Dean Koontz wrote an excellent book albeit not horror is about a sinister government agency my mate said the hero reminded him of me and something I do data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
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By higher brow are you taling of stuff like Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby?
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I liked quite a few of the ones I read from what I recall. Very graphic though.
Not exactly highbrow, but a bit different. If you like occult and don't mind old-fashioned then try Dennis Wheatley. The Devil Rides Out is perhaps the best known.
The Devil Rides Out is a brilliant book I absolutley loved that book as a teenager (47 nowdata:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7) also by Dennis is To The Devil A Daughter and The Haunting Of Toby Jug, I agree with previous comments about early James Herbert the whole Rats Saga is great I think there are three books, The Rats, The Lair and Domain,Stephen Kings early work is all brilliant,also try The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty I think thats the scariest book I have ever read, again as a teenager, I have just finished a book called The Passage by Justin Cronin a Post Apocalyptic Vampire book, very good.
Blimey, how could I forget Dennis Wheatley //static.avforums.com/styles/avf/smilies/facepalm.gif
Got pretty much all of his stuff now.
His (Brian Lumley) books of short stories would be the best to read first if you decide to, should give you a good idea of his novels.
Yes that's a brilliant novel I read most of his occult books and love to read them all again unfortunately most are out of print and only have two of his books The Devil Rides Out and Gateway to Hell.
I would say a bit more highbrow than James Herbert or Shaun Hutson who most of what I read always have nasty endings.
I read on story a bit back and is like a horror chase about some bloke involved with the dark arts and there's something after him that huge and calls at a family's house and I think they become tainted or something by his presence and there ends up with a chase across the country to escape it.
Any one know what the books called?
1 for James Herbert. I've read all his novels and would say that the Rats/Lair/Domain trilogy is well worth a look, they are my favourites of his, and Haunted/Ghosts of Sleath are good if you're into ghost stuff (the third in that trilogy "Ash" is out this year at some point)
I've not been too keen on his more recent books aside from Once, which i enjoyed, as he's doubled the length of them without actually adding anything worthwhile so they're really padded out and hard going. No word of a lie, in one of them (i think Nobody True) he describes in detail someone walking round a grocery store including the products they pick up off the shelves..
Stephen King's short stories are really good as well, he has a few books full of those like Different Seasons, Skeleton Crew, Night Shift, Nightmares and Dreamscapes and Everything's Eventual. You'll be surprised at just how many of these have been made into films!
Dean Koontz is another one who has written a lot of good horror novels. He doesn't really write horror as much these days, he has branched out into suspense/crime but some of his older books like Dragon's Tears, The Watchers, Tick Tock etc are excellent.
Apparently Richard Laymon is good as well. I've not read any of this but my mum who is also into horror novels has read quite a few and liked them. He died back in 2001 so nothing new coming from him but he has about 40 published novels from the 80s onwards. I think "The Woods are Dark" is his most famous novel.
Of Laymon books i would recommend Savage, a fictionalised account of what happened to Jack the Ripper after he fled Whitechapel told from the perspective of a survivor of one of his attacks.
Dan Simmons is quite good.I enjoy most Stephen King books, i would say anything before Dream Catcher and you are safe.I find the first 100 or so pages of Kings books a bit of a grind though, but then they suck you in.Also check out the stories he wrote as Richard Bachman some of those are quite good, my favourite being The Long Walk.
There is also Joe Hill, who is Stephen Kings son.I have also got into an author by the name of Jasper Kent, whilst not full on horror his novel Twelve is an interesting mix of Sharpe and vampire set in Russia.
1 for Laymon... bit popcorn movie'ish'...
but worth a read nevertheless...
Hutson also very good...
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