Gothic Historical Fiction

Winner of the 2014 Richard & Judy Search for a Bestseller competition. Abandoned on a bank of snow as a baby, Amy is taken in at nearby Hatville Court. But the masters and servants of the grand estate prove cold and unwelcoming. Amy's only friend and ally is the sparkling young heiress Aurelia Vennaway. So when Aurelia tragically dies young, Amy is devastated. But Aurelia leaves Amy one last gift. A bundle of letters with a coded key. A treasure hunt that only Amy can follow. A life-changing discovery awaits ... if only she can unlock the secret.

In the tradition of Jane Eyre and Rebecca - The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea in which a young woman follows her new husband to his remote home on the Icelandic coast in the 1680s, where she faces dark secrets surrounding the death of his first wife amidst a foreboding landscape and the superstitions of the local villagers.

Miss Eleanor Sheffield is a talented evaluator of antiquities, but with her father's passing and her uncle's decline into dementia, the family business is at risk. In the Victorian era, unmarried Eleanor cannot run Sheffield Brothers alone. The death of a longtime client, Baron Lydney, offers an unexpected complication when Eleanor is appointed the temporary trustee of the baron's legendary collection. She must choose whether to donate the priceless treasures to a museum or allow them to pass to the baron's only living son, Harry - the man who broke Eleanor's heart.

A suspenseful Gothic fiction book set in Cornwall, England during the early 19th century.In the heart of Cornwall in the year 1829, the eerie story of the Genna Manor and its haunted inhabitants unfolds. As the book opens, the reader is introduced to the dying matriarch Mrs. Minor, her loyal servants, and the enigmatic housemaid Angela Heston. The tension builds as Mrs. Minor entrusts Angela with a disturbing task which inextricably entangles her in the Manor's sinister past. The secrets of the Manor, once shrouded in mystery, are slowly revealed after the consequential departure of Angela....

13-year-old Mildred is the youngest of three siblings and decidedly the most average - until her parents decide to turn the family home into a funeral parlor in the midst of a yellow fever outbreak, and she discovers that she can communicate with the restless spirits of their deceased patrons. Not to mention, the ghost of her cat won’t leave, and her estranged aunt on an extended visit is boarding in her bedroom. Set against a Southern backdrop in the early 20th century, "Memento Mortale," is a strange and funny story of a summer in the life of a girl whose world has been turned upside ...

The Enigma of Martin Slaught by H. Wilhelm Starkweather is a mystery fiction book set in 18th century Chester County. During the tumultuous year of 1793, the city is gripped by a deadly epidemic, and one man's journey into the heart of danger uncovers secrets that could change everything. A mysterious figure found on a porch in the midst of a deadly contagion. An unexpected bond formed with a stranger who has a hidden past. A web of deceit, unexpected twists, and moral dilemmas.As the epidemic ravages the city, our protagonist encounters Martin Slaught, a young man with a fever and a ...

Lord Michael Sutherland, Viscount Ellersleigh, is infamous among the ton for his powers of seduction and his prowess as a lover. Running from his own ennui and a lover who fancies herself his future wife, Michael retreats to the country and a crumbling, haunted castle won in a game of chance...a castle occupied by an innocent and oh-so-tempting young woman, Miss Abbigail Barrows. But country life proves to be anything but quiet. At a debauched house party, Michael finds himself confronted with an unfortunate quandary: Marry Abbigail, an innocent, or hang for murder.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author's very first novel, rewritten as a Gothic. A woman who makes the wrong choice for a husband may not live to marry the man of her dreams....

A gothic mystery book set in Sounders Bay, Delmarvashire, during the late Victorian era. "Eyes of the Dead" masterfully spins a tale of mysteries, prophecies, and potent supernatural undercurrents, all deeply entwined with the ominously beautiful landscape of Sounders Bay. The Mysterious Bay and its Brooding AtmosphereStep into the world of Sounders Bay where looming sand hills, lush meadows and treacherous rocky inlets create a gothic atmopshere of chilling suspense. The protagonist battling with cryptic visions and messages from a gaunt mysterious lady named Gormala, successfully ...

The year is 1928. Kate Moore is looking for a way out of the poverty and violence of her childhood. When a chance encounter on a transatlantic ocean liner brings her face-to-face with the handsome heir to a Chicago fortune, she thinks she may have found her escape - as long as she can keep her past concealed.

London, 1765. Lady Isabella Gerard, a respectable member of Georgian society, orders her maid to take her new golden gown and destroy it, its shimmering beauty tainted by the actions of her brutal husband the night before. Three months later, Lord Gerard stands at the shoreline of the lake, looking down at a woman wearing the golden gown. As the body slowly rolls over to reveal her face, it’s clear this was not his intended victim…

Elizabeth, Lady Beauchamp, fears for her life. When she discovers her dissolute and long-estranged husband has syphilis—and he wants to beget an heir no matter the cost—she flees to a remote part of Scotland to begin a new life as the widowed governess, Mrs. Beth Eliott at Eilean Tor Castle. When Mrs. Eliott unexpectedly arrives on his doorstep, the reclusive and recently widowed Marquess of Rothsburgh is both irritated and intrigued. No longer in need of a governess—his young daughter now resides with his sister's family—he proposes the beautiful widow fill a position of a different kind.

Thirty miles off the coast of San Francisco lie the Farallon Islands, known to sailors as the Devil’s Teeth. Despite their fearsome reputation, their remote nature appeals to young Lucy Riley, who in 1859 seeks a new start as a teacher to the lighthouse keepers’ children. But Lucy brings treacherous secrets with her, including a name that isn’t hers and a past she can’t escape. On the island, she meets Will Sisson, a mysterious man who seems to recognize her name—but not her face. Wary of Will at first, Lucy slowly starts to trust him.

It's 1825, four generations after Berggrund Island's women stood accused of witchcraft under the eye of their priest, now long dead. In his place is Pastor Silas, a widower with two wild young daughters, Beata and Ulrika. The sisters are outcasts: imaginative, oppositional, increasingly obsessed with the lore and legend of the island's dark past and their absent mother, whom their father refuses to speak of. As the girls come of age, and the strictures of the community shift but never wane, their rebellions twist and sharpen

It is winter 1863, and Richard Shenstone, aged 17, has been sent down - "rusticated" - from Cambridge under a cloud of suspicion. Addicted to opium and tormented by sexual desire, he finds temporary refuge in a dilapidated old mansion on the southern English coast inhabited by his newly impoverished mother and his sister, Effie. Soon, graphic and threatening letters begin to circulate among his neighbors, and Richard finds himself the leading suspect in a series of crimes and misdemeanors ranging from vivisection to murder.

Elizabeth Canham accepts a position at Burndale Academy, an isolated girl's school where she meets mysterious widower Griffin Fairfax, a man dogged by dark rumors who both frightens and fascinates her. Soon, a woman is found dead in the nearby woods - the victim of a brutal murder...a murder that bears terrifying similarity to others. Then Beth discovers all the victims were intimately connected to Griffin. Beth’s heart tells her Griffin cannot be the charming, seductive killer stalking the night, stealing women’s hearts...and lives.

Kraken is enjoying life as a family man, content to spend his days with Alba and their young daughter, Deba. But there's no rest for the weary, especially when you're the most famous investigator in Vitoria. Kraken and Esti are charged with investigating the mysterious disappearance of two sisters and finding it hard to make any headway when a wealthy businessman's murder appears to shine a light on the case. The man was poisoned with a medieval aphrodisiac - a crime that has eerie similarities to one detailed in the novel everyone in Vitoria is buzzing about.

1887, the Cornwall coast. For years, rumors have flown through the village of Suttonsbury about Ashthorne Hall—that its occupants hoard pirate treasure, that a ghost walks its halls—but botanist Hyacinth Bell only cares about the estate’s extensive one-of-a-kind orchid collection. As an independent woman, she is eager to focus on her career, even if it means waiting to pursue a romantic relationship. After all, love—like an orchid—must be nurtured and tended before it can bloom. What she doesn’t expect is to be swept away by Lucas Harding, the manor’s caretaker, upon their first meeting.

At their newly founded school, Samuel Hood and his daughter, Caroline, promise a groundbreaking education for young women. But Caroline has grave misgivings. After all, her own unconventional education has left her unmarriageable and isolated, unsuited to the narrow roles afforded women in 19th-century New England. When a mysterious flock of red birds descends on the town, Caroline alone seems to find them unsettling. But it's not long before the assembled students begin to manifest bizarre symptoms: Rashes, seizures, headaches, verbal tics, night wanderings. One by one, they sicken.

1875. With their father missing and their mother suddenly passing, Esme and Gabriel are forced to track down their estranged grandfather in Lincolnshire. Cold and unwelcoming, he is reluctant to take them in, but aware of his standing as the village vicar, he knows must protect his reputation, and allow the children to stay with him. Esme's relief at finding refuge soon turns to despair when Gabriel is sent to boarding school, leaving her alone in their grandfather's unhappy home. But the house isn't as empty as it first appeared.