Spooky Season Reads: The Classics Raemi A. Ray Returns to Every Fall

Hi Friends, 

My name is Raemi, the author of the Martha’s Vineyard Murders, mysteries set on the wealthy playground island of Martha’s Vineyard. Fall is the perfect time of year for mysteries and thrillers and everything spooky and I’ve popped by the Tule Blog to a chat a bit about my favorite autumnal reads (and rereads).

Every year around this time I reread three books: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. It’s a YA historical fiction about a young woman from Barbados who travels to pre-Revolutionary Connecticut and how she, a British loyalist, acclimates to life in Puritan New England. It’s eerie enough to be perfect for a cold afternoon with a fire, but also light enough for younger readers. It also has the most adorable romance between Kit, our main character and Nat a sailor. In a more frightening turn of events, this book about the beginning of the Revolutionary War is a banned book for promoting witchcraft, of which, ironically, there is none.  

The next book on my list, and probably on every mystery lover’s list with good reason, is Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. There isn’t a greater villain in modern literature than Mrs. Danvers. She’s absolutely vile. The original mean girl, she lays our narrator bare with just a look. I want to write a character so hateable. I also love how Manderley, the gothic mansion at the heart of the story, is a character in the book. Rebecca wouldn’t have the same feel if it wasn’t set on the sprawling estate tarnished by tragedy. Manderley is actually the inspiration for the Hawthorn’s farm featured in my books. Like Manderley, Mander Lane (not a coincidence) is a great house, but it’s not a home. It offers no comfort to its occupants and is a stark reminder of the evil that lurks on Martha’s Vineyard. 

My final fall-reread, one I read every year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, is Jane Eyre. I’ve probably read it thirty times by now. I love this book so much. I love Thornfield Hall, another dark mysterious house, hiding dark mysterious secrets. I love how the heroine has her happy ending, but it’s on her terms. It a time when women didn’t have much autonomy, Jane was always true to herself and her beliefs. Her story still resonates even today, 178 years later. All the women in Jane Eyre have fascinating stories. I desperately want someone to write a sequel telling Bertha’s. I’d love to get the details of her upbringing in Jamaica, her descent into madness, her imprisonment, and subsequent escape. I want to know what happens to her after the fire. In my mind, she sails back to the West Indies, maybe to Jamaica, maybe elsewhere. Who knows? And who wants to write it? I volunteer to beta read.

Of course, my fall TBR isn’t complete without a few new reads. I’m looking forward to two of my colleagues’ titles: John David’s new release, The Bystander and John Dingle’s Wings of Madness, releasing this November. I know they’ll both be fantastic and I can’t wait to dive in. So many books, so little time.

I hope I’ve inspired you to check out some classics, perhaps see the references to them in my series, and pick up a new spooky season read. Tell us what’s on your TBR. I’d love to know. 

Happy reading and Happy Halloween!