When October starts and the leaves change, there’s no better time to pick up horror and thriller books. Something about reading a tense scene as the air starts to chill is unbeatable. But, you don’t have to keep reading the same Stephen King novel when the time comes around. (Nothing against the literal King of horror but I’m looking for something fresh.) Instead, Pittsburgh has a whole pumpkin patch full of horror and thriller authors writing books that take you as light or as dark as you want to go. It’s a way to support local while also enjoying a new story you may never have heard of before. Plus, as someone who has met two of the authors below, these are also some of the kindest and passionate people you’ll ever find working in the industry.
I got many of the books for our Pittsburgh horror and thriller author round-up from Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill. The independent bookstore has an entire shelf dedicated to local authors and even includes many signed books that you won’t be able to find anywhere else. Not to mention, you can even meet local authors during special events at the shop like book talks and release parties.
Now, light your candles, throw on some spooky music if that’s your thing, cuddle up with a blanket or a furry friend, and get ready to lock in to these tales of terror.
Read These Books From Pittsburgh Horror and Thriller Authors This Spooky Season
Zoje Stage
If you’re looking for an author who dabbles in thrillers, mysteries, and horror then Zoje Stage is who you’ll want to check out. While Stage left her hometown of Pittsburgh to pursue screenwriting, playwriting, and directing in Rochester, New York, she’s back in the Steel City and continues to produce new publications. You may even have seen her play MONSTER produced by Upstairs Theatre in the city.
When it comes to literature, Stage has written nine different books. Two of those books have even been recently published in September 2026. Though if you’re looking for her new book #Authorlife, a satire on the publishing industry, it’s written under her pen name, Joe Zagets.
Stage’s Novels
When it comes to thrillers and mysteries, her other new release, Something of a Calling, introduces a detective character who’s actually on the brink of retiring after her daughter is murdered by a drunk driver. But, horror elements start to come into play when Detective Andy Cooper starts to find a series of bodies with a creature’s teeth marks and chunks taken out of them. It’s not the only new discovery in her life either as she meets Fiona, another woman who loves nature and is everything that Andy is not. She’ll have to figure out Fiona’s dark secret and the murder suspect before she can actually let herself rest.
Though, if you’re looking for something more psychological, I’d recommend either Baby Teeth or Mothered. Baby Teeth poses the question, what if your own child was trying to kill you? Here, a seven-year-old girl, Hanna terrorizes her mother Suzette while appearing as completely innocent to her father Alex. Stage even wrote a sequel for the novel Dear Hanna that dives deeper into this dark child’s mind.
Mothered on the other hand deals with a mother and daughter in a different situation. Throw yourself back to 2020, the height of the pandemic, and now imagine being trapped in your home with your mother. In this thriller, Grace doesn’t have the best relationship with her mother but things head even further downhill when the two start to argue while stuck in isolation. This book is one that throws you around for a while and gets you questioning your own parental relationships. It’s a terrifying story to read for spooky season since it can hit so close to reality at times.
Gwendolyn Kiste
I like to think of Gwendolyn Kiste as the hopeless romantic of the horror world. Her stories dive deep into character’s thoughts and feelings, focusing on sapphic characters and age old love stories. Kiste is originally from Ohio but has found a farm to call home right outside of Pittsburgh. She’s a four-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author as well as a short fiction writer, appearing in many different horror collections.
Kiste’s Novels
Most recently, Kiste released her seventh novel, In These Gilded, Ghostly Hearts. It’s a ghostly retelling of The Great Gatsby with a queer twist. In this dark retelling, Daisy Buchanan is murdered, her ghost trapped along with Jay Gatsby’s in his mansion. Once her daughter, Mel, discovers her, she heads into the estate to figure out how to free her mother and uncover the secrets behind the house’s walls.
Another great choice for those who love a dash of sapphic longing in their supernatural stories is her novel The Haunting of Velkwood. This book genuinely changed the way I think about horror novels, allowing me to see how a story can shift and change to encompass a completely new meaning by the end. I won’t reveal too much about this one as I believe you should go into it blind. But, I will tell you, the premise follows Talitha who is forced to return to her hometown neighborhood where years ago a supernatural phenomenon left the street’s citizens (including her mom and sister) trapped inside what is basically a bubble. The only ones able to head back inside are the three girls who escaped: Talitha and her two friends Brett and Grace who now must help a group of researchers solve the mystery.
Plus an Anthology
If you can’t choose which of her novels to pick up, the good news is that Kiste just released an anthology of horror short stories in April 2026. The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own explores different parts and feelings of womanhood. These complex women explore themes of queer identity, rage, and love through gothic shorts that include elements of body horror and the supernatural.
George A. Romero
This one is a name you’re sure to recognize, especially if you’re a fan of horror movies or simply have lived in Pittsburgh all your life. George A. Romero is the filmmaker of the historic zombie films Night of the Living Dead and the rest of the Living Dead series as well as Creepshow, Monkey Shines, and many others. While you probably know about Romero’s past in Pittsburgh and the city’s history with filming at the Monroeville Mall and Evans City Cemetery, you might not know he’s also the author of a few different novels.
Romero’s Novels
The one novel he finished before his death is the movie tie-in for Dawn of the Dead that he co-wrote with Susanna Sparrow. This version expands the story a bit from what you see on screen. Other than small changes, the novel includes more background lore, insights into internal character thoughts and feelings, the introduction of a dog companion, more dead bodies, and even a bit of a difference in why the ending occurs.
Sadly, Romero passed in 2017 before he was able to complete another novel. But, at the request of him and his wife Suzanne, author Daniel Kraus took on the task of completing two different half-finished manuscripts after his death. Kraus was able to turn Romero’s The Living Dead into a fully published novel in 2020, scaling 656 pages. This book is the ultimate guide for die-hard zombie and Romero fans. It’s a standalone piece that chronicles the zombie apocalypse from the beginning, detailing all the way to 15 years after the outbreak. I’ve heard from so many people it is genuinely the best zombie story to ever be written. Romero goes hard with his universe-building and Kraus is able to bring it all together in a way that’s very special for horror fans.
The other novel Kraus helped Romero complete and publish is Pay the Piper, published in 2024. This one completely diverts from zombies, taking readers to a Louisiana swampland where an entity known as “The Piper” starts abducting and killing children. For this one Kraus found documents in the George A. Romero Archival Collection at the University of Pittsburgh Library System to build the story, bringing with it themes of generational trauma and the tensions that come from living in a small town.
Kit Frick/Gigi Waldorf
Does your teen need a thriller to read for October? Kit Frick (also known under the pen name Gigi Waldorf) is an author of books for both teens and adults. While she left Pittsburgh to go to Sarah Lawrence College and then Syracuse University for her MFA in New York, her creative writing home has been here in Pittsburgh since her return.
Both Frick’s young adult and adult novels rely on a fast-paced plot with plenty of twists, multiple points of view from different characters, and true-crime narratives. Basically, if you love authors like Frieda McFadden, Riley Sager, Lucy Foley, then Frick’s books are perfect for you.
Frick’s Adult Novels
When it comes to adult novels, her most recent release, Murder on the Upper East Side, is actually under her pen name, Gigi Waldorf. The pen name is something she’s always wanted to do as an author and also allows her to explore a new novelistic world taking place in high class New York, channeling the energy of Gossip Girl and Only Murders in the Building. More of a lighter and more mystery-focused story, think of this one as a soap opera-esc whoodunnit. You’ll dive into the elite Prescott Academy where Hannah Miller faces the wrath of the most popular mean girls, Madison and Elle. Years later at the 10 year reunion, Madison is found dead, leading to a shifting back and forth timeline between Hannah’s school years and the present to solve the murder.
Though, if you prefer something with a bit of a darker, more psychological tone, The Split is the adult novel to pick up. This one was Frick’s adult thriller debut and it actually has two different paths to read through. To start, you’ll follow Jane who gets a call from her sister late at night during a dangerous storm. Her sister begs her to come get her and help her escape from her husband. This is where the split happens. As Jane makes her decision of whether to risk the storm or stay home, you’ll see how both choices play out, revealing dark secrets in both cases.
Frick’s Young Adult Novels
For teenagers and young adult genre lovers, Frick has a few different YA novels that explore dark academia, dual points-of-view, dual timelines, and plenty of murder. For those who prefer the boarding school trope, you’ll want to try reading Very Bad People. This one takes you into an elite boarding school’s secret society of vigilantes taking down bad students in the school. When Callie joins the society, she finds out her mother actually has a connection to the secret society and it may have something to do with the car crash that killed her years ago.
Or, if you want something that feels like a true-crime podcast come to life, I Killed Zoe Spanos is actually inspired by true crime podcasts and Daphne du Maurier’s gothic novel Rebecca. Nanny Anna comes across a summer job taking care of a young girl who looks just like Zoe Spanos, a girl that vanished months earlier. After Zoe’s body is found dead, Anna hazily admits to murdering the young girl but her memory and confession don’t seem to match any of the evidence provided. That’s when a teen podcast host takes charge of the situation and solve the mystery.
J.D. Barker
J.D. Barker is a bestselling author who has actually co-written with James Patterson. Even though he was not born and raised in Pittsburgh, he moved to the city with his wife when the two decided to quit their jobs, size down, and let Barker focus on his writing. Both of them even started a house-flipping business together to keep an income flowing in Pittsburgh. The opportunity ended up blooming two novels and the official start of Barker’s career. He even considers it the city where he was when his career really took off.
Barker’s Novels
One of the books that Barker wrote during his time in Pittsburgh was his debut novel Forsaken that even earned him a nomination for a Bram Stoker Award. The horror story is actually about an author writing his own horror story about the 1692-era Salem witch trials. When author Thad writes the book, he unknowingly opens up the supernatural world of the town he’s writing about, Shadow Cove, which turns out to be a real town. The result delves him and his family into a terrifying world as his wife confronts her own hidden secrets involving the entity “The Forsaken.”
If I’m outlining books that are great for reading around Halloween, then I can’t leave off a book that is basically a mash-up of SAW and Fifty Shades of Grey. Yes, you heard me, SAW and Fifty Shades of Grey. Which actually works even better than you’d think because Behind a Closed Door is a sexy thriller that’s soon to be a major motion picture.
The story hones in on married couple Abby and Brendan that have fallen into a rough patch and will do anything to heal their relationship. To help them, their therapist recommends trying the app Sugar & Spice, a game in a truth or dare style that gives the two romantic challenges to reconnect them. As the two continue playing, the commands start to get risky and intrusive, pushing the two to their limits. But with Sugar & Spice, there is no quitting the game. If they try, the app starts to use their phone data against them, blackmailing them into continuing.
Keep exploring spooky season with our guide to Halloween in Pittsburgh.
Check out our calendar for other events this week.
About the Author
Kylie Thomas is TABLE Magazine’s Online Editor, covering Pittsburgh food, drink, and going out, including the Things to Do in Pittsburgh column. A Point Park University graduate, her work has also appeared on The Takeout, QBurgh, and Empire Extreme. She also runs the photography business Photos by Ky.
About the Photographer
Laura Petrilla is a Pittsburgh-based editorial and commercial photographer contributing to TABLE Magazine, covering food, people, and places. Her work has appeared in Pittsburgh Magazine, and for the past five years she has photographed still lifes and models for Peyote Bird Designs. See more at laurapetrilla.com.
Subscribe to TABLE Magazine‘s print edition.
