Best Haunted House Books

The best haunted house books: places that are more than bricks and mortar. Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House set the pattern, and Stephen King's The Shining, Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, Richard Matheson's Hell House, Michael McDowell's The Elementals and Robert Marasco's Burnt Offerings all build on it.

A good haunted house is a character: it chooses its victims and rearranges itself to trap them. These novels keep the rooms and corridors in your mind long after you have left. A word of warning: do not read them while house-hunting.