira Grant has a variety of books with a variety of monsters and zombies.
R.L. Naquin has a whole bunch of different series (complete and incomplete) with a bunch of different monsters. None of these are horror books and a lot are chick-lit light but the incorporated mythology makes them fun to read.
Seanan McGuire has 2 novellas in the Wayward Children series that can be considered horror. The first novella can be considered a serial killer/ murder/ mystery novel, the second has vampires/re-animated dead and murder. Both are portal fantasy novels.
Seanan McGuire - Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day - about ghosts.
Amanda Stevens' Graveyard Queen series (complete) involves horror, sometimes murder, always graves and other spooky things.
Lost Gods by Brom - horror, hard to explain.
Patricia Briggs - Mercy Thompson series - has vampires, werewolves, fairies, usually some sort of mystery and a fair amount of blood-shed (depending on the book).
Kim Wilkins - Giants of the Frost - murder, mystery, norse mythology, set in Europe
Kim Wilkins - Autumn Castle - fantasy horror, set in Europe, has fairies.
Ursual Vernon - Castle Hangnail - more a teenager or younger kiddies book but it has witches and other creatures usually found in the castle of evil witches. This author also uses the pen-name T. Kingfisher and writes lovely stories under that name for adults. You might find something there too.
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding - weird, gothic horror
A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark by Harry Connolly - murder mystery with supernatural etc elements. Original.
Monster Hunter series by Larry Correia if you want fast action, lots of murder and mayhem, and amusement and a variety of monsters. A werewolf is one of the main characters.
Bobby Dollar Trilogy by Tad Williams if you want angels and demons - original but not his best work.
Blue Moon Rising by Simon R Green - horror fantasy, has dragon and demons and murder mystery.
Mulengro by Charles de Lint has gypsies, murder mystery and supernatural stuff. Urban fantasy
Yarrow by Charles de Lint also has murder, supernatural stuff and a type of vampire. This is a short urban fantasy that is still original and entertaining after all these years.
Dragon World by Byron Preiss - fantasy with dragons.
The Loch by Steve Alten - horror mystery thriller with lock ness monster.
Meg by Steve Alten - horror mystery thriller with giant shark
Dubric Bryerly trilogy by Tamara Siler Jones - gory murder mystery horror, original fantasy
Cloven Hooves by Megan Lindholm involves a forest/woods and a satyr and sex. So if that freaks you out, don't read it. Urban fantasy.
Bell, Book, and Murder: The Bast Mysteries by Rosemary Edghill - supernatural murder mysteries - various settings.
The Little Country by Charles de Lint - Portal fantasy if I remember correctly. Not sure if you have a square for portals?
Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist - still original gothic horror/urban fantasy novel with scary elves, kidnapping and murder.
Sunshine by Robin McKinley - vampire urban fantasy (standalone)
In the Forests of Serre by Patricia A. McKillip has a forest and a witch, among other things. Fantasy.
Child of an Ancient City by Tad Williams - horror, dark, short travel story. Tales within tales. Includes a monster.
Otherland series by Tad Williams - science fiction-urban fantasy. Serial killer is involved and other cyber mysteries. Sometimes dark. One of the most original quartets I've ever read. Complex plot, variety of rich characters. Rather fat and you do need to read all 4 books.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman - portal urban fantasy, creepy, dark.
Good Omens by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman - the apocalypse is neigh! More comedy than horror, but has an angel and a demon and the 4 horses of the apocalypse.
A variety of books by Sarah Addison Allen - all have a sort of paranormal element.
Some books by Roald Dahl might fit some squares i.e. The Witches, The BFG
Struwwelpeter: Fearful Stories and Vile Pictures to Instruct Good Little Folks by Heinrich Hoffmann
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - has a ghost and a serial murderer. I didn't like the book that much but it was apparently very popular.
William Shakespeare - Hamlet - has a ghost. I'm sure there are other Shakespeare plays that fit a square?
Dracula related books - Dracula by Bram Stoker; Stoker's Manuscript by Royce Prouty; The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Michael Scott Rohan, particularly the second book, The Forge in the Forest is set in a forest.
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland - apocalyptic fiction
Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood and Brian Catling's The Vorrh both have forest settings.
Mary Victoria's Chronicles of the Tree are epic fantasy set in a "world tree"...a giant tree with different societies living on different branches
Elven Star, Book 2 of the Deathgate Cycle by Weis and Hickman takes place on a world with 4 suns, so the entire world is overgrown jungle and forest with entire cities and even lakes and oceans held in the trees. This is the only one of seven books that takes place in this setting, but the whole series is well worth a read.
Martha Wells' Wheel of the Infinite largely takes place in a jungle or rain forest type setting
Toxics and Oceans by Isabel Burt
I couldn't think of anything with aliens except a Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and you already have that on the list.
Patricia A McKillip also has a whole bunch of short stand-alone novels that cover all sorts of topics, usually with some sort of paranormal/mystical/magical bent.
OK, so we don't have a "fantasy" square, but I can see it fitting "supernatural" and "zombies". Are there any werewolves among the shape-shifting creatures? Would they qualify as monsters?
What about "The Forgotten Beasts of Eld" -- "supernatural" and almost certainly also "witch" (if you don't equate "witch" with "evil", but simply with "sorceress") ... anything else there? (Again: werewolves and / or monsters?)
Jennifer Roberson has a whole series on shapeshifters, the Cheysuli, but I don't know if there are any wolves in it. (Roberson, no T).
http://www.readersdigest.co.uk/books/book-lists/10-best-books-set-forests
http://blog.betterworldbooks.com/2017/01/28/books-that-take-place-in-a-forest/
Ghost stories are plentiful. I love a good ghost story! If anyone needs a short one for that square, Ghost Story by Jeff Brackett is really good.
Darkest London gave me an excuse for one that has also been begging me to read it, Stalking Jack by Madison Kent. If the writing is half as good as the cover, I'll be seeing Jack the Ripper in London!