Gothic Historical Fiction

Catherine Tilney had settled in for a quiet, respectable, distinctly non-Gothic English life in the countryside with her husband, the Reverend Henry Tilney. Unfortunately, a quiet, respectable, distinctly non-Gothic life had not settled itself for her. An original sequel to Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Nachtstürm Castle whisks the reader and its heroine away to the border countries in the Austrian Alps, where adventure, mistaken identities, lost heirs, and terrifying butlers lurk.

Captain Stuart Monroe returns home from the Revolutionary War to find Thornton Hall threatened by a peacetime foe: debt. He knows the location of a treasure amassed to pay for the capture of Benedict Arnold that would restore his manor to its former glory. The catch: It's hidden in the graveyard and coveted by old enemies. Hettie Fairfax inherited the Sight from her Cherokee ancestors, and her otherworldly visitors warn her, and Stuart, away from the buried treasure. Half-dead from fever, she delivers a message: The treasure is cursed.

Although Ophelia Garrett loved Cade Scott first, it was her sister he married and took home to his plantation. When Ophelia receives word of her sister's murder and Cade's arrest, she travels there on a mission to learn the truth. She soon finds the halls of Almenara are haunted by secrets, peril, and quite possibly her sister's ghost. Despite the cold, angry man Cade has become, Ophelia's heart refuses to believe he is a murderer. Vowing to do everything she can to prove his innocence, Ophelia must open wounds she'd hoped were long healed.

A Victorian tale of horror. How far would an artist go to create a masterpiece? Even murder?

In Georgian London Irish-born Peter Woulfe is a young downtrodden apprentice chemist with a secret interest in alchemy. When he is tasked with caring for a mysterious illustrated book - the Mutus Liber - he loses it to a light-fingered young prostitute called Sukie. Soon, a group of dangerous men are in pursuit of Peter, urgently seeking the book's return, and too late he realises its extraordinary value.

London, 1833. Doctress Hester Reeves has been offered a life-changing commission. But it comes at a price. She must leave behind her husband and their canal-side home in Kings Cross and move to Tall Trees – a dark and foreboding house in Fitzrovia. If Hester can cure the ailing health of its owner, Gervaise Cherville, she will receive payment that will bring her everything she could dream of. But on arriving at Tall Trees, Hester quickly discovers that an even bigger task awaits her.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Tomorrow by Damian Dibben, read by George Blagden. Tomorrow tells the story of a 217-year-old dog and his search for his lost master. His adventures take him through the London Frost Fair, the strange court of King Charles I, the wars of the Spanish succession, Versailles, the Golden Age of Amsterdam, 19th-century Venice and the Battle of Waterloo.

Gwythn wants nothing more than to marry Prince Alwen and become a princess in the court of King Blethen, the redeemer who rescued their lands from the tyrannical rule of the dragon shifters. But when she seems close to getting exactly what she wishes, new truths are revealed about the dragon shifters who were vanquished, truths about King Blethen and his sons, and truths that will make her question her loyalties...and her love.

1793: Having escaped the Reign of Terror, Emilie Maigny took refuge in England, trying to come to grips with the life and loss she left behind. When her brother, Sinjon, returns, a terrifying evil swoops down upon her. Nightmares plague her now, providing strange clues...but to what?

"This book kept me captivated from page one to the end. Hauntingly beautiful." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Two men – separated by time but bonded by blood – fight for a brighter future in this tense, dark, gothic horror. 1895, Maine. Young immigrant Connor Kelly languishes in Fairhaven Falls Lunatic Asylum, a godforsaken place which echoes with the screams of those trapped inside. He longs to rid himself of the violent and terrifying visions which plague him. When his only friend falls victim to the sadistic, prejudiced staff, Connor resolves to bring the asylum’s crimes to light. If he fails, he...

1560: Amy Robsart is trapped in a loveless marriage to Robert Dudley, a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Surrounded by enemies and with nowhere left to turn, Amy hatches a desperate scheme to escape – one with devastating consequences that will echo through the centuries. Present Day: When Lizzie Kingdom is forced to withdraw from the public eye in a blaze of scandal, it seems her life is over. But she’s about to encounter a young man, Johnny Robsart, whose fate will interlace with hers in the most unexpected of ways.

1939. When Arthur Pendleton arrives at Wakefield Castle with cases of precious fossils from the Natural History Museum, all he wants is to protect them from London bombs in peace and quiet. Soon, though, he is drawn to the family there – from the eldest, Imogen, to the youngest, Archie. But who is the beautiful woman he has seen weeping in the castle grounds? With war declared, Wakefield Castle prepares to make sacrifices and open their doors to newcomers. But while the castle offers a refuge for many, including evacuees, it is also a place to hide many things: sorrow, secrets and even people.

"La mujer del secreto" comienza cuando Mary, con sólo dieciséis años, conoce al romántico poeta Percy Shelley. Entre ambos surge una relación apasionada catalizada por el amor de ambos por la literatura. Un día, acepta una invitación del amigo de Percy :el también poeta Lord Byron, y el escritor y médico Polidori. Quedan atrapados en la Villa Diodati en una granm tormentas de verano. Al ver que no pueden salir de allí dentro, Byron propone un reto: escribir un relato de terror, mientras que esperan que amaine el temporal.

Erzsébet Báthory, whose infamous place in history characterises her as the 'Blood Countess', is rumoured to have murdered 600 peasant girls. The Nightingale's Castle tells the gripping story of an intelligent and capable woman fighting to hold onto her wealth and independence, in a world where the poor and the wealthy alike face savage challenges.

Paris, 1866. When Baroness Sylvie Devereux receives a house-call from Charlotte Mothe, the sister she disowned, she fears her shady past as a spirit medium has caught up with her. But with their father ill and Charlotte unable to pay his bills, Sylvie is persuaded into one last con. Their marks are the de Jacquinots: dysfunctional aristocrats who believe they are haunted by their great aunt, brutally murdered during the French Revolution. Sylvie and Charlotte will need to deploy every trick to terrify the family out of their gold – until they experience inexplicable horrors themselves.

When Sidonie's guardian dies, she flees Paris rather than submit to a forced marriage, seeking sanctuary in the home of her estranged aunt in Dole. Apolline left behind a violent and troubled past, hoping for a new life with her husband, where she can sell her herbs and assist women from the privacy of her forest home. But it is dangerous to be different, and as Sidonie and Apolline's lives become intertwined, they are soon both being hunted.

It was a ghastly horror of a house party. Miss Penelope Childe and all the others were awaiting the end of the wicked earl's rotten life. The disinherited son, the new heir, the illegitimate son - all of them are there. Murder is done. The centuries-old curse has struck again. Penelope alone heard the supernatural scream and sees the ghosts that no one else can. Penelope is a reluctant bride-to-be, contracted to wed a man she's never met before. She intensely dislikes her betrothed, the rakish Lord Taredell.

June 1914 and a young woman - Clara Waterfield - is summoned to a large stone house in Gloucestershire. Her task: to fill a greenhouse with exotic plants from Kew Gardens, to create a private paradise for the owner of Shadowbrook. Yet on arrival, Clara hears rumours: something is wrong with this quiet, wisteria-covered house. Its gardens are filled with foxgloves, hydrangea and roses; it has lily ponds, a croquet lawn - and the marvellous new glasshouse awaits her. But the house itself feels unloved. Its rooms are shuttered or empty.

Shipwrecks are part of life in the remote village of Porthmorvoren, Cornwall. And as the sea washes the bodies of the drowned onto the beach, it also brings treasures: barrels of liquor, exotic fruit, the chance to lift a fine pair of boots from a corpse, maybe even a jewel or two. When, after a fierce storm, Mary Blight rescues a man half dead from the sea, she ignores the whispers of her neighbours and carries him home to nurse better. Gideon Stone is a Methodist minister from Newlyn, a married man.

A cat-and-mouse thriller set in Victorian London, The Burial Plot is the third novel from Sunday Times bestseller Elizabeth Macneal, about murder, manipulation, and a young woman wrestling power from the hands of a dangerous man.