True-Detective-book-list

Reading lists

11 must-read books for True Detective: Night Country fans

The Hunger

What began as a brave and bold adventure has become a nightmare. They are trapped and must confront each other . . . and a threat that reaches beyond the fury of the elements, something far more primal and deadly.

"Deeply, deeply disturbing, hard to put down, not recommended reading after dark." - Stephen King 
 
After having travelled west for weeks, the party of pioneers comes to a crossroads. It is time for their leader, George Donner, to make a choice. They face two diverging paths which lead to the same destination. One is well-documented – the other untested, but rumoured to be shorter. 
 
Donner’s decision will shape the lives of everyone travelling with him. The searing heat of the desert gives way to biting winds and a bitter cold that freezes the cattle where they stand. Driven to the brink of madness, the ill-fated group struggles to survive and minor disagreements turn into violent confrontations. Then the children begin to disappear. As the survivors turn against each other, a few begin to realise that the threat they face reaches beyond the fury of the natural elements, to something more primal and far more deadly. 
 
Based on the true story of The Donner Party, The Hunger is an eerie, shiver-inducing exploration of human nature, pushed to its breaking point.

Katsu adds a rich vein of horror to her imaginative retelling . . . astonishingly atmospheric, with a strong sense of claustrophobia, despite the vast prairies and mountains . . . this is an enthralling and chilling read.

Uneasy, nauseous, slow-burning tale that marries historical fiction with a hint of the supernatural. Great detailing; colourful characterization; some supremely ominous stuff, but always reined in at the final moment to rack up the tension even more. Loved it!

This . . . is supernatural suspense at its finest. It is strangely ethereal, yet gritty, with one eye on the distant skyline and the other on the bloody journey. If historical novels are your thing, The Hunger delivers a believable, fully realized 19th-century America. But the best thing about The Hunger is that it will scare the pants off you.

An absorbing thriller that had me digging into the history behind this tale as soon as I’d read the last page . . . Her descriptions of the land are movingly beautiful, but there is danger even here.

Like The Revenant but with an insistent supernatural whisper. The setting and the story are utterly chilling. And the telling of it is so well done.

SARAH PINBOROUGH, author of Behind Her Eyes

Beautiful, lyrical, utterly grounded in the land, and the people, this is the best - and scariest - story I’ve read this year.

MANDA SCOTT, author of Boudica and Into the Fire

The story she writes of human failings and despair is so powerful and so well written . . . Her account of the pioneers’ dawning realisation that pressing on, staying still and turning back all mean death is hauntingly good.

Alma Katsu's accomplished, engrossing novel weaves a cocoon of supernatural horror around historical tragedy . . . it is a beautifully intense read.

In an audacious twist, Alma Katsu has made something new and suspenseful from the legendary story of the Donner Party. The Hunger is filled with terror, pity, and grue.

KEITH DONOHUE, author of The Boy Who Drew Monsters

Alma Katsu has taken one of the darkest and most chilling episodes in our history, and made the story even darker, even more terrifying. I swear I'm still shuddering. A fantastic read!

R. L. STINE, author of Goosebumps and Fear Street

The Hunger is a bold and brilliant novel, heavy with foreboding and dread, and with a rich vein of humanity at its core. I challenge you to read it without experiencing your own hunger pangs.

The Revenant by way of The Walking Dead and it works.

A terrific historical novel with a thrilling, bloody twist. Alma Katsu’s brilliant reimagining of the Donner Party’s fate is rich with character, laden with imminent doom, and propelled by chilling mystery. A novel that book clubs and dark fiction fans should devour with equal relish.

Katsu injects the supernatural into this brilliant retelling of the ill-fated Donner Party . . . fans of Dan Simmons’s The Terror will find familiar and welcome chills.

A riveting drama of power struggles and shifting alliances . . . the tensions [Katsu] creates are thrilling.

If you think the story of the Donner Party can’t get more horrific, think again.  In this gripping, atmospheric reimagining of that dark tale, Katsu has created a deeply unsettling and truly terrifying masterpiece.

JENNIFER McMAHON, author of The Winter People and Burntown

A graduate of the Masters writing program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Alma Katsu worked briefly in advertising and PR before moving into the intelligence world, working as a senior analyst for several US agencies, including the CIA and the American equivalent of GCHQ. She was also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. Alma Katsu lives in the Washington, DC area. To find out more, visit her website almakatsubooks.com

__________________ 
 
'Deeply, deeply disturbing' STEPHEN KING 
 
Shortlisted for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards for Best Horror Novel 
'It will scare the pants off you' NEW YORK TIMES 
____________________ 
 
After having travelled west for weeks, the party of pioneers comes to a crossroads. It is time for their leader, George Donner, to make a choice. They face two diverging paths which lead to the same destination. One is well-documented – the other untested, but rumoured to be shorter. 
 
Donner’s decision will shape the lives of everyone travelling with him. The searing heat of the desert gives way to biting winds and a bitter cold that freezes the cattle where they stand. Driven to the brink of madness, the ill-fated group struggles to survive and minor disagreements turn into violent confrontations. Then the children begin to disappear. As the survivors turn against each other, a few begin to realise that the threat they face reaches beyond the fury of the natural elements, to something more primal and far more deadly. 
 
Based on the true story of The Donner Party, The Hunger is an eerie, shiver-inducing exploration of human nature, pushed to its breaking point.

(Book 3 of The Immortal Trilogy)

The Descent

For 200 years Lanny Mcllvrae has been hiding from the one who gave her immortality. The one she tried to destroy. But now he is trying to find her. And they must not meet. An immortal love story on an epic scale.

The thrilling finale to Alma Katsu's unforgettable IMMORTAL trilogy.

I was really grabbed by the narrative voice and I was fascinated by the story - what a story!

Charlaine Harris, bestselling author of the True Blood series

This story resonates with spirit, blending myth with reality, tragedy with triumph, the pages oozing with passion into a compelling saga.  Sharp as a broken piece of glass, crisply plotted, way ahead of anything and everything in the pack.

Steve Berry, bestselling author of The King's Deception

Engrossing ... this thrilling conclusion is a can’t-miss entry for fans who have followed Lanny’s journey from 1800s New England to contemporary times. And it’s utterly impossible to put down.

A satisfying finale to an intense and spellbinding series... The Descent is a haunting, unforgettable tale of love, passion and humanity. RT Book Reviews

The Descent is a masterful conclusion to what may be one of the best trilogies I've ever read. Alma Katsu's lyrical writing style makes The Taker trilogy one of those series that lingers in your mind long after you have finished reading it ... highly recommended!

Throw away everything that you thought you knew about this series. I don’t believe there is a reader who could have foreseen the culmination of this trilogy…I loved The Descent and adored this series. It’s the kind of series you pass along to your friends…

[The Descent] …will blow readers away with its creativity, nuance, and multilayered story. Book series tend to taper off for readers in terms of depth of story and the ability to surprise, but Katsu’s Taker series has transcended levels with each installment… Peers behind the veil between the human and spiritual world… A stunning end to a brilliant trilogy.

It’s always difficult to come to the end of a series, especially one that was so good… This is certainly one of the more interesting series to come along in quite a while.

Did you ever pick up a book that changed the way you looked at a certain genre? That's how I felt when I read Alma Katsu's The Taker. Her vivid, imaginative storytelling, and the most unique worldbuilding ever…

THE DESCENT is enchantingly magical with unanticipated surprises and fascinating characters…an unforgettable roller-coaster ride, where emotions run the gamut from deep fear to highest elation. THE DESCENT is part of an extraordinary series, where supernatural adventures are memorable while the cast of characters are notably original.

The stunning conclusion to Alma Katsu's gripping supernatural trilogy that began with The Taker. 
 
'We had a tangled history, Adair and I. He had been my lover and my teacher, master to my slave. We had literally been prisoners to one another. Somewhere along the way he fell in love with me, but I was too afraid to love him in return. Afraid of his unexplainable powers, and his furious temper. Afraid of what I knew he was capable of and what even he himself didn’t know he could do. I ran away to follow a safer path with a man I could understand. I always knew, however, that my path would one day lead 
back to Adair...'

The Devil's Scribe

Edgar Allan Poe meets Lanore - his Lanore? - in this e-novella and part of THE IMMORTAL Saga.

Edgar Allan Poe meets Lanore - his Lanore? - in this e-novella and part of THE IMMORTAL Saga. 
 
After decades of running from her past, Lanore McIlvrae returns to America for the first time in 20 years to confront the source of her fear. The year is 1846 and Lanore - Lanny - has just landed in Baltimore after a long transatlantic crossing. 
 
That very night, she meets an 'unattractive man with a high forehead and sunken eyes, and a tiny, pinched mouth like a parrot's beak' who claims to write stories so dark and unsettling that he could be the Devil's Scribe. His name? Edgar Allan Poe. 
 
Has Lanny finally met her match in this macabre man ... or is it the other way around? 
 
Includes the first chapter of The Taker - Book One of THE IMMORTAL TRILOGY.

(Book 2 of The Immortal Trilogy)

The Reckoning

The thrilling new sequel in Alma Katsu's unforgettable IMMORTAL trilogy

Katsu's brilliant series second will utterly enchant you. The story is told in such a distinctive voice, you won't be able to stop thinking about it. The characters will delight you, horrify you and instil hope ... It's one of this reviewer's favourites so far this year.

Having fallen for Alma’s writing in her first release The Taker I really couldn’t wait to spend more time with her as her immortal existence was revealed a chapter at a time. Add to this Alma’s identifiable writing style, a great ability to bring the reader to the heart of the tale and backed up with a solid supporting cast made this tale a real joy to spend time around. Great stuff.

The more I read this series the more I love Alma Katsu’s writing. She is a mystery/paranormal/historical fiction mastermind. She’s got three genres going on here and doesn’t drop the ball once… if you haven’t picked up this series yet, go out and find a copy of book one, The Taker, immediately. If you’ve already read (and loved) The Taker you will not be disappointed by The Reckoning. It is a sequel that is every bit as good as the first.

I loved the multi-tapestried feel of these novels – it’s an utterly readable blend of supernatural-powered fantasy, historical fiction, and existential horror… remarkable. Romance, fantasy and mainstream fiction fans alike will be swept away by this brutal tale of (immortal) love gone wrong. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy novels like A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, Diana Gabaldon's Dragonfly in Amber

Enticing, sensual beyond any other novel read in years within this genre, and thrilling…The Taker is recommended for any reader who wishes to lose him/herself in a strong historical horror tale that transcends the genre with ease.

Top Pick! A tragic otherworldly tale of lovers, Katsu’s brilliant series second will utterly enchant you. The story is told in such a distinctive voice, you won’t be able to stop thinking about it. The characters will delight you, horrify you and instill hope, but all are created with many layers of humanity as they grown and change through the ages. It’s one of this reviewer’s favorites so far this year

Katsu’s seductive second book in her supernatural thriller trilogy picks up where her well-received debut, The Taker, left off... At times melodramatic and constrained by the limitations of a middle volume, this installment stays true to its author’s initial vision.

This sequel to The Taker continues the time-traveling tale of two immortals whose destinies are bound together by love, longing, misery, and fate ... Katsu’s beautiful, mesmerizing narrative will not lesson the effect of her very adult and often brutal dark fairy tale ... leaves readers anxiously awaiting Katsu’s final volume.

Adair’s complexity will be explored and expanded, Lanny’s adventures will thrill you, new characters will steal and break your heart (oh, Savva), old characters will boil your blood, and dark magic will snake up the bones of the story like the vines of a rogue bush. But my favourite part of this story, as always, is Alma Katsu’s haunting prose. I have never been so affected by the elegance and terror that fills her every word.

Alma Katsu has an incredible talent of storytelling. She put together a hauntingly beautiful tale of evil and romance. I can't stop thinking about this book. It is so wonderfully written and the story so captivating that I want to read it over and over again….The Reckoning is without a doubt one of the top books on my list of favorite reads of 2012. I don't know how the author did it but this second installment is even more breathtaking and mesmerizing.

The story’s secondary characters are as rich and vicious in personality as the main ones are and with engaging traits such as greed, pure evil, and traitorous. But the true hook in this story is the antagonist, Adair. Corrupt, evil, murderous, and as immortal as the heroine herself. Absolutely fascinating…Underlying themes explored in this novel of immortality are change, love, obsession, vengeance, power, life and death, and Alma Katsu weaves it all together in a fascinating paranormal yarn that grips you from start to finish…The drama is fascinating and thrilling. Definitely a unique, enduring story of the paranormal!

This series amazes me. It is haunting, evil, lovely and very romantic all at the same time. I seriously cannot stop thinking about these books.

What I liked about The Reckoning: Pretty much everything. Katsu’s writing falls nicely somewhere in between fancy literary writing and popular fiction.

5 out of 5 stars: I can’t wait to see how the series will end.

I was really grabbed by the narrative voice and I was fasincated by the story ... what a story!

Charlaine Harris, author of the True Blood series

I turned to Luke and reached for him. My blood felt as though it had seized up in my veins. 
"Lanny, what is it?" Luke asked. 
I clutched his lapel desperately 
"It's Adair. He's free." 
 
FOR 200 YEARS SHE'S BEEN HIDING 
 
He gave her immortality. 
She tried to destroy him. 
Now he is searching for her. 
They must not meet. 
Or there will be a RECKONING

(Book 1 of The Immortal Trilogy)

The Taker

An unforgettable debut for those that loved TWILIGHT and Anne Rice

An historical novel with a difference, this is a strange but compelling read

[An] imaginative and wholly original debut... Readers won't be able to tear their eyes away from Katsu's mesmerizing tale

The Taker is a frighteningly compelling story about those most human monsters--desire and obsession. It will curl your hair and keep you up late at night

This is a great book. And by great, I mean, devastatingly so, like reading The Scarlett Letter, while riding a roller coaster, on acid. Seductive, daring, soaring, and ultimately gut-wrenching, The Taker is a lush, historical rendering of transcendent love, paranormal beings, and the depths of pain that can be felt by immortal hearts

Jamie Ford, author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Alma Katsu takes the reader by surprise in the first chapter of her mesmerizing debut and never stops delivering. What a wonderful book!  A dark, gothic, epic worth savoring. A sweeping story that transcends time as it moves effortless from the tempestuous past to the frightening present. Enchanting and enthralling! No question - I was taken!

Alma Katsu's searing tale of otherworldly lovers and eternal obsession will seduce you from page one. With its elegant prose and riveting plot, The Taker is as irresistible as the hauntingly beautiful, pleasure-seeking immortals who scorch its pages. A wicked, sensuous, shattering love story that I can't recommend enough. You have to experience it for yourself!

Kresley Cole, New York Times bestselling author

Katsu's mesmerizing, original debut arcs between a Puritan community and a present-day young woman found in the Maine woods who claims that she has killed a man and that she's immortal.

I couldn’t put it down… a fantastic debut novel for Alma Katsu and I am looking forward to her sequel The Reckoning

AN IMMORTAL LOVE STORY 
 
Have you ever loved someone so much that you'd do anything for them? 
 
When Dr Luke Findley turns up to his hospital shift in the small town of St Andrews, Maine, he's expecting just another evening of minor injuries and domestic disputes. But instead, Lanore McIlvrae walks into his life - and changes it forever. For Lanny is a woman with a past... 
 
Lanny McIlvrae is unlike anyone Luke has ever met. Hers is a story of love and betrayal that defies time and transcends mortality - but this tale cannot end until Lanny's demons are finally put to rest. Her two hundred years on this earth have seen her seduced by both decadence and brutality - yet through it all she has only ever had one true love in her life. Until now. 
 
An unforgettable novel about the power of unrequited love to elevate and sustain, but also to blind and ultimately destroy, The Taker is an immortal love story on an epic scale...

Alma Katsu

The way Alma Katsu weaves the true story of the Titanic and her sister ship, Britannic, with this dark, terrifying tale of possession and haunting is phenomenal. Part history, part drama, part love story, part creepy-as-heck ghost tale, with chills icier than the watery depths, The Deep is beautifully written, thoroughly absorbing and totally terrifying.'

At once both tragic and chilling, The Deep perfectly blends psychological thriller and eerie gothic ghost story to create something truly haunting, drawing you down into its dark depths before finally letting you up for air.

Another masterly supernatural reimagining of a historical tragedy: the sinking of the Titanic and her sister ship, the Britannic. Eerie, haunting, and filled with suspense, The Deep is a whirlpool of a novel that pulls you in and doesn't let go.

DANIELLE TRUSSONI, author of the Angelology series and The Ancestor

An incredibly ambitious setting, prose as ornate as the boat, mood as ghostly as Gothic, and what must have been enough research to build a ship of her own . . . The Deep is thrilling, rich, frightening, unsettling, and, best of all, told from the heart . . . The Hunger was fantastic, but The Deep is divine . . . a brilliant author.

Elegant and eerie. Alma Katsu really is something rather special.

THE DEEP weaves together the true story of the Titanic and its sister ship Britannic, with a love story and a creepy tale of the supernatural.

An all-too-human tale of obsessive love that crosses the boundary . . . between the material realm and the spiritual.

Deftly mashes up spellbinding historical fiction, adroit commentary on class and gender, and a classic yet surprising ghost story . . . truly haunting.

PAUL TREMBLAY, author of The Cabin at the End of the World

This imaginative spin on the tale is full of surprises . . . a satisfyingly spooky blend of history and horror.

Takes us back to the final days of the Titanic, her sister ship the Britannic, and the mysterious woman who links them both. In a haunting story of love and revenge, Alma Katsu blends the paranormal and historical fiction as only she can—a spellbinding tale where desire knows no bounds and death is only a beginning. Another fantastic story from the author of The Hunger.

J D BARKER, author of The Sixth Wicked Child

Alma Katsu is a fantastic writer, with a unique ability to blur the lines of history, horror, humanity, and tragedy. Think Diana Gabaldon by way of Charlaine Harris. As with her exceptional novel, The Hunger, in The Deep Katsu takes on an infamous tragedy and adds her own haunting twists.

MICHAEL KORYTA, author of Those Who Wish Me Dead

Katsu has once again been inspired by true-life tragedy to create a sinister story that will leave you gulping into the darkness at bedtime . . . perfect spooky reading.

Like The Hunger, The Deep is historical re-imagining laced with magic and mystery. Alma Katsu adds a sweeping love story and a ghostly tale of revenge to the sinkings of RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic to tell a tale that is haunting, thrilling and utterly original.

Blending choice elements of mystery and horror into an impeccably recreated history, Alma Katsu has created a rich, haunting, irresistible novel that succeeds in rewriting the past while making it feel more ominously present than ever.

Carefully researched and meticulously crafted historical fiction fused with ho-hum horror.

In this clever blend of the historical and the supernatural, the author weaves the fate of the doomed ocean liner…into a terrifying paranormal tale.

Atmospheric writing . . . a wonderful sense of time and place.

Intensely charged with atmosphere, dread and tension.

Reveals a chilling truth in an unputdownable narrative full of unnerving moments and with a growing, inexorable sense of foreboding.

Katsu, an extensive researcher, has seamlessly woven true personal accounts and stories with her own brand of creeping, sinister horror leaving the reader to wonder what is real and what isn’t.

We all know the story of the Titanic . . . don't we?

Shortlisted for the Bram Stoker Award for the Best Novel of 2020. 
 
'Totally terrifying.' said C. J. TUDOR, bestselling author of The Chalk Man 
 
'Truly haunting' said SARAH PINBOROUGH, bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes 
 
'As ghostly as Gothic' said JOSH MALERMAN, bestselling author of Bird Box 
 
Bringing together Faustian pacts, the occult, tales of sirens and selkies, guilt and revenge, desire and destiny, The Deep offers a thrilling, tantalizing twist on one of the world's most famous tragedies. 
 
Someone - or something - is haunting the Titanic. 
 
Deaths and disappearances have plagued the vast liner from the moment she began her maiden voyage on 10 April 1912. Four days later, caught in what feels like an eerie, unsettling twilight zone, some passengers - including millionaire Madeleine Astor and maid Annie Hebbley - are convinced that something sinister is afoot. And then disaster strikes. 
 
Four years later and the world is at war. Having survived that fateful night, Annie is now a nurse on board the Titanic's sister ship, the Britannic, refitted as a hospital ship. And she is about to realise that those demons from her past and the terrors of that doomed voyage have not finished with her yet . . .

Alma Katsu

Books by Alma Katsu

Series by Alma Katsu

The Immortal Trilogy

Articles featuring Alma Katsu

11 must-read books for True Detective: Night Country fans

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