Other than candy and perhaps costumes, do people give Halloween presents?

Sounds like a fine idea to me — and I've got some wildly appropriate suggestions for whomever in your life you'd like to scare the hell out of this trick or treat season: the novels "Kill Creek" and "Violet," both by LA-based Scott Thomas. The author is relatively new to the horror fiction scene, having spent several years writing TV movies and teleplays for various networks including Netflix, Syfy, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and ABC Family.

His first novel, the Stoker-nominated "Kill Creek," centers around what might happen if, as a publicity stunt, four popular horror novelists gathered to spend Halloween night together in one of the world's most renowned haunted houses. Fun!

"Violet," just published, is a richer, more complex book of literary horror in the tradition of Peter Straub's "Ghost Story," Bram Stoker's "Dracula" or John Ajvide Lindqvist's "Let the Right One In." It's centered around a recently widowed veterinarian whose daughter is withdrawing alarmingly. They returns to now-abandoned Kansas lake house where Mom grew up. What's meant to be a retreat turns into a desairing confrontation with the past.

Meet Thomas Tuesday when he appears at Bank Square Books, and look for an in-depth conversation with him in Friday's Daybreak section.

Scott Thomas, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Bank Square Books, 53 W. Main St., Mystic; free; (860) 536-3795.