I have a controversial pick: the later 'Southern Reach' books ('Authority' and 'Acceptance'). While 'Annihilation' is pure weird fiction, the sequels are straight-up paranormal investigations. Characters are bureaucrats and scientists trying to understand Area X—a clearly supernatural/alien transformation of our world. The process is all about analyzing bizarre data, interviewing traumatized survivors, and confronting the impossible within a crumbling institution. The blend is Kafkaesque; the mystery is cosmic and incomprehensible, and the investigation is a slow, bureaucratic unraveling into madness. It's the most sterile, terrifying, and brilliant paranormal investigation I've ever read.
Don't sleep on 'The Ghost Bride' by Yangsze Choo. The mystery is a familial one—who killed the ghost of a wealthy man's son?—but the investigation takes place largely in the Chinese afterlife. The protagonist must navigate the bureaucratic and perilous spirit world to uncover the truth, dealing with ghostly officials, hungry ghosts, and her own dwindling connection to the living. The blend is cultural and immersive; the rules of the afterlife dictate the investigation's path. It's less about jump scares and more about a mystical, dreamlike detective journey through a richly realized paranormal realm.
A graphic novel series that nails this is 'The Nice House on the Lake'. A group of people are invited to a lakeside house by a mysterious friend, only to find the world has ended and they're in a sanctuary. The mystery is: who is their host, what is this place, and what are the rules? The investigation is paranoia-fueled, as they piece together clues about their purpose and the nature of the apocalypse outside. The paranormal/sci-fi element is the central puzzle box. The blend is tense and character-driven, with every revelation about the house's systems deepening the mystery and the horror. It's a masterclass in slow-drip investigative horror.
WHAT STARTED OUT AS A LOVE STORY, SOON BECAME A HORROR STORY!
When nineteenth century Montana rancher, Ian Murray, discovers a naked and bloodied woman on his newly acquired property and takes her home to tend to her, he had no idea what would follow. Nor did he know that his property once had a settlement called Muddy Creek, but it and its residents were destroyed by marauding outlaws and its remains never tended to by anyone afterwards. Finding the settler's bones strewn all around the burned buildings, he ordered his men to clearing things up, But, he had one little problem. Not only was the place was haunted by the angry spirits of the poor settlers, but the woman he'd rescued was possessed by a succubus who was after his soul. With Ian caught in a web of evil ghostly lure, his men seek the help of a Blackfoot medicine man, but did they call on him in time to save their boss from a fate worse than death?
Sheehan's flair for mixing thrills and chills in with a few steamy romance scenes makes this historical romance thriller a must read.
The phone had fallen and disassembled and the call, disconnected.
"Who, who, who are you?" She became a heavy stutterer in an instant.
The man who stood at the door to the kitchen walked forward and the light illuminated his features.
He was lean and tall, very tall. Dressed in a white long sleeved shirt and dark suit pants, the few exposed parts of his body were ashen, lifeless and cold, like a bleak winter day.
"Marry me." These were the two words that came from the deathly pale lips of his emotionless face...
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Moving away from her overprotective parents, Geneva thought that she could finally lead a stress-free life. This was ruined when a ghost demands intimacy with her, his soulmate, to recover his lost memories and body.
With marriage, love, and loss on the forefront, Vickie discovers some unsettling and almost lethal lies and secrets about people who she thought were friends and more while she develops her abilities to communicate with the spirit world.
With the help of her deceased aunt and her witch friend, she sets out to rid her home of the evil entities who settled there. Will she succeed?
The romance, thrills, and chills in VICKIE: Doctor by day. Ghost Whisperer by night continue to entertain you from beginning to end.
Ben has just bought his first house. It's a bit of a fixer-upper. When strange things start happening, he assumes it's the quirkiness of an old house. Because ghosts don't exist, right?
What would you do if your apartment is haunted by a ghost too handsome for any girl peace of mind?
That is the exact problem Maisie is faced with. Falling for a ghost. Moving to a new city only to have all her hopes for her future destroyed, she tried to make do with her current situation only to discover a ghost in her apartment. Things become even more weird when unexplained incidents happen at her work place almost killing her, still Zach helped her with that only to disappear when she confessed her feelings for him.
Heart broken, Maisie did her best to move on but there is only so much you can do to move on when the ghost you love returns to you as your boss.
Meet Esmerelda Sleuth. Sleuth is her name and investigating is her game. (Paranormal Investigating, that is.)
Esmerelda makes a good living as an investigator in a rather progressive firm. She lives a stable and sensible life until she meets Lance; an old money "hottie" who works for a real estate firm next to her building. After accepting an invitation for a weekend getaway party, she quickly discovers that Lance has a secret. He is wealthy. That part is true. And, yes, he's procured a job as a realtor in the building next door. His secret is that he belongs to an underground society of humans who didn't abandon their connection to magic centuries ago when religion declared it evil and he has traveled through time specifically to find her and bring her back to his time to marry him. If that isn't enough of a far fetched tale to absorb, he informs her that she was born in his time to a family belonging to that same secret society and was promised in marriage to him as an infant. When enemies who didn't want to see the union of families take place made attempts on her life, her parents sent her into the future and erased her memories of them as a precaution.
Possessing virtually no belief in magic, ghosts, psychics, time travel, etc., it takes some doing on Lance's part to convince her to believe his story and go back with him. When she does, the lies, deceit and attempts on her life start all over again. Will she escape emotionally and physically unscathed?
"The Other Side Of the Mirror" is a steamy-paranormal-romance- mystery-thriller and book one of the Esmerelda Sleuth series.
There's a webtoon called 'Shriek' that's all about a paranormal investigation team in a world where ghostly appearances are common. The protagonist joins a company that handles hauntings, and each episode is a new case. The investigations follow a clear pattern: assess the haunting, research its history, identify the type of ghost and its attachment, and resolve it. It's very procedural but with great character moments and some genuinely creepy ghost designs. The ongoing mystery about the protagonist's own past and the larger lore of the world keeps you hooked beyond the case-of-the-week format.