Top Ten Gift Ideas for the Horror Novel Lover Under $30

No gory movies for these folks-they prefer to get their excitement from the written word. For the horror novel lovers on your holiday list, here are ten gifts under $30 that will be certain to make their holiday a fright to remember:

1. Cell, Stephen King, $24.00
Stephen King's new book Cell pays homage to zombie films, particularly to George A. Romero. One of King's gorier books, it's also the most intensely paced. Leaving out his usual elaborate character backgrounds and town exposition, he pulls you into his world by page 5 and doesn't let up until the very end.

In Cell, Armageddon comes in the form of - you guessed it - cell phones by tearing all humanity out of their victims, leaving only mindless aggression behind. Those who didn't have cell phones at the time of the attack now must fight for their own survival, and that of humanity.

2. World War Z, Max Brooks, $14.99
Brooks, the author of the doggedly straight-faced parody The Zombie Survival Guide, returns for his second equally "serious" venture. He recounts the world's desperate battle against the zombie threat in a series of remarkably convincing first-person accounts. The story follows the outbreak through the testimony of smugglers, military officials, a doctor in China and many other "survivors" of the zombie epidemic.

3. Forever Odd, Dean Koontz, $26.99
The second book in a rather odd (no pun intended) series, Odd Thomas returns after the death of his fiancée more resentful than ever about his "gift"-the ability to see ghosts, particularly the ghost of his missing friend's stepfather who was alive the day before. Evidence leads Odd to an abandoned casino and a nutty entrepreneur in the porn industry who wants Odd to make ghosts visible to her. This unlikely plot line actually works very well, making the book very hard to put down until you finish it.

4. Brother Odd, Dean Koontz, $25.00
The third book in the Odd series, Koontz offers an unusual mix of supernatural horror and humor. A monk named Thomas in the Sierra Nevada mountains has the ability to see ghosts, which he has already used to prevent tragedy in the future. He is suddenly disturbed by visions of spirits whose manifestation usually comes before a disaster. Thomas searches for a warning that will help him prevent whatever's about to happen even as a resident of his monastery disappears.

5. A Fistful of Charms, Kim Harrison, $7.99
Another installment of Harrison's Hollows series, this book features the witch Rachel Morgan after she completes her latest bounty hunt by taking down a werewolf. Upon returning home she discovers that Nick, her ex, has managed to get both himself and her partner's son captured by werewolves in Michigan for stealing an artifact that's important to them. With her partner Jenks (a pixie) she sets off to rescue them, but the situation quickly escalates as she must make a decision from which she may never return.

6. Strange Candy, Laurell K. Hamilton, $22.49
Hamilton strays from her usual violent, erotic fare to delve into a series of stories that reveals new aspects of her talent. From a woman who finds herself married into a family of hot-blooded sorcerers to an unlikely superhero named "Captain Housework", readers will also be treated to two previously unpublished short stories involving the well-known heroine Anita Blake.

7. Harbingers, F. Paul Wilson, $24.00
This book features the 10th appearance of Wilson's hero Repairman Jack, the hard-edged New Yorker and paranormal fixer-upper. This time he's approached by a man to find his missing niece. Upon finding her he's intercepted by agents who believe he's the opposing force to an unnatural threat known only as the Adversary. As the story progresses, Jack's girlfriend and child are threatened, and Jack learns the hard way that a common enemy doesn't always produce an ally.

8. Lisey's Story, Stephen King, $25.00
Minimal in blood and gore, but big on psychologically disturbing and melancholy, Lisey's husband is a palpable presence throughout the book-even though he's been dead for two years. This novel answers the question King posed in his story "The Reach" by showing that the dead do indeed love.

9. Ivy Cole and the Moon, Gina Farago, $22.95
Taken from the back cover: "Ivy Cole and the Moon is an artful mix of horror, mystery, and Southern literary fiction. Farago weaves ancient werewolf and wolf mythology throughout her plot while blending in scientific and historical facts about true wolves. Forget the stereotypical Hollywood monster. Farago reinvents the werewolf in this first of the Lykanthrop series."

10. Morrigan's Cross, Nora Roberts, $25.95
From the "Queen of Romance" herself comes this dark horror-tinged story of revenge and hope. Hoyt Mac Cionaoith failed to destroy the Demon Queen Lilith after she turned his brother into a vampire. Fully recovered from the attack, Lilith set about gathering an army of vampires so she could take over the world. Hoyt is hand-picked by the goddess Morrigan to stop Lilith, and sent far into the future to modern-day New York to assemble his team. Six in all, they set off to destroy the Demon Queen once and for all. Nora's Circle trilogy features well-written characters amidst a magnificent blend of myth and magic.