Best of
Gothic

1966

The Gilded Bat


Edward Gorey - 1966
    This woeful tale chronicles her ascent to the peak of fame, followed by her unexpected and dreadful demise. Gorey's exquisitely crafted illustrations of magical ballets, dubious barons, and stark apartments set the stage for this lonely drama of a slightly peculiar heroine.

Menfreya in the Morning


Victoria Holt - 1966
    Not until she herself came to Menfreya as a bride did Harriet discover the secret family legend of infidelity, jealousy and murder. And not until the legend seemed to come dangerously to life did Harriet begin to believe the old story that when the tower clock of Menfreya stopped, someone was about to die . . .

The Wedding Bargain


Agnes Sligh Turnbull - 1966
    To Daniel Morgan, self-made millionaire and reluctant playboy, young Liza Hanford was that rarest of all creatures - an efficient, compassionate and discreet private secretary. So discreet in fact that he never knew that for eight heart-wringing years Liza had been in love with him.It was hardly the kind of proposal to set a girl cloud-walking, but to Liza it opened the door to a new life . . . and perhaps he just might learn to love her.To all appearances it was a true Cinderella story. But underneath the pleasant surface dark shadows of Daniel's past began to emerge. Suddenly this unspoken menace exploded and threatened not only Liza's marriage but her husband's life.

Winterwood


Dorothy Eden - 1966
    There she becomes acquainted with the Meryons - Daniel, the handsome head of the family to whom she's immediately drawn, his vicious wife, their daughter who was crippled by a tragic accident, and the great-aunt - an ancient woman of enormous wealth who is near death. The deeply troubled girl takes to Lavina who is employed as her companion at Winterwood, the family's lonely, isolated estate in England. There Lavinia is troubled by the wife's evil scheming, about a nephew who hints that he knows her secret, and after the death of the aunt - struggles to protect the now-wealthy young girl from her ruthless mother.

Mansion of Golden Windows


Elsie Lee - 1966
    Her trip to Scotland to check a few dates in family history started mainly as a favor to her aunt. But she became thoroughly, intimately involved when her research began to unearth puzzles, facts that didn't seem to fit, enigmas with a vague but frighteningly sinister ring...Something was definitely wrong in Strathmuir, and Sable was on completely unfamiliar ground in trying to find the right answers. And she could confide in no one, since anyone could be an enemy. But there was romance as well as danger in the air for Sable, love as well as terror and tragedy -- and she had the strength of a truly feminine heart to carry her through to the starling climax.

The Curse of Carranca


Elsie Lee - 1966
    Persis Bradbury needed a way to recover from the shock and the grief, and the job in Lisbon seemed like an ideal place to find it. But even before her plane had landed, she found herself plunged into a strange mixture of ancient magic and modern mystery. There was a curse. It wasn't supposed to be on Casa Carranca--"The Frowning House"--itself... but it certainly existed. Growing out of a medieval feud, it now groped with its eerie tentacles to ensnare Persis. It seemed unbelievable to an up-to-date American girl--but Persis had to believe it. And, very definitely, there was Dom Sebastiao. He was the most intriguing man she had ever met... but he came and went mysteriously and seemed involved in espionage or worse. Was he the answer to Persis's prayers... or a new threat?

The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces


H.P. Lovecraft - 1966
    

The Secrets of Hidden Creek


Wylly Folk St. John - 1966
    After three days at Grandma and Grandpa's summer cabin, we knew it was going to be a long, boring summer. Then Jenny got her bright idea: Ghost-Haunting at Wormwood! I don't know about Chuck, but I felt prickles on the back of my neck. The place across the lake looked like something an author named Edgar Allan Poe wrote about in Grandma's book with horrible pictures of ruined castles with bats, and people decaying and dribbling down the sides of their coffins. But Jenny thought it would be fun to poke around and see if the ghost stories Grandma told us were really true.None of us were prepared for the strange noises and suspicious characters we were going to meet. This summer vacation turned out to be plain scary! But if it hadn't been, we would never have found the lost treasure (not one but two treasures) or have helped Sheriff Jenkins solve a real-life robbery and murder case!

The Drifting Sands


Elsie Lee - 1966
    

The Gift Shop


Charlotte Armstrong - 1966
    But when a fatally wounded private eye staggers off a plane, gasps out a message, and collapses in front of the souvenirs, pretty Jean Cunliffe finds herself at the heart of a dangerous plot beyond anything she ever imagined.At the side of a mysterious playboy millionaire who has asked for her help, Jean is pitched into an international chase as they try to stay one step ahead of the killers. She’s within a hairsbreadth of unraveling the mystery—if only she can do it without giving away the secret to her enemies!

The Humming Top


Dorothy Gladys Spicer - 1966
    But then I found out that was why I was there - to unravel an ancient web of hate and death with the visions my childhood toy brought me - and to play a strange and dangerous part in the dark drama set in that shadow-haunted old house...

Wild Night


Rae Foley - 1966
    For Sonia's past was marked with heartbreak and scandal. And now, as always, she had turned to Mary for help.... -- Mary soon found herself caught in a mystifying web of terror. Why did strangers claim to know her? Who was the man whose kiss thrilled her while his eyes terrified her? And why was someone stalking her in the night--waiting to move in for the kill? Was Sonia a born victim of evil? Or was it that she, Mary, had really been the victim all along?

The Secret of Haverly House


Carolyn Bauman - 1966
    

The Accursed: Two Diabolical Tales


Claude Seignolle - 1966
    Both stories take place during the nineteenth century, in the swampy farmland of the Sologne region, near Orléans, where its peasantry lives in the grip of medieval witchcraft and local legend. From their infancy, the heroines of Malvenue (The Unwelcome One) and Marie the Wolf have been possessed by evil spirits. Unable to escape the power of the Devil, they are given to irrational and sometimes perverse behavior--behavior that leads inexorably to tragedy.THE ACCURSED is rich in the atmosphere one associates with Poe, Mary Shelley and Isak Dinesen. Yet there is no question that Claude Seignolle is a wholly original, even unique writer. An acknowledged authority on witchcraft and French folklore, he has drawn his stories from supernatural tales handed down from one generation to the next. What he has created is virtually a new genre, writing that stands on is own as literature, as superlative entertainment, and as authentic folklore.

The Knock at Midnight


Charity Blackstock - 1966
    Her optimism seems confirmed when she runs into Rupert Cash, her Hungarian lover of years ago, on the Orient Express, and he invites her to follow two weeks in Budapest with a visit to his villa in Balaton-Vilagos.Rupert’s turns out to be a peculiarly Middle European menage: Margit. his sensual, sadistic cousin, is hiding her time in an affair with Rupert until the rise of Nazism provides the moment when she can capitalize on her lush beauty to further her ambitions; Rosa, Margit's plain sister, who is desperately in love with Rupert, watches Margit's success with corrosive jealousy; Eva Ferencz another cousin, has fled Vienna and the persecution with her half-Jewish husband and their son, Paul. Anneliese, Paul's sixteen-year-old Jewish nursemaid, seems the only woman at the villa not under Rupert's spell. She obviously despises and fears him, and Rupert makes her the scapegoat for all his sudden rages.The sinister atmosphere at the villa is confirmed by a terrifying revelation about Rupert. Terrific tensions mount swiftly to a chilling climax, as Maggie finds herself trapped, fighting for her life. Compulsively readable and solidly plotted from start to finish, THE KNOCK AT MIDNIGHT reveals a superlative suspense novelist writing at the peak of her form.

Orgy of the Dead


Ed Wood - 1966
    Cover art by Robert Bonfils.

Gentleman Rogue


Paula Allardyce - 1966
    Barbary in the 18th century. Frances Morley was a most rebellious young, to the despair of her worried mother, strait-laced sister, and many disconcerted suitors. It was only when Mr. Thomas Strickland arrived in the village of St. Barbary from fashionable London that Frances at last met a man whose shocking ways matched her own. Thomas called himself a writer, as if this might excuse his rude behavior and uncommonly direct assault on Frances's affections. In her fight to save the life of a little climbing-boy, condemned to death for robbery, Frances becomes more involved with the mysterious novelist. But when Frances's priceless bracelet disappeared, and a mysterious highwayman known as the Moonlighter began terrorizing travels, Frances came to suspect there as more to Strickland than met the eye.Who is he really, and why is he interested in her valuable bracelet? He might have been a thief and a cad, but he was a singularly handsome and witty one -- and Miss Frances Morley found his kind of danger far more diverting than dreary conventional romance as she plunged into a breathtaking game of intrique, suspense and startling surprise...Frances's suspicions grow when a Bow Street Runner appears on the scene, looking for the notorious jewel-thief, the Moonlighter.

Whisper of Fear


Christine Randell - 1966