The Fire and the Gold


Phyllis A. Whitney - 1956
    Melora had been ready to make a crucial decision about her life and her love - her thoughts were swirling with handsome Quent Seymour of Nob Hill.BUT FATE HAD ANOTHER PLAN. Amid the angry red flames of a crumbling city, exciting, impetuous Tony Ellis appeared - and suddenly Melora found herself plunged into a whirlpool of romantic conflict from which there was only one secret escape. That secret was locked in her heart...

The Eye Stones


Harriet Esmond - 1975
     She soon discovers that both her sister and her new husband have tragically perished in a fire which destroyed their home. Alone in the bleak Norfolk brecklands, Deborah is at first forced to accept hospitality from the handsome yet forbidding widower, Sir Randall Gaunt. Yet even when Deborah later stumbles upon the warm companionship of Lord Stannard, the charming young aristocrat wooing her with such passionate urgency, the strange events that follow cause her feelings of uneasiness to grow. And then, before long Deborah becomes inextricably involved in a nightmare of unimaginable evil…

The Black Opal


Victoria Holt - 1993
    But lovely Carmel March remained shrouded in mystery.... When tragedy struck her adopted home of Commonwood House, little Carmel had been bundled off to Australia. Returning to England as a young woman, she became haunted by questions from her past, as well as the shocking revelation that she had been rushed from a murder scene those many years ago. Yet she was convinced that the wrong man had been sentenced for the crime. Was the answer locked away in her childhood memory -- or in the dark, secretive behavior of her old childhood friend, Lucian? And what fateful role did the opals -- always present at crucial moments of her life -- play? For only when she released the dark secrets imprisoned at Commonwood would she find the freedom to love....

Thunder on the Right


Mary Stewart - 1957
    Or did she?Lies abound in this strange and frightening place, but seeking the truth could lead Jennifer to her own violent death.

The Master of Blacktower


Barbara Michaels - 1966
    Suddenly her fate—her life itself—was in the black silk-gloved hands of Gavin Hamilton, a man scarred and tortured by an unspoken past, whose mocking laughter echoes through his ancient Scottish estate. Damaris has heard the whispers that accuse Gavin Hamilton of his wife's death and his young daughter's crippling injury. But the pain and sadness barely hidden behind his blazing dark stare touch Damaris deeply—and a courageous heart is luring her to the estate's topmost tower in search of his dangerous secrets.

One Way to Venice


Jane Aiken Hodge - 1974
     Soon, she starts receiving a series of anonymous and menacing letters urging her to find her missing son in Venice. Despite the danger involved, Julia has no choice but to follow the taunting messages. With her miserable days in La Rivière still looming over her, she ventures to Italy on a train. But she can’t shake the feeling that the letters were written by someone she knows, someone playing an awful and dangerous game. Meanwhile, Julia meets a handsome stranger on the train, but does she dare fall for him? In the mystical and unfamiliar city of Venice, who can she trust? The journey to Venice brings a new friendship, an old confrontation and, above all, danger. But there is also the hope of happiness, if Julia can fight her way out of the conspiracy around her… ‘Jane Aiken Hodge captures interest from the start. A good holiday read-in Venice or anywhere'. - EVENING STANDARD Jane Aiken Hodge (December 4, 1917 – June 17, 2009) was an American-born British writer. She is also the author of ‘Runaway Bride’, ‘Escapade’ and ‘All for Love’. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.

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...

The Silence of Herondale


Joan Aiken - 1964
    Instead she found terror and murder...Isolated in the Gilmartin ancestral home in Herondale, Deborah and young Carreen were left to face a nameless, unseen danger lurking in the frozen village, where only the flick of a curtain at a window or some random footprints in the snow, showed that it was inhabited at all.Alone in a house that had known violence, Deborah turned to Carreen's cousin Jeremy, as attractive as he was cynical and mysterious. But was he really a friend, or was he the enemy? In spite of Jeremy - or because of him? - Deborah found herself fighting for her life in an affair so bizarre as to shatter the silence of Herondale forever.1973 printing, with the "Ace * First in Gothics" banner at the top of the front cover.

Treasure Hunters Box Set


Kendall Talbot - 2016
    Dangerous enemies. Action-packed romantic suspense.When Italian chef Rosalina Calucci finds a clue to an ancient treasure, she makes the mistake of bringing it to rogue treasure hunter Archer Mahoney, a dangerously sexy, frustratingly irresponsible, Australian millionaire. Something she knows all too well since he’s also her ex-fiancé, a man who would rather keep his secrets to himself.Archer Mahoney, will do anything to drown out his painful past; breaking up with the irresistible, smoky-eyed, woman of his dreams is proof of that. But his talent for finding lost treasure is almost as good as his talent for finding trouble and his feisty ex is just the beginning.Rosalina’s clue could be the key to locating an ancient treasure that’s haunted Archer for years. But some treasures are buried in blood, and a deadly nemesis will stop at nothing to keep a sinful secret contained. Can they mend the ocean between them, or will Rosalina’s quest for answers be just the beginning to Archer’s nightmare? Treasure Hunters box set contains three action-packed, steamy romantic suspense reads full of drama, danger, and passion. It features a strong heroine and the rugged-yet-mischievous millionaire who steals her heart.

Falconridge


Jennifer Wilde - 1969
    When lovely, young Lauren Moore arrives at Falconridge, a mysterious mansion with many hidden secrets, to live with relatives, she becomes caught up in the house's dark mysteries and falls in love with a man who might be the evil force behind it all.

Dark Desires


Eve Silver - 2005
    Damien Cole. Ignoring the whispered warnings and rumours that he's a man to fear, she takes her position at his eerie estate, where she quickly discovers that nothing is at it seems, least of all her handsome and brooding employer. As Darcie struggles with her fierce attraction to Damien, she must also deal with the blood, the disappearances ... and the murders.With her options dwindling and time running out, Darcie must rely on her instincts as she confronts the man she falling in love with. Is he an innocent and misunderstood man ... or a remorseless killer who prowls the East End streets?Note: All books in the Dark Gothic series can be read as stand-alone novels.

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.

Summons to the Chateau D'Arc


Kay Cornelius - 2005
    She finds herself falling for the attractive estate manager, who carries secrets of his own. As the tension grows more unbearable, Ellen will have to risk everything she holds dear to discover the secrets that lurk in the shadows of the Chateau D'Arc.

Root of All Evil


Jennifer Hayden - 2013
    Her family's car plummets into the dark, murky depths of the river on the way home from a funeral. When she recovers from the accident, she realizes she is being held at the hands of a greed driven maniac. A greed driven maniac who wants money she knows nothing about. Her will to live is shattered when she learns that her husband and daughter did not survive the accident...or didn't they? For three years, surrounded by lies and betrayal, Kate is forced to dig deep inside herself for the will to go on. And then, with the help of an unlikely ally, she finally escapes. In search of the truth, she finds her way back home. But she quickly realizes that life has gone on for the husband and daughter who were left behind that dark night, in depths of that seemingly endless river. Luke Garrison has spent three years mourning the wife who supposedly drowned the night he nearly lost his own life. He's been raising their daughter alone and dealing with deeply rooted grief ever since then. But when Kate suddenly reappears, he's not sure what to think. The once vibrant woman he married has been beaten down into a person he barely recognizes. Her story of that stormy night and the past three years is almost too unbelievable to fathom. Luke quickly realizes she didn't leave him on her own; she was taken from him. And the maniac who took her is still on her tail. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants...including murder.Updated Cover

Message from Absalom


Anne Armstrong Thompson - 1975
    Four years later, Susannah left her covert job with the CIA, still wondering where Novak had been sent, what important and dangerous assignment claimed him. Then - on an innocent vacation in Bulgaria - she watches as Novak is shot down on a street in Sofia. But Susannah already has his message, an urgent message that she alone must deliver to the President of the United States.And Susannah is back in the business again - with no one to trust, no one to help her, and one of the best agents in the Russian KGB pursuing her. As this shrewd, handsome, magnetic man comes closer to her secret, Susannah finds herself irresistibly attracted to the one man who can destroy her.