Halloween books

"If any holiday seems perfectly paired to crime fiction, it’s Halloween," Jeff Pierce points out over at The Rap Sheet. "You don’t see bloody knives used as decorations at Christmas, or gravestones punctuating front yards at Easter."

He offers some reading suggestions and a few helpful links:

Just consider, for instance, Agatha Christie’s Halloween Party (a Hercule Poirot mystery), or Charles Williams’ All Hallow’s Eve, or David Robbins’ Spook Night. How about Lilian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who ... Talked to Ghosts, or Ed McBain’s Tricks (an 87th Precinct Mystery), or Susan Wittig Albert’s Witches Bane?

If you’re in the market for an enchanting mystery to match the mood of this centuries-old holiday, you need look no further than these three lists--from MyShelf.com, the Springfield (Massachusetts) City Library, and Suite 101.

Are you more interested in witchcraft and wizardry than in crime fiction? Take the Guardian's quiz. (My score: 4 out of 10...and only lucky guesses saved me on three of those.)

--Marshal Zeringue