A thriller writer's favourite books with spooky settings
Daniel Kalla is an ER physician and the author of more than a dozen thrillers. He shared with us a list of his favourite books with unforgettably eerie, spooky settings.
In addition to an idea for (what I hope is) a killer twist, I set out to write The Darkness in the Light with only one other goal in mind: to set a novel in the most atmospheric and unique location I could conjure. I eventually found exactly what I sought in the stunning Arctic town of Utqiagvik, Alaska. The remote community—reachable only by air—made for the perfect locked door mystery setting. Fortunately, I was able to draw inspiration from diverse novels written with such evocative and spooky settings that they often become dominant characters in the stories themselves. Here are a few of my favorites...
Shutter Island
Even the title evokes chills! By setting this hunt for a murderous, missing patient in a 1950s forensic psychiatric institute located on an Alcatraz-like island, Lehane creates an atmosphere of inherent threat. The island, like many of the inmates, is treacherous and unpredictable. And on top of a wildly exciting story, Lehane throws in a mind-blowing twist at the end.
View eBook View AudiobookThe Snowman
The epitome of the Nordic Noir mystery, The Snowman oozes spookiness in an ever-twisting story about the hunt for a serial killer capable of monstrous creativity. Nesbø capitalizes on the cold and dark of Oslo’s winters to build the tension to an absolute boil in the frozen north.
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Donoghue executes a brilliant twist on the locked door mystery by telling the story through the eyes of a precocious five-year-old, Jack, from inside the room where he has been imprisoned with his mom since birth. Despite the claustrophobic and creepy setting, the story is also a celebration of human resilience.
View eBook View AudiobookDeception Point
Brown excels at the race-against-the clock thriller. In Deception Point, he uses the barren desolation of the Arctic as an accelerant for his style of edge of your seat suspense. Never one to focus on deep character development, Brown still manages to invest you in the heroes’ desperate race to uncover a conspiracy that is directly tied to their survival.
View eBook View AudiobookDisappearing Earth
The rugged beauty and unforgiving terrain of the Siberian peninsula, as well as the complexity of the tightly woven but insular community who inhabit it, play a pivotal role in setting the mood for this the haunting story about the abduction of two sisters. It’s almost impossible not to get lost in Phillips’ finely crafted debut novel.
View eBook View AudiobookAnd Then There Were None
I can’t discuss spooky or locked door mysteries without citing, arguably, the mother of them all. Christie’s plot is simplistic but ingenious—ten strangers, beckoned by a mysterious invitation are stranded together on a remote island where one falls after another. The remoteness and inescapability of the setting ratchet up the tension to point of almost unbearable. ◼
View eBook View AudiobookDaniel Kalla's newest novel is The Darkness in the Light.
The Darkness in the Light: A Thriller
A psychiatrist’s patients are dying—are they suicides related to a new antidepressant, or is there something even more sinister going on in the northernmost town in the US? A riveting new thriller from internationally bestselling author Daniel Kalla.
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