The Witch of Halloween House

An old woman lived alone in a house in the woods that the town called Halloween House. Accused of witchcraft, she was burned alive inside it by a panicked mob one Halloween night, and the curse she screamed as she died has hung over the town ever since.

Three years later, Carmen is stuck taking her little brother trick-or-treating. The town has mostly stopped talking about the fire. Then children begin to vanish, one by one, and the only trace left in each case is a gingerbread man placed on the windowsill.

The Witch of Halloween House is the first book in Jeff DeGordick's Halloween of Horrors series, a small-town horror novel that leans on folk-horror dread and a holiday setting rather than gore for its effect.