Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury, £17.99)

IF you're looking for a spooky, Dickensian tale to keep you occupied this Hallowe'en, Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell could be it.

Clarke has already been dubbed a JK Rowling for adults, and the book is being hailed as the next big thing. But don't let the hype put you off. This is a fun and at times genuinely frightening book.

Clarke has imagined a vivid, Dickensian world in which magic is a respectable profession for gentlemen to rival that of going into the church.

This ancient and honourable profession is in decline, however: until one man decides to put things right. Mr Norrell is a desiccated old Yorkshire scholar who, to grab the world's attention, brings the carvings and statues in York Minster to life.

He then heads off to London, where he brings back from the dead the beautiful young wife of a top politician, Sir Walter Pole.

Firmly installed as the father of new English magic, he takes on a student - the impetuous young Jonathan Strange.

Strange heads off to Spain to join the Duke of Wellington in the Napoleonic wars - making for a fun diversion in the style of the Sharpe novels - thereby earning a reputation for himself to rival that of his teacher.

The rivalry between the two deepens when it becomes clear that Norrell, in restoring Lady Pole to life, unwittingly opened the door to a shadowy other world which leads to tragedy for Strange.

Stephen Lewis

Nocturnes by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton, £14.99)

IRISH writer John Connolly has dabbled with the supernatural in all of his five previous crime novels, so a collection of 15 creepy tales to tie in with Hallowe'en is no great surprise.

Framing the collection are the novellas The Cancer Cowboy Rides Again, a grim tale about a town being infected by a tormented stranger, and The Reflecting Eye which features the hero of four Connolly books, private detective Charlie Parker, plus the two gay hit men Louis and Angel.

Parker is called to investigate after the photograph of an unknown girl turns up in the mail box of an abandoned house once occupied by a child killer. But is the house of John Grady empty? Or is something waiting in the darkness. . .

Enjoyable, entertaining and scary. Read it late at night at your peril!

Simon Ritchie

Updated: 08:40 Wednesday, October 27, 2004