Book picks similar to
Ironwood by Jennie Melville


gothic
women-running-from-houses
england
gothic-suspense

Wait For Me


Barb A. Hart - 2016
    She prefers breeches to dresses, and spends her time riding horses, fishing, and climbing trees. When Emily is fourteen, she meets Cameron, the Duke of Templeton’s grandson. Their friendship deepens over the years, until Cameron is called to fight against Napoleon. They express their devotion to each other and make love for the first time before Cameron heads off to war. When Emily’s father discovers she’s pregnant, he’s livid. He had no idea his tomboy daughter has fallen in love, and her predicament threatens to destroy their family’s honor. He sends Emily to live with Cameron's eccentric great aunt, and, to avoid shame, insists that she claims she is married. Upon return from the battlefield, Cameron hears that Emily has wed and was pregnant. She writes him to explain the situation, but the letters never arrive, and the misunderstanding sends Cameron into a spiral of rage and despair. Their paths will cross again, but will their love be enough to overcome the fates at work to keep them apart?

The French Retreat


Suzanne | Sue Fortin - 2015
    In a bid to reassess her life, she heads off to the only place she has ever felt content - her brother’s farmhouse retreat in rural France.Marcie isn’t the only one looking to escape. Ex-soldier Will hopes the gentle pace of French life will help to banish the ghosts of his past and offer him the fresh start he desires.However, all is not what it seems at The Retreat. Fuelled by a string of strange happenings and local rumours, Will and Marcie are pushed together as they try to discover who or what is behind it all. In so doing, they are faced with a moral dilemma and question if doing wrong is doing right?The French Retreat is a story of human compassion, hope and love.

Vampire Kisses 1: The Beginning


Ellen Schreiber - 2011
    Dangerous first love. This is where it all begins...The mansion on top of Benson Hill has stood empty for years. But one day it seems to be occupied, and its mysterious, handsome inhabitant Alexander Sterling becomes the source of much talk around town. Raven, a vampire-obsessed Goth-girl who has always considered herself an outsider in 'Dullsville', is determined to uncover the truth surrounding the secretive Alexander. As she gets to know him, and their spark intensifies, Raven finds herself in some unanticipated situations. Vampire Kisses: The Beginning captures the thrill of a most unusual romance.Also available by Ellen Schreiber:Vampire Kisses 2: Kissing CoffinsVampire Kisses 3: VampirevilleVampire Kisses 4: Dance with a VampireVampire Kisses 5: The Coffin ClubVampire Kisses 6: Royal BloodVampire Kisses 7: Love BitesOnce in a Full Moon

The Tilsit Inheritance


Catherine Gaskin - 1963
    When Virginia left for England, she did not know then that she had become the new Tilsit heiress. Nor did she know that this new-found life of wealth and luxury would turn instead into an awesome and terrifying burden. Lawrence had once dreamed of the inheritance. A man hungry and ambitious for success. A man who found only mockery and ruin at the Tilsit house. And there was the beautiful and sensuous Vanessa, whose life of worldly pleasure came crashing down when she, too, entered the ancestral home. Finally there was Mark. The man Virginia loved and wanted but could not have-for he was already possessed by Tilsit. THE TILSIT INHERITANCE-a story of a house and its family, both cursed by a mysterious and dark secret. A secret that would destroy everything and everyone if it were not destroyed first.

Plum Pudding & Poison: A Harriet Honeywood Christmas Novella


Kate Harper - 2017
    She wants cheerful fires, snow-filled landscapes and pleasant company, all of which seems entirely possible. But her dreams of a perfect Christmas are thrown into chaos with the arrival of Sylvia Morwell, a girl who is universally disliked by everybody who knows her. Unfortunately, that includes most of Harry's guests and suddenly, the atmosphere could could be cut with a knife! As uncomfortable as this may be, things take a turn for the worst when her unwelcome house guest is murdered, done to death with a poisoned plum pie. Once again Harry, Aubrey, Charlie and Darcy must delve deep to discover the killer that lurks in their midst. And they must move fast before Harry's Christmas is entirely ruined!

The Penance Stone


Suza Kates - 2013
    To Harper Gray, it's the perfect getaway and a place to write her next book. The best part is she'll be all alone, safe in a mountainside retreat and isolated from the rest of the world. Because evil comes in many forms, and she's already lost too much. Reid Ellis knows the village of Chuujitsu, its culture, and its customs. When he agrees to aid the reclusive author, he can't understand why she hides herself away. Her past still casts a long shadow, but he's determined to make her feel safe. When a terrified young girl, priests who stalk the night, and ancient Shinto laws become part of the story, Harper and Reid can't tell truth from legend. The two become entangled in each other, but Harper still finds danger at every turn. Is there something more to the odd symbol she keeps seeing? Or is love the only thing she needs to fear?

The Rochdale Poltergeist: A True Story


Jenny Ashford - 2015
    Until I did. And then I was thinking, ‘Oh God, do I really want to continue with this?’” - Steve Mera BSc., Director of the Scientific Establishment of Parapsychology Steve Mera had been investigating paranormal phenomena for many years, and had never seen anything that shook him to his very foundations. All that changed in 1996, when he was called in with his team to look into the bizarre occurrences taking place at a small bungalow in Rochdale, Manchester, England. Flying objects, disembodied voices, phantom smells and sounds, and strangest of all, copious falls of water seemingly coming from nowhere plagued the Gardner family for nearly a year. What Steve experienced during the investigation was enough to make him question his entire career path, and remains one of only a handful of cases that he is completely unable to rationally explain. This account, written by horror author Jenny Ashford from interviews conducted with Steve about the case, is a bone-chilling foray into the paranormal that will make even the most ardent skeptic sleep with the lights on.

Forty-Four Book Thirteen (44 13)


Jools Sinclair - 2016
     But not without a fight. Trapped between the evil that is Nathaniel Mortimer and the mysterious Samael, whose terrible secret she has finally unearthed, Abby doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance. Is there any way she can overcome impossible odds and make it out alive? Or will she eternally be trapped by the darkness, with home forever being just a dream, a mirage, a wisp of a ghost always disappearing in the wind? Read the unforgettable last chapter in the Forty-Four series and find out.

Called From Beyond: The Spirit Guide: Ghosts and Haunted Houses


Caroline Clark - 2017
    Is Mark going mad or was his girlfriend Called from Beyond? Mark’s girlfriend dies in a car accident before he can tell her how much he loves her. He never believed in ghosts, but a well-meaning friend and guilt push him into new and dangerous territory. All he wants is the chance to say he is sorry. To speak to her one more time. During a desperate, alcohol-fueled binge, he buys an Ouija board and calls Alissa. Is his drinking problem or survivor’s guilt making him doubt his sanity? Or are the footsteps in the night and inexplicable messages real—has Alissa returned? Gail and Jesse have their own guilt to bear, both tormented by a secret they have no choice but to keep. Is it their fault Alissa died? All they want is to help Mark through his grief, but his true plight soon becomes apparent. Evil is waiting and it’s worse than they can imagine. Will Mark be sucked into the darkness or will he send away his love to save his own life? Scroll up now to find out in this thrilling, fast-paced ghost story that will have you reading well into the night. Just remember to keep the lights on. This is the second book in the exciting Spirit Guide Series. Each book is a complete story and they can be read in any order. They follow Gail and Jesse as they search for ways to put spirits to rest and to save those who are tormented by them. The first book in the series is The Haunting of Seafield House It is permanently 0.99 and FREE on Kindle Unlimited or get an introduction to the series for free - Get The Black-Eyed Children at http://eepurl.com/cGdNvX

The Witches


Peter Curtis - 1960
    But dreams can change into nightmares...When one of her students accuses his friend Ethel's grandmother of abusing her, Miss Mayfield cannot let it go. But Ethel won't say anything, despite the evidence of Miss Mayfield's own eyes. But as she attempts to get to the truth of the matter, she stumbles on something far more sinister. Walwyk seems to be in the grip of a centuries-old evil, and anybody who questions events in the village does not last long.Death stalks more than one victim, and Miss Mayfield begins to realise that if she's not careful, she will be the next to die...

For Sale: Old Manor House


Merabeth James - 2011
     Growing up with paranormal entities in all shapes, sizes and species in the Victorian mansion of her eccentric Aunt Penelope Trevelyan, who probably would have been burnt as a witch in another time, Caitlin had been told countless times that she was fated to travel to Cornwall “when the time is right” and find? Her aunt had said it would be love with a happy ending, but Caitlin had her doubts. So far, she hadn’t found any man she was willing to spend more than a few hours with let alone a lifetime. But when she opens the letter from Thane Edmunds requesting her help, she feels a strange, intense pull that shoots a shiver of awareness through her entire being. Deep down, all the way to her toes, she knows the time was finally “right” and destiny had come banging on her door. Caitlin’s knack for ghost hunting had started in her college years, when she founded North East Paranormal Investigative Services, largely to protect her Goth friend and then roommate, Moira Smoot, from her own inept dabblings in the occult…something that had almost cost her more than her life. Since then, rules had been set up to help guard their safety in a setting, where anything could happen. Rules an excited Caitlin seems to forget, when she arrives in Cornwall ahead of her team and disregards NEPIS’ first rule of ghost hunting….”never go in alone”… by driving out to the site for a quick look around before night fall. Expecting a caretaker, she is disappointed to find the dilapidated manor locked up tight and no one there, at least no one living, for she senses more than one pair of ghostly eyes witness her arrival. Circling the outside, listening to the pound of the surf on the rocks below the cliffs, she finds the lock broken on the kitchen door and enters. Looking around the fast darkening, cavernous room, she notices that a cot had been set up in one corner and the swing door to the rest of the manor both padlocked and painted with a crudely drawn red cross. Knowing that can’t be good…knowing she should get her keister out of there, but fast, and head back to the safety of the village, she finds herself battling an inexplicable compulsion to spend the night…and losing. All alone in the dark, she begins to think she may have made a “horror”ble mistake, when she senses not only the usual ghosts and spirits that go ‘bump in the night’, but also the distant presence of Colin, the long dead fifth Earl of Eastwythe, now a restless incubus who plots to ensnare her in his delicious web of dark sexuality, since feeding his lust has been his sole antidote to an eternity he finds both “ducedly boring” and very lonely. But, listening to Caitlin moving about in the kitchen from his attic lair, he feels a twinge of conscience and decides to leave her “unmolested”…at least for the night. And so Caitlin, wrapping herself in the comforting memories of the past…cold…hungry…and more than a little scared, waits out the long, dark night unaware she has been given a short reprieve. One that Colin already regrets. But when Thane Edmunds arrives in the morning, and hears Caitlin knocking out the hinge pins in his kitchen door in order to satisfy yet another compulsion to see the rest of the manor before she leaves for the village, the atmosphere heats up quickly in the old manor.

Olde Tudor: A ghost story


David Ralph Williams - 2018
    In fact, he becomes the owner of two homes. One, a delightful Tudor cottage. The other, an ancient sepulchral cavern. The land on which they both stand a once sacred site in prehistory. Alistair’s practiced curiosity finds him meddling with things that should remain untouched. Cut off from the rest of the town by bad weather and sick with fever, he is tormented by something beyond the tangible world.

The Neglected Garden


Suzanne Winterly - 2019
    A property developer with secrets. Will the restoration of an old walled garden dig up more than they can handle? Ireland, 2010. Gilly Townsend’s beloved landscaping business doesn’t survive the financial crash. Just when she thinks she’ll have to move back home, a profitable project to restore an inspirational walled garden lands in her lap. But she never expected her wealthy boss from London to inspire her as well.Marc Fletcher just wants an escape for him and his four-year-old son. As he tries to forget a dark past, Gilly’s skills in the garden bring light back into his life. As he and his landscaper grow closer, a family shadow threatens everything he holds dear. Amidst increasingly angry blackmail, Marc and Gilly’s love starts to blossom. But when threats transform into criminal action, will the developer’s poisonous past bury Gilly six-feet-under?The Neglected Garden is a standalone novel seeded with intrigue. If you like gutsy heroines, enigmatic heroes, and twists you won't see coming, then you’ll love Suzanne Winterly’s captivating garden mystery. Buy The Neglected Garden to untangle a romantic mystery thriller today!

666 (31 Horrifying Tales From The Dead Book 4)


Drac Von Stoller - 2013
    It was Halloween and Samantha`s contractions were unbearable so her husband rushed his pregnant wife to the hospital to deliver their new bundle of joy. Mike told the doctor and nurse to take great care of his wife. The doctor and nurse reassured Mike they would take very good care of her and not to worry. Mike waited patiently in the waiting room as the doctor and nurse delivered their beautiful baby. After a few hours the baby finally arrived and the doctor entered the waiting room and told Mike to come in the room and see his new baby. Mike entered and his wife was all smiles and said "Honey, it`s a boy!" "I think he looks like a Johnny. What do you think?" asked his wife. "Johnny sounds fine to me," replied Mike. Mike was so excited and held his baby boy in his arms as tears rolled down his cheeks and said "Darling, I think he likes me." Mike stayed the night in his wife's room with their new baby, but as they were both sleeping, an unforeseen force came in their room that was about to change their lives forever, when they both woke in the morning. Morning came, and Samantha was discharged from the hospital, and time for their new baby to be raised in their new home. It wasn't until after little Johnny turned 6 years of age that things around the Delany Estate turned deadly. The first sign that Johnny had the mark of the beast was June 6. It was the 6th month, 6th day, and Johnny was 6. All the numbers represented 666.

The Mystery of Drury House


Elizabeth Wilde - 2015
    For Jack Saxon, a semi-retired magician from the mainland, the icy weather is an acquired taste to say the least. After Saxon inherits an enormous mansion and vast fortune from an eccentric recluse named Drury, disturbing things begin happening on the island. A young girl vanishes without a trace. A woman takes her own life under mysterious circumstances. And finally, a vicious murder is committed, shocking the peaceful residents of the normally placid island. All too soon, Saxon finds himself in the middle of a deadly game of madness and deception… Original American title: Mystery of the Red Alders