The long dark nights are with us and Cheshire East's library services has come up with a list of books suitable for this time of year.

There's nothing better than curling up with a good book and cup of tea or coffee in front of the fire.

Here's their top picks:   

The Haunting Season

Long before Charles Dickens and Henry James popularized the tradition, the shadowy nights of winter have been a time for people to gather together by the flicker of candlelight and experience the intoxicating thrill of a ghost story.

Now eight bestselling, award-winning authors, all of them master storytellers of the sinister and the macabre, bring the tradition to vivid life in a spellbinding new collection of original spine-tingling tales.

Taking you from the frosty Fens to the wild Yorkshire moors, to the snow-covered grounds of a haunted estate, to a bustling London Christmas market, these mesmerizing stories will capture your imagination and serve as your indispensable companion to cold, dark nights.

A Christmas Celebration - Heidi Swain

When Paige turns up unannounced at the Wynthorpe Hall, with nothing more in mind than a fleeting visit for Christmas, she discovers the place she knew as a child has changed beyond recognition.

ne night, while driving home from delivering library books and shopping to isolated residents, she stumbles across a derelict-looking cottage and meets Albert, its elderly and rather grumpy owner.

Determined not to leave him to rot away like his cottage, Paige sets about smartening up the place and, with the help of Marcus, a high-flyer who has just left his job in the city to become a full-time artist, she brings Albert out of his shell. But everyone has a secret they are keeping and this Christmas all will be revealed.

The Railway Detective's Christmas Case - Edward Marston

December 1864. As a cold winter wind scours the Worcestershire countryside, an excursion train comes through a tunnel in the Malvern Hills to be confronted by a blockage on the line ahead.

The driver manages to slow the train down so that the impact is minimised, but the passengers are alarmed.

The first person to alight is Cyril Hubbleday, the man in charge of the excursion to the delightful spa town of Great Malvern.

He walks to the front of the locomotive and as he is talking to the driver is shot dead by a sniper.

With a number of disputes and enemies in the shadows, the hunt for a cold-blooded killer is far from straightforward.

Snow - John Banville

Following the discovery of the corpse of a highly respected parish priest at Ballyglass House - the Co. Wexford family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family - Detective Inspector St John Strafford is called in from Dublin to investigate.

Strafford faces obstruction from all angles, but carries on determinedly in his pursuit of the murderer. However, as the snow continues to fall over this ever-expanding mystery, the people of Ballyglass are equally determined to keep their secrets.

Happy reading!