Gregg Dunnett’s Little Ghosts digs deep under the skin and lingers, festering. Months after finishing the book, you’ll still think of this rare thriller, not because it’s loud or over the top, but because it’s rooted in something far more powerful — the emotional wreckage of grief. What begins as a quiet exploration of a family in mourning quickly morphs into something darker, stranger, and deeply unsettling …
What Dunnett does so well is show how loss doesn’t sit quietly in the past. It seeps into everything you know and everything you are. And just when you think you’ve figured out what kind of story this is, it shifts — subtly, at first, then completely.
Characters That Feel Uncomfortably Real
Rachel and Jon Martin are barely holding things together. Their son, Gale, is navigating childhood with a shadow hanging over it. But sometimes, shadows don’t stay in the dark. Sometimes, they turn into monsters, real-life monsters. The question is, will this family survive those monsters?
Dunnett excels at crafting characters who feel like real people caught in impossible situations. Rachel’s fragility is matched by a ferocious instinct to protect. Jon is pragmatic and emotionally checked out in ways that feel maddeningly believable. And Gale… Gale is the heart of this book. He’s sensitive, observant, and just off-kilter enough that you’re never entirely sure what’s real and what isn’t. It’s through his eyes that the story takes on a darker, almost dreamlike quality.
Then there’s the investigator. He’s not your standard stock detective. There’s something about him that feels just a little off, and the way he threads into the story adds another layer of tension that builds until it’s impossible to ignore.
Reality Slips and the Tension Builds
What sets Little Ghosts apart from other thrillers is how quietly it builds its suspense. There are no cheap tricks here — just a slow, creeping dread and the constant sense that something is slightly out of place. Gale begins to sense things that shouldn’t be there. Rachel’s intuition keeps sounding alarm bells. And as the threads start to pull tighter, what emerges isn’t just a mystery, it’s a psychological freefall.
There’s a fine line between the supernatural and the imagined in this book, and Dunnett walks it masterfully. You’re never quite sure what’s real, what’s memory, and what’s being projected by trauma. It’s this ambiguity that keeps the pages turning, because the truth feels close enough to touch but just out of reach, too.
An Unsettling, Unshakable Read
Little Ghosts is the kind of novel that rewards patient, attentive readers. It’s layered, emotional, and deeply human. Yes, it’s a thriller. But it’s also a story about how people survive the unthinkable, how they fracture, and how they carry on — haunted, but moving forward. The writing is clean and precise, with enough emotional punch to make even the quiet moments hit hard.
Dunnett doesn’t waste a single sentence. Every scene serves a purpose, every interaction leaves a mark, and the payoff is well worth the slow burn. It’s not just the tension that makes this book work; it’s the emotional authenticity, the characters you want to shake and protect, and the ever-present feeling that the past isn’t done with any of them yet.
This is one of the best psychological thrillers I’ve read in a while. If you want something immersive, tense, and genuinely affecting, Little Ghosts is it.
About the Author
Gregg Dunnett is a British author writing psychological thrillers and stories about travel and adventure, usually with a connection to the coast or to the oceans. Before turning to novels he worked as a journalist for ten years on a windsurfing magazine, briefly owned a sailing school in Egypt, taught English in Thailand, Portugal, Turkey and Italy, taught sailing in Greece and Spain, and also had several rather duller jobs along the way.
His brother is the adventurer Jono Dunnett who in 2015 windsurfed alone and unsupported around the entire coastline of Great Britain, and who is currently windsurfing around the coastline of Europe.
Gregg lives in Bournemouth on the south coast of England with his partner Maria. They have two young children, Alba and Rafa, for whom the phrase “Daddy’s working” has absolutely no effect.
Gregg’s debut novel was an Amazon top 100 best seller in the UK and was downloaded over a quarter of a million times.
