Where to Start Reading Alison Littlewood
Alison Littlewood is renowned for her atmospheric, slow-burn horror and gothic tales that feature isolation, superstition, and the rugged landscape of Yorkshire. For readers new to her work, there are three distinct starting points depending on your taste in horror:
- For Supernatural Cult Horror: Start with her debut novel, A Cold Season. This book was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club and is a perfect entry point for readers who enjoy classic chilling atmosphere, remote winter settings, and a sense of growing dread.
- For Historical Folk Horror: Start with The Hidden People. Set in the Victorian era, it draws heavily on traditional British folklore, fairy myth, and the real-life historical case of Bridget Cleary, exploring whether a woman has been replaced by a changeling.
- For Gothic Psychological Mystery (as A. J. Elwood): Start with The Cottingley Cuckoo. Written under her pen name, this novel offers a sinister, psychological reimagining of the famous Cottingley Fairies hoax.
The Cold Duology
While the majority of Littlewood's books are standalone stories, she has written one direct sequel. Known as "The Cold" series, these books should be read in chronological order because the second book follows the same protagonist, Ben, as an adult.
- A Cold Season (2012) – Follows Cass as she moves to the remote, snowbound village of Darnshaw with her young son, Ben, only to find the locals behaving with a chilling and sinister interest toward him. Note: While some databases incorrectly list a publication year of 2002, the novel was officially published in 2012.
- A Cold Silence (2015) – Picks up years later with Ben now grown up and struggling to escape the dark shadow of his childhood, as the sinister influence of Darnshaw threatens to resurface.
Alison Littlewood's Standalone Horror Novels
If you want to read Littlewood's core horror novels, you can read them in any order since they feature entirely separate settings, characters, and subgenres of horror. Reading them in order of publication is a popular choice to see how her style evolved from contemporary scares to historical gothic fiction:
- Path of Needles (2013) – A dark crime thriller that blends police procedural elements with the grim, unsettling subtext of classic fairy tales. Detective Alice Hyland is tasked with solving murders modeled after fairy tales.
- The Unquiet House (2014) – A classic, slow-burn haunted house novel set at the eerie Mire House in Yorkshire, spanning different eras and generations.
- The Hidden People (2016) – Set in 1862, this Victorian gothic horror novel investigates the chilling folklore of changelings, superstition, and community hysteria in a small village.
- The Crow Garden (2017) – A dark Victorian gothic thriller centered on obsession, mental asylum dynamics, and the fashionable 19th-century practice of spiritualism and séances.
- Mistletoe (2019) – A modern ghost story about a grieving widow who retreats to a remote farm in Yorkshire during winter, only to uncover the farm's tragic and haunting history.
The A. J. Elwood Novels (Historical & Psychological Gothic)
Littlewood writes under the pen name A. J. Elwood for novels that skew more toward historical fiction, eerie folklore, and psychological tension rather than direct supernatural horror. These are standalone works:
- The Cottingley Cuckoo (2021) – A psychological mystery about a care home worker who uncovers a series of letters relating to the famous Cottingley Fairies, blending historical folklore with modern obsession. This novel was expanded from Littlewood's 2017 epistolary novella titled Cottingley.
- The Other Lives of Miss Emily White (2023) – A historical gothic mystery set at a Victorian boarding school in Yorkshire, where a new teacher's arrival triggers a series of strange occurrences and dark rumors.
The Ava Morwood Thrillers (Modern Suspense)
In 2026, Littlewood introduced another pen name, Ava Morwood, to write contemporary psychological thrillers with a supernatural edge.
- Until We Drown (2026) – A suspense thriller about a family moving to the Peak District to escape a dark past associated with the sea, only to find their new landlocked home plagued by ancient, malevolent mermaid folklore.
Shared World: The Zombie Apocalypse! Series
Littlewood contributed to the multi-author, shared-world horror franchise Zombie Apocalypse!, created and edited by Stephen Jones. In this universe, she wrote a standalone spin-off novel:
- Zombie Apocalypse! Acapulcalypse Now (2015) – Set in a luxury Mexican resort built to look like a Mayan pyramid, this action-packed horror novel follows security head Stacy Keenan as she tries to protect guests from a sudden zombie outbreak brought in by a cruise ship. While it is book 5 in the franchise, it can be read as a standalone due to its self-contained setting and characters.
Short Stories and Collections
For readers who appreciate shorter fiction, Littlewood has won accolades for her short stories—including the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award for Short Fiction for "The Dogs Home." Her collections include:
- Five Feathered Tales (2016) – A collaborative collection pairing five stories by Littlewood with artwork by Daniele Serra.
- Quieter Paths (2016) – A compilation of her short horror stories exploring quieter, psychological, and folk-inspired paths of dread.
- Visions of Grace (2025) – A gothic horror novella published by PS Publishing.