Oct 16

Oct 16 7 Spooky Reads to Enjoy while the Slow Cooker Makes Dinner

Spooky Reads to Get Lost in the Halloween

Is there anything better than immersing yourself in an appropriately dark and brooding book that captures the essence of Spooky Season? It is the perfect time of year to maximize The Essentials of Slow Cooking, enlisting this simple kitchen tool to make dinner so you can cozy up with a book. So grab one of these many Slow Cooker recipes, toss everything in, and get reading.

Here are some of my favorite recent eerie reads:

Books + Drink and Meal Pairings

The Whispering House - Elizabeth Brooks | Psychological Mystery
Pair with Crisp Apple Sangria and Goan Style Chicken Slow Cooker Curry.
A modern gothic mystery written with nods to Austen’s Northanger Abbey and du Maurier’s Rebecca, you’ll follow Freya as she tries to move on from the suicide of her sister five years earlier. To do so, she returns to the scene of the event and unexpectedly falls madly in love with an artists she meets at nearby Byrne Hall. As she gets lost in love, the truth about her sister’s final days begin to reveal themselves. While Freya isn’t the type of heroine you will necessarily root for, the dark and brooding Byrne Hall becomes a character in and of itself and you’ll find yourself wanting to know more about the secrets hidden inside this English country mansion and why it has a portrait of Freya’s sister, Stella.
The Guide - Peter Heller | Adventure Thriller
Pair with Bear Juice and Wild Rice and Mushroom slow cooker soup.
While The Guide picks up with main character Jack of Heller’s prior novel, The River, this is an entirely different kind of book. Jack gets a gig as a guide at an elite fishing lodge and finds himself teaching a gorgeous, famous singer how to fly fish in a remote area of Colorado. Dealing with his own grief (to better understand his PTSD reading The River will help, but is certainly not a requirement to immerse yourself in this story) Jack at first doesn’t notice the strange events happening near the lodge until he hears a soul piercing scream in the middle of the night. This snaps Jack back to reality and he starts to uncover a horrifying operation happening behind the scenes of this idyllic, elite ecotourism haven. Written during the height of COVID-19, Heller paints a picture of a post-pandemic world where the rich will go to any lengths to survive.
Dark Matter - Blake Crouch | Sci-Fi Thriller
Pair with a Pumpkin Spice White Russian and Cranberry Mustard Pork Loin in the slow cooker.
Blake Crouch is one of my favorite modern science-fiction/ thriller authors. If you have never read his work, I recommend you start here. In Dark Matter Crouch explores human choice and the paths not taken through Jason Dessen, a physics professor, father and husband. Abducted one fall evening from the streets of Chicago, Jason wakes up in an alternate timeline where his son has never been born and his wife isn’t married to him. Yet in this world he has achieved the seemingly impossible. Fraught with suspense, you follow Jason as he questions reality and fights to reclaim the life he once had. A mind bending treat.
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë | Classic Gothic Romance Mystery
Pair with an English Ale and slow cooker corned beef and cabbage.
This classic gothic tale set on the moors of West Yorkshire follows the Linton and Earnshaw families in the mid-1800s. Narrated by the three-generation servant of the Earnshaws, Nelly Dean tells us of the arrival of adopted son Heathcliff, the evolution of his love story with Cathy and the social barriers to their inevitable happiness. And we watch as Heathcliff become as dark and brooding as the moors themselves. If you’ve never read this iconic story of star-crossed lovers, Fall is the perfect time to escape into this story. Cathy and her choices will be sure to haunt you as they do Heathcliff. Brontë helped define this genre for a reason.
Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia | Gothic Horror
Pair with a chilled chardonnay and Italian roast pork slow cooker sandwiches.
Very dark and moody, this book is what it claims to be in the title. Set in 1950s Mexico, the main character, Noemí, sets off to check on her recently married cousin, Catalina, whose husband has moved her to High Place, a mansion in a remote mining town. Catalina sends a bizarre letter about her new family trying to kill her and when Noemí arrives, she gets swept up in the mystery of High Place and the bizarre Doyle family. Vivid imagery and setting are crucial to the horror building done by Moreno-Garcia in this bizarre and down right creepy novel.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman | Dark Fantasy
Pair with a bourbon neat or a Sweet and Sour Cherry and hearty lentil soup.
This short fantasy/horror novel is simply spellbinding. An unnamed man returns home, for the first time since he was a young boy, for a funeral. This triggers memories of supernatural evil that tried to invade his home when he was a young boy. As he does so well, Gaiman weaves an utterly unique and suspenseful story of this young boy, his friend Lettie, and their attempts to escape from the evil. I read this in two nights, have thought about it often since, and likely will pick up again this Spooky Season.
Her Dark Lies - J.T. Ellison | Mystery Thriller
Pair with a bottle of chianti and slow cooker marinara and meatballs.
A wedding is to be held at a private villa on an island off the coast of Italy. Sounds perfect, right? But little do the guests know that a killer is in their midst. Tension builds from page one as the bride-to-be, Claire, flees a disturbing event at her apartment in Nashville for Italy only to start receiving disturbing text messages and then find her wedding dress ruined. Someone is certainly out to ruin her perfect day, buy why? With the mystery of Jack’s first wife lingering in the back of Claire’s mind, a storm and terror descends on the island almost simultaneously. A suspenseful page turner, that at times feels like a modern day retelling of Rebecca, this mystery is the perfect read for a stormy weekend!