Darcy Coates is the New York Times bestselling author of Hunted, The Haunting of Ashburn House, Craven Manor, and over 20 other horror novels. Many of her books are recognized USA Today bestsellers.
Coates self-published her first horror ebook, “Once Returned.”, a novella about a woman whose husband goes missing while on a hiking trip, seven years ago. By 2015, Coates had self-published 22 novels.
Her trademark is the blend of classic horror with historical fiction, science fiction, or the supernatural, securing a broad readership outside of horror fans.
Today, Darcy lives in Australia with her family, cats, and a herb and vegetable garden.
Darcy Coates Books in order
House of Shadows
Gravekeeper
Black Winter
- Voices in the Snow (2020)
- Secrets in the Dark (2020)
- Whispers in the Mist (2020)
- Silence in the Shadows (2020)
Standalone Novel
- Ghost Camera (2014)
- The Haunting of Gillespie House (2015)
- Dead Lake (2015)
- The Haunting of Blackwood House (2015)
- The Haunting of Ashburn House (2016)
- Parasite (2016)
- The Folcroft Ghosts (2017)
- The House Next Door (2017)
- The Haunting of Rookward House (2017)
- Craven Manor (2017)
- The Carrow Haunt (2018)
- Hunted (2018)
- The Haunting of Leigh Harker (2021)
- From Below (2022)
- Gallows Hill (2022)
Short Collections
Similar authors
- Lee Mountford’s Haunted series follows Sisters Sarah and Chloe. They inherit a strange house, where evil things seem to hide.
- Catriona Ward‘s The Last House on Needless Street is about a serial killer, a stolen child, revenge, and death. And the seemingly normal house that connects them.
- Scott Thomas’s Kill Creek follows the abandoned Finch House. When the new guests arrive, they will have to fight strange forces to survive.
See also: Hamish Macbeth Books in Order.
Most recommended books
- Silence in the Shadows (Black Winter #4) (4.54 Goodreads score)
- Whispers in the Mist (Black Winter #3) (4.47 Goodreads score)
- The Ravenous Dead (Gravekeeper, #2) (4.35 Goodreads score)
- Secrets in the Dark (Black Winter, #2) (4.33 Goodreads score)
- Station 334 (Cymic Parasite Breach #4) (4.22 Goodreads score)
Awards
Two of Darcy Coates’ books, The Carrow Haunt and Craven Manor, were nominated for Goodreads Choice Awards in the Horror category.
Upcoming books
- Darcy Coates is set to publish 2 books in 2022.
- The first book, scheduled for June 7th release, is called From Below. It follows a documentary crew exploring the haunted wreck of a ship.
- The second book is called Gallows Hill. The book focuses on an old family curse and is scheduled for release on September 6th.
Book summaries
House of Shadows (2015)
Sophie’s world is shattered when disaster bankrupts her family. She’s still reeling from the news when she’s offered an unexpected solution: Mr Argenton, a wealthy stranger, asks for her hand in marriage.Marrying Mr Argenton will restore her family’s fortunes and save them from scandal, but condemns Sophie to a life in Northwood, a vast and unnaturally dark mansion situated hours from civilisation.Sophie struggles to adjust to her new position as mistress over the desolate house. Mr Argenton’s relatives are cold, and Mr Argenton himself is keeping secrets. Even worse, the house is more than it seems.The piano plays in the middle of the night. Blood drips from the ceiling. Sophie is pulled towards the terrifying truth: Northwood’s ancient halls are haunted. The malevolent spirits—produced by grisly deaths—resent her intrusion into their home.Trapped in Northwood and desperate for an escape, Sophie’s fate is further complicated as she finds herself drawn to the tall, dark-eyed man she married. She suspects her feelings are returned, but Mr Argenton is hiding something… and his secrets are so dangerous that they might just be unforgivable.
House of Secrets (2016)
Sophie and Joseph’s escape from Northwood is short-lived. The beast survived, and attached itself to Joseph’s young cousin, Elise.Garrett writes to beg for their help. Joseph and Sophie travel to meet him at Kensington, a long-abandoned mansion that overlooks a dead town.The house offers a small hope: its original owner had dedicated her life to researching the monster that possesses Elise. Garrett hopes to find a way to kill the creature without harming his daughter.But Kensington is a dangerous building. Once the carriage leaves, they’re trapped inside the collapsing walls and forced to confront the horrors within.Shrouded figures stalk them. Whispers echo through the night. Unmarked graves dot the property.And the dead are not as restful as they seem…
The Whispering Dead (2021)
Homeless, hunted, and desperate to escape a bitter storm, Keira takes refuge in an abandoned groundskeeper’s cottage. Her new home is tucked away at the edge of a cemetery, surrounded on all sides by gravestones: some recent, some hundreds of years old, all suffering from neglect.And in the darkness, she can hear the unquiet dead whispering.The cemetery is alive with faint, spectral shapes, led by a woman who died before her time…and Keira, the only person who can see her, has become her new target. Determined to help put the ghost to rest, Keira digs into the spirit’s past life with the help of unlikely new friends, and discovers a history of deception, ill-fated love, and murder.But the past is not as simple as it seems, and Keira’s time is running out. Tangled in a dangerous web, she has to find a way to free the spirit…even if it means offering her own life in return.
The Ravenous Dead (2022)
He’ll never let go…Keira, hired as Blighty Graveyard’s new groundskeeper, lives surrounded by the dead. They watch her through the fog. They wordlessly cry out. They’ve been desperately waiting for help moving on—and only Keira can hear them. But not every restless spirit wants to be saved.Sometimes the dead hate the living too much to find peace.As Keira struggles to uncover the tangled histories of some of the graveyard’s oldest denizens, danger seeps from the darkest edges of the forest. A vicious serial killer was interred among the trees decades before, his spirit twisted by his violent nature. He’s furious. Ravenous. And when Keira unwittingly answers his call, she may just seal her fate as his final intended victim.
Voices in the Snow (2020)
Clare remembers the cold. She remembers abandoned cars and children’s toys littered across the road. She remembers dark shapes in the snow and a terror she can’t explain. And then…nothing.When she wakes, aching and afraid in a stranger’s gothic home, he tells her she was in an accident. He claims he saved her. Clare wants to leave, but a vicious snowstorm has blanketed the world in white, trapping them together, and there’s nothing she can do but wait.At least the stranger seems kind…but Clare doesn’t know if she can trust him. He promised they were alone here, but she sees and hears things that convince her something else is creeping about the surrounding woods, watching. Waiting. Between the claustrophobic storm and the inescapable sense of being hunted, Clare is on edge…and increasingly certain of one thing:Her car crash wasn’t an accident. Something is waiting for her to step outside the fragile safety of the house… something monstrous, something unfeeling.Something desperately hungry.
Secrets in the Dark (2020)
Winterbourne Hall is not safe. Even as Clare and Dorran scramble to secure the ancient building against ravenous hollow ones, they face something far worse: Clare’s sister has made contact, but she’s trapped, and her oxygen is running out.Hundreds of miles separate Clare from Beth. The land between them is infested with monsters, and the roads are a maze of dead ends. Clare has to choose between making a journey she knows she might not survive, or staying safe in Winterbourne and listening as her sister slowly suffocates.At least, whatever her choice, she’ll have Dorran by her side. And yet there are eyes in the dark. There are whispers in the mist. There is danger lurking in the snow, and one false step could end it all…
Whispers in the Mist (2020)
Clare and Dorran may still be alive against all odds, but relief is only temporary. Dorran is sick, and rapidly worsening. Clare fears the only way to save him lies in the mysterious Evandale Research Station, supposedly one of the few remaining human refuges. But the station is three days’ journey away, and Clare isn’t certain their small group can endure that long.Because the danger they’re facing comes not only from the ravenous hollow ones… but from each other.This terrible new world has left scars, and only some of them are physical. As Clare fights to protect the most precious people in her life, she begins to realize a horrible truth: Not everyone can be saved. And sometimes the worst monsters wear a human smile.
Silence in the Shadows (2020)
The stark world continues to change. Each passing day twists it further, pushing the surviving humans closer to the brink of extinction. But, for the first time, there is hope.Clare and Dorran have set their sights on returning home to Winterbourne Hall. It’s a daunting journey, but vital. Humanity needs more refuges—safe areas where food can be grown without attracting the attention of the hollow ones—and the old gothic manor is their best bet.But their home is no longer a sanctuary. It’s become a trap: carefully crafted for them, lying in wait for their return. By the time they realize just how dangerous Winterbourne has become, it’s already too late.The fight for survival is far from over.
Ghost Camera (2014)
When Jenine finds an abandoned camera in a lighthouse, she takes a photo for fun. But there’s something very, very wrong with the picture: it contains ghosts.Jenine and her best friend, Bree, realise the camera is capable of capturing the dead. But with each new photo taken, the spectres become more aware and more alert, and begin following the friends. Desperate, Jenine seeks the help of a paranormal researcher. He only has bad news, though: they’ve meddled with something far beyond their control, and the ghosts won’t stop… not until Jenine and Bree are dead.
The Haunting of Gillespie House (2015)
Could you survive a week in a haunted house?Mara is the daughter of spiritualists. Her childhood was filled with séances, scam mediums, and talk of ghostly presences.When Mara left her family’s home, she vowed she would never allow superstition into her life again. She’s ready to start over with her fiancé, Neil, in a world based on rationality and facts.But her past isn’t ready to let her go just yet.Mara and Neil purchase Blackwood House, a derelict property outside of town. They’re warned about strange occurrences in the crumbling building. Doors open by themselves, voices whisper in the night, bloody handprints appear on the walls, and cold spots linger in the basement, where the house’s original owner was murdered.But Blackwood was dirt-cheap. Mara loves her new home, and she disregards the warnings.Because ghosts aren’t real……are they?
Dead Lake (2015)
Keep the door locked…Sam is excited to spend a week at her uncle’s remote lake cabin. It’s a chance for her to focus on her art without distractions: no neighbours, no phone, and a small radio as her only contact with the outside world.But there’s something deeply unnatural lingering in the lake.The radio’s news reports talk about disappearances on a nearby hiking trail. The car won’t start. And Sam starts to believe she’s being stalked when she catches glimpses of a tall, strange man standing at the end of her dock, staring intently into the swirling waters below…
The Haunting of Blackwood House (2015)
Could you survive a week in a haunted house?Mara is the daughter of spiritualists. Her childhood was filled with séances, scam mediums, and talk of ghostly presences.When Mara left her family’s home, she vowed she would never allow superstition into her life again. She’s ready to start over with her fiancé, Neil, in a world based on rationality and facts.But her past isn’t ready to let her go just yet.Mara and Neil purchase Blackwood House, a derelict property outside of town. They’re warned about strange occurrences in the crumbling building. Doors open by themselves, voices whisper in the night, bloody handprints appear on the walls, and cold spots linger in the basement, where the house’s original owner was murdered.But Blackwood was dirt-cheap. Mara loves her new home, and she disregards the warnings.Because ghosts aren’t real……are they?
The Haunting of Ashburn House (2016)
People whisper rumors about a family murdered at Ashburn House. They say its old owner, Edith, went mad in the building, and that restless ghosts walk the halls at night.When Adrienne arrives on the gothic house’s doorstep, all she has is a suitcase, twenty dollars, and her pet cat. She doesn’t know why her estranged Aunt Edith bequeathed Ashburn to her, but it’s a lifeline she can’t afford to refuse.Adrienne doesn’t believe in ghosts, but it’s hard to rationalize what she sees. Strange messages have been etched into the wallpaper. Furniture moves when she leaves the room. And a grave hidden in the forest hints at a terrible, unforgivable secret.Something twisted and evil lives in her house, and Adrienne must race to unravel the decades-old mystery… before she becomes Ashburn’s latest victim.
Parasite (2016)
They’re closer than you think…A guard discovers an unusual lifeform on her remote moon outpost. She disregards protocol to investigate it, with catastrophic consequences.The parasitic alien wears its victims’ skins and adopts their personalities. It’s a perfect disguise, and allows the creature to spread without being detected. By the time humanity realises it’s facing extinction, a third of its six hundred space stations have already gone dark.As the alien’s ruthless progress collapses communication networks, wipes out defences, and leaves hundreds of stations to fend for themselves, a handful of remarkable individuals must find a way to battle the greatest threat the universe has ever encountered.
The Folcroft Ghosts (2017)
Tara and her brother Kyle are sent to stay with their estranged grandparents. May and Peter Folcroft seem warm and loving at first, and the house, hidden in the base of the mountains, is idyllic.But strange things keep happening. Figures watch them through the fog. Objects move on their own. Tara begins to believe the unbelievable… that the house could be haunted.When a storm cuts the phone line, May shifts from doting to obsessive. Tara and Kyle try to keep up the pretext of a happy family, but a forgotten journal and a locked room provide clues to the desperate lies and secrets entwined with the Folcrofts’ legacy.Something is horribly wrong with this family.
The House Next Door (2017)
I live next to a haunted house.I began to suspect something was wrong with the gothic building when its family fled in the middle of the night, the children screaming, the mother crying. They never came back to pack up their furniture.No family stays long. Animals avoid the place. Once, I thought I saw a woman’s silhouette pacing through the upstairs room… but that seems impossible; no one was living there at the time.A new occupant, Anna, has just moved in. I paid her a visit to warn her about the building. I didn’t expect us to become friends, but we did. And now that Marwick House is waking up, she’s asked me to stay with her.I never intended to become involved with the building or its vengeful, dead inhabitant. But now I have to save Anna… before it’s too late for the both of us.
The Haunting of Rookward House (2017)
She’s always watching…When Guy finds the deeds to a house in his mother’s attic, it seems like an incredible stroke of luck. Sure, the building hasn’t been inhabited in forty years and vines strangle the age-stained walls, but Guy is convinced he can clean it up and sell it. He’d be crazy to turn down free money. Right?The house is hours from any other habitation, and Guy can’t get phone reception in the old building. He decides to camp there while he does repairs. Surely nothing too bad can happen in the space of a week.But there’s a reason no one lives in Rookward House, and the dilapidated rooms aren’t as empty as they seem…A deranged woman tormented a family in Rookward forty years before. Now her ghost clings to the building like rot. She’s bitter, obsessive, and jealous… and once Guy has moved into her house, she has no intention of ever letting him leave.
Craven Manor (2017)
Daniel is desperate for a job. When someone slides a note under his door offering him the groundskeeper’s position at an old estate, it seems too good to be true.Alarm bells start ringing when he arrives at Craven Manor. The mansion’s front door hangs open, and leaves and cobwebs coat the marble foyer. It’s clear no one has lived there in a long time.But an envelope waits for him inside the doorway. It contains money, and promises more.Daniel is desperate. Against his better judgement, he moves into the groundskeeper’s cottage behind the crypt. He’s determined to ignore the strange occurrences that plague the estate.But when a candle flickers to life in the abandoned tower window, Daniel realises Craven Manor is hiding a terrible secret… one that threatens to bury him with it.
The Carrow Haunt (2018)
“The dead are restless here…”Remy is a tour guide for Carrow House, a notoriously haunted building. When she’s asked to host seven guests for a week-long stay to research Carrow’s phenomena, she hopes to finally experience some of the sightings that made the house famous.At first, it’s everything they hoped for. Then a storm moves in, cutting off their contact with the outside world, and things quickly become twisted. Doors open on their own. Seances go disastrously wrong. Red liquid seeps from behind the wallpaper. Their spirit medium wanders through the house during the night, seemingly in a trance.Then one of the guests dies under strange circumstances, and Remy is forced to consider the possibility that the ghost of the house’s original owner, a twisted serial killer, still walks the halls.But by then it’s too late to escape.
Hunted (2018)
Her disappearance wasn’t an accident. Her rescue will be a mistake.Twenty-two-year-old Eileen goes missing while hiking in the remote Ashlough Forest. Five days later, her camera is discovered washed downriver, containing bizarre photos taken after her disappearance.Chris wants to believe his sister is still alive. When the police search is abandoned, he and four of his friends create their own search party to scour the mountain range. As they stray further from the hiking trails and the unsettling discoveries mount, they begin to believe they’re not alone in the forest… and that Eileen’s disappearance wasn’t an accident.By that point, it’s too late to escape.
The Haunting of Leigh Harker (2021)
Sometimes the dead reach back…Leigh Harker’s quiet suburban home was her sanctuary for more than a decade, until things abruptly changed. Curtains open by themselves. Radios turn off and on. And a dark figure looms in the shadows of her bedroom door at night, watching her, waiting for her to finally let down her guard enough to fall asleep.Pushed to her limits but unwilling to abandon her home, Leigh struggles to find answers. But each step forces her towards something more terrifying than she ever imagined.A poisonous shadow seeps from the locked door beneath the stairs. The handle rattles through the night and fingernails scratch at the wood. Her home harbours dangerous secrets, and now that Leigh is trapped within its walls, she fears she may never escape.Do you think you’re safe?You’re wrong.
From Below (2022)
No light. No air. No escape.Hundreds of feet beneath the ocean’s surface, a graveyard waits…Years ago, the SS Arcadia vanished without a trace during a routine voyage. Though a strange, garbled emergency message was broadcast, neither the ship nor any of its crew could be found. Sixty years later, its wreck has finally been discovered more than three hundred miles from its intended course…a silent graveyard deep beneath the ocean’s surface, eagerly waiting for the first sign of life.Cove and her dive team have been granted permission to explore the Arcadia’s rusting hull. Their purpose is straightforward: examine the wreck, film everything, and, if possible, uncover how and why the supposedly unsinkable ship vanished.But the Arcadia has not yet had its fill of death, and something dark and hungry watches from below. With limited oxygen and the ship slowly closing in around them, Cove and her team will have to fight their way free of the unspeakable horror now desperate to claim them.
Gallows Hill (2022)
It’s time to come home…The Hull family has owned the Gallows Hill Winery for generations. The sprawling old house has long been perched on top of a hill overlooking the nearby town, jealously guarding the estate’s secrets. Their wine wins awards. Their business prospers. Their family thrives: until Hugh and Maria Hull enter the dark halls of Gallows Hill one last time…and are found dead the next morning.People whisper that the curse has awakened once more.It’s been more than a decade since Margot Hull last saw her childhood home. She was young enough when she was sent away that she barely remembers its dark passageways and secret corners. But now she’s returned to bury her parents and reconnect with the winery that is her family’s legacy—and the bloody truth of exactly what lies buried beneath the crumbling estate. Alone in the sprawling, dilapidated building, Margot is forced to come face to face with the horrors of the past—and realize that she may be the next victim of a house that never rests…
Quarter to Midnight (2015)
You discover a door behind your bedroom’s wallpaper. It’s probably just a small crawlspace. There’s nothing unusual about it… except for the quiet tapping noise you hear late at night.A young child went missing while exploring a disused cemetery in 1965. More than fifty years later you face the gate to the abandoned graveyard, armed with a clue that could lead to answers about the boy’s fate.A mannequin is stored in the back of your rented basement room. Sometimes its dust cloth falls off. Sometimes you feel it watching you. And sometimes it moves while you’re asleep…
Small Horrors (2016)
Something mimics human voices as it lures you into the woods.One of the morgue’s corpses is missing.Your friend wants to meet late at night, but they’re not acting like themselves.Immerse yourself in the macabre, the gothic, and the chilling with this collection of fifty short stories.
