The Moonstone and The Woman in White


Wilkie Collins - 1937
    Hinging on the theft of an enormous diamond originally stolen from an Indian shrine, this riveting novel features the innovative Sergeant Cuff, the hilarious house steward Gabriel Betteridge, a lovesick housemaid, and a mysterious band of Indian jugglers.The Woman in WhiteOne of the greatest mystery thrillers ever written, Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White was a phenomenal bestseller in the 1860s, achieving even greater success than works by Dickens, Collins' friend and mentor. Full of surprise, intrigue, and suspense, this vastly entertaining novel continues to enthrall readers today.The story begins with an eerie midnight encounter between artist Walter Hartright and a ghostly woman dressed all in white who seems desperate to share a dark secret. The next day Hartright, engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie and her half sister, tells his pupils about the strange events of the previous evening. Determined to learn all they can about the mysterious woman in white, the three soon find themselves drawn into a chilling vortex of crime, poison, kidnapping, and international intrigue.Masterfully constructed, The Woman in White is dominated by two of the finest creations in all Victorian fiction: Marion Halcombe, dark, mannish, yet irresistibly fascinating, and Count Fosco, the sinister and flamboyant "Napoleon of Crime."

The Last Assignment: A Ghost Story


Benedict Ashforth - 2015
     A photographer reluctantly agrees to take images of an abandoned manor house on the Dorset cliff tops only to find the building is not completely empty. . .

Fright Night


John Skipp - 1985
    He knows he will be the vampire's next victim. But no one will believe him: not the police, not his girlfriend Amy, not even the school weirdo, Evil Ed. Charley's last chance is to enlist the help of Peter Vincent, Vampire Killer, star of a hundred horror movies and host of TV's Fright Night.Nobody thinks he's telling the truth—until Evil Ed becomes a vampire and Amy is dragged into his next-door neighbour's evil, foul-smelling house of death!

The Shrouded Walls


Susan Howatch - 1974
    It was Sir Charles Stowell, a friend of my father's who finally told us the my father's forutnes and estates, including even the town house in London where we had lived all our lives with our mother, had reverted to my father's wife in Manchester. My father had been mcuh too gay and carefree to bother to make a will to provide for his mistress and the tiwns she had borne him...' When her parents die in a road accident, Marianne, illegitimate daughter of a French emigree and an English gentleman, loses her home and all her wordly goods. She faces life as a governess until she meets Axel Branson, a man who must marry within the year in order to inherit his father's wealth. Marianne grabs at the chance of a respectable marriage. A remote house in the Kent Marshes is now her home. But distrust of her husband and fear of the house seem to roll in as steadily as the sea mist...

She: A History of Adventure


H. Rider Haggard - 1886
    The journey is triggered by a mysterious package left to Leo by his father, to be opened on his 25th birthday; the package contains an ancient shard of pottery and several documents, suggesting an ancient mystery about the Vincey family. Holly and Leo eventually arrive in eastern Africa where they encounter a primitive race of natives and a mysterious white queen, Ayesha, who reigns as the all-powerful "She" or "She-who-must-be-obeyed" and who has a mysterious connection to young Leo. The story expresses numerous racial and evolutionary conceptions of the late Victorians, especially notions of degeneration and racial decline prominent during the fin de siècle. In the figure of She, the novel notably explored themes of female authority and feminine behaviour. It has received praise and criticism alike for its representation of womanhood. (From Wikipedia)

The Lady in Yellow


Alyne de Winter - 2012
    After the deaths of her actor parents, left at age five with an alcoholic aunt, she ends up in a the Catholic orphanage of Saint Mary's to be cared for by the nuns. Now, approaching her nineteenth birthday, she is a hired as governess to two motherless children living in a stately home in the wilds of Yorkshire. Identical twins, Jacques and Jacqueline are also androgynous, magical, and clever enough to spook Veronica with their macabre fascinations.When she meets their gorgeous father, Rafe de Grimston, Veronica is both attracted and repulsed by him. A mixture of tenderness and menace, dark secrets shadow his eyes, torment, and dread of his own nature.Belden House proves to be wilder than Veronica could have dreamed. A mysterious bell tolls, wolves prowl the grounds, and under the full moon, a lady appears in an antique yellow gown whose eyes run red at the sight of Veronica.What is the nature of the curse on Belden House? What is the source of the anguish that drives Rafe de Grimston away? What of the old church, Saint Lupine's, with its wolfish shrine? Who is the lady in yellow?Veronica is faced with choices no one as young and inexperienced as her should ever have to make. Shall she do what she must to save those she has grown to love, and destroy her own soul?Or does she flee, and allow evil to devour them all?Formerly a well-received Novella, this Victorian Gothic Thriller is now revised and expanded to a full length NovelRevised and Expanded 2013

To Want a Rogue


Tammy Andresen - 2019
    Sprinting through the rain, she comes upon the only oasis in the storm, a dark castle with stone wolves at that gate. She doesn’t want to enter but she doesn’t have much choice. With her brother trapped in their carriage, she needs help. But the man she finds inside the castle… it’s not clear if he’s her angel or a devil. Lord Gavin deWolfe knows his old castle is off-putting, in fact, he prefers it that way. After the loss of his wife, he wishes to shut out the world. That is until a wet and pathetic girl lands in a puddle on his floor. He’ll help her and then send her on her way. The problem, her brother’s too injured to travel and she is no girl after all. She’s all woman and she stirs feelings in him he thought long dead. Read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

Nobody's Children


Judith Saxton - 1991
    So when fate brings them together she sees no reason why she should not have everything Megan has - even Danny.Nobody's Children is the saga of twins, separated at birth but drawn together by an intangible bond... and of their mother, the beautiful, unhappy child bride, forever searching, forever unsatisfied.

Dragonfly


John Farris - 1995
    A psychological thriller follows the dangerous romance of a beautiful, wealthy romance novelist and a physician with a dark past.

In The Deep Woods


Nicholas Condé - 1989
    Reprint. TV tie-in.

The Haunting of Hathaway House


Amy Cross - 2020
    When Craig and Becky Westcott died, their son Michael was left all alone in the house for several days until he was discovered by his uncle. But was he really alone?Today, determined to bury the past, Michael Westcott moves back to Hathaway House with his pregnant wife. They set about renovating the building, even though Jennifer has reservations about the project. Soon, however, she begins to worry that there might be a presence lingering in the house, one that still remembers Michael. One that seems linked somehow to a mysterious old crib.Michael and Jennifer soon discover that the past can't be forgotten so easily. Who built a hidden room beneath the house? What really happened to Michael's parents all those years ago? And whose faded, ghostly hand can sometimes still be seen resting on the crib's side?The Haunting of Hathaway House is a ghost story about family, about the dangers of not learning from the past, and about an evil that has survived for centuries.

The House at Ladywell


Nicola Slade - 2017
    Unknown to Freya, these women, over centuries, fought with whatever weapons came to hand – deception, endurance, even murder – to preserve their home and family.Freya falls in love with the house, but her inheritance includes an enigmatic letter telling her to ‘restore the balance’ of the Lady’s Well. Besides this, the house seems to be haunted by the scent of flowers.In the past, the Lady’s Well was a place of healing, and Freya soon feels safe and at home, but she has demons of her own to conquer before she can accept the happiness that beckons.

Dark Shadows


Marilyn Ross - 1966
    For some curious reason she feels the secret of her past may be uncovered in the bleak manor high on Widow's Hill.From the moment she arrives, Victoria becomes the target of someone in the house determined to destroy her.As the wind moans and the rain lashes around the isolated Collins House, Victoria, without friends in the manor, feels death close in on her, a choking, frightening death.

Violent Love, Vol. 2: Hearts on Fire


Frank J. Barbiere - 2018
    BARBIERE and VICTOR SANTOS.Collects issues 6-10.

Will


Christine Bernard - 2021
    However, nothing good comes without a price. Will learns that with the good, comes the bad. How much is Will prepared to pay for the answers that he seeks?