i like a lot of authors that write horror novels....the obvious one being stephen king, but there are many other talented authors that dont get mentioned too often because they are overshadowed by the very famous Mr King...other than king, who do you class as talented horror novelists?? I would suggest... H.P. Lovecraft (very atmospheric short stories, well ahead of his time seeing as most of his work was written in the 1920's) Richard Laymon (conventional horror writer, mainly writes about murderers and stalkers, most of his books are verging on porn ) Peter Tremayne (Fairly unknown horror writer. check out 'Zombie', Troll Night' and 'The Ants'.) Robert R McCammon (similar to peter tremayne...check out 'The Night boat'. James Herbert (English horror author, tends to write about magic and haunted places in the english countryside. good books include 'Once', 'The Magic Cottage' and 'The Ghosts Of Sleath') Edgar Allan Poe (Not much to be said, pretty famous)
I enjoy Stephen King and have liked a few of Deen Koontz earlier works. Pretty creepy stuff. The most frightening novel I have ever read was The Coming Plague. (non-fiction) Not exactly light reading but for those who liked Outbreak might find this if interest.
I have this book of short stories called 'Shudders' Theres some spine creepingly great stuff in there - story about a man spending the night in the crminals section of Madame Tussards, who keeps seeing the waxworks come to life, and my favourite, which I think is called "Third Night Out" or something like that, about an evil, wizend, rotting monkey on a ship that kills people...its terrifying