Book picks similar to
Dark Towers of Fog Island by Marilyn Ross


gothic
dan-ross-and-pseudonyms
genre_gothic
historical-mystery

Stalking Jack the Ripper


Kerri Maniscalco - 2016
    But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.The story's shocking twists and turns, augmented with real, sinister period photos, will make this dazzling, #1 New York Times bestselling debut from author Kerri Maniscalco impossible to forget.

People of Abandoned Character


Clare Whitfield - 2020
    . . Murder at leisure?London, 1888: Susannah rushes into marriage to a young and wealthy surgeon. After a passionate honeymoon, she returns home with her new husband wrapped around her little finger. But then everything changes.Thomas's behavior becomes increasingly volatile and violent. He stays out all night, returning home bloodied and full of secrets. The gentle caresses she enjoyed on her wedding night are now just a honeyed memory.When the first woman is murdered in Whitechapel, Susannah's interest is piqued. But as she follows the reports of the ongoing hunt for the killer, her mind takes her down the darkest path imaginable. Every time Thomas stays out late, another victim is found dead.Is it coincidence? Or is her husband the man they call Jack the Ripper?

I, Ripper


Stephen Hunter - 2015
    He did not just kill—he ripped with a butcher’s glee—and then, after the particularly gruesome slaying of Mary Jane Kelly, he disappeared. For 127 years, Jack has haunted the dark corners of our imagination, the paradigm of the psychotic killer. We remember him not only for his crimes, but because, despite one of the biggest dragnets in London history, he was never caught.I, Ripper is a vivid reimagining of Jack’s personal story entwined with that of an Irish journalist who covered the case, knew the principals, charted the investigation, and at last, stymied, went off in a bold new direction. These two men stalk each other through a city twisted in fear of the madman’s blade, a cat-and-mouse game that brings to life the sounds and smells of the fleshpot tenderloin of Whitechapel and all the lurid acts that fueled the Ripper headlines.Dripping with intrigue, atmosphere, and diabolical twists, this is a magnificent psychological thriller from perennial New York Times bestseller Stephen Hunter, who the San Francisco Examiner calls “one of the best storytellers of his generation.”

The Glass Woman


Caroline Lea - 2019
    AN ISOLATED, WINDSWEPT LAND HAUNTED BY WITCH TRIALS AND STEEPED IN THE ANCIENT SAGAS.Betrothed unexpectedly to Jón Eiríksson, Rósa is sent to join her new husband in the remote village of Stykkishólmur. Here, the villagers are wary of outsiders.But Rósa harbours her own suspicions. Her husband buried his first wife alone in the dead of night. He will not talk of it. Instead he gives her a small glass figurine. She does not know what it signifies.The villagers mistrust them both. Dark threats are whispered. There is an evil here - Rósa can feel it. Is it her husband, the villagers - or the land itself?Alone and far from home, Rósa sees the darkness coming. She fears she will be its next victim...

Darkly the Thunder


William W. Johnstone - 1990
    A good man, that Sand, and when he died, the forces of darkness had taken root in Willowdale, Colorado. Now the isolated little town, nestled in the Rockies, was about to give birth to an evil beyond comprehension, beyond imagining... a reign of terror so insatiable that Al Watt could do nothing to stop it.CHILD PRODIGYSomething bad was going to happen. Eleven-year-old Howie Ingram could feel it in his bones. Of course no one ever listened to Howie Ingram, the twerp. All they did was make fun of him for being so smart he was already taking high school and college courses. Howie tried not to care. Except now he really needed someone to listen to him when he told them about the townspeople turning into zombies and the strange noises coming in over the air waves. And the distant sound of thunder. He and his computer didn't stand much of a chance, alone, against a force as powerful and primitive as Satan himself...

Vanished


Cheryl Gorman - 2015
     Devlin Morgan, the reclusive owner of Morgan’s Keep, coolly turns away her inquiries, and the villagers, who respect Devlin, refuse to cooperate, as well. Worse still is her own unwanted attraction to him. Especially once she begins to suspect he’s involved with her sister’s disappearance and the mysterious “Chiming Ghost.” In order to solve the mystery of her missing sister, she’ll also have to probe Devlin’s dark past, discover the truth about the “ghost.” and decide whether to trust the passion in her heart or play it safe and return to England. Whatever happens, she’ll never be the same when she leaves the island.

Ghosts In Our Backyard - The Ramsays' real-life encounters with the supernatural


Alisha 'Priti' Kirpalani - 2021
    Through their films and series they introduced India to churails that floated across the screen, ghouls that woke up from eerie graveyards, and houses that buzzed with ghosts.But few knew that behind the production drama, elaborate sets, and haunting showtunes, there was a more sinister story. For the Ramsays, the supernatural wasn't just stuck to the screens and camera - it creeped into their lives, too.Alisha Kirpalani, the granddaughter of FU Ramsay, has grown up on stories that question reality and bring a chill to the bone. In time, she, too, followed her family's footsteps and saw through the veil that separates this world and the Other.From the woman on the highway that Shyam Ramsay met to an eerie and persistent knocking that came from every house that Tanuja Ramsay lived in to Amit Ramsay's unwelcome dead visitor at Lamington House, the original home of the Ramsays, this book has the improbable, bizarre and spine-chilling all parading through its chapters.

The Night of the Moonbow


Thomas Tryon - 1989
    In this spellbinding novel of idyllic childhoods torn apart by the blossoming terror of child pitted against child, Tryon spins a tale of the hidden horrors that lurk behind children's innocence, and an inevitable explosion of evil.

The Taxidermist's Daughter


Kate Mosse - 2014
    In a churchyard, villagers gather on the night when the ghosts of those who will die in the coming year are thought to be seen. Here, where the estuary leads out to the sea, superstitions still hold sway.Standing alone is the taxidermist's daughter. At 17, Constantia Gifford lives with her father in a decaying house: it is all that is left of Gifford's once world-famous museum of taxidermy. The stuffed animals that used to grace every parlour are out of fashion, leaving Gifford a disgraced and bitter man.The bell begins to toll and all eyes are fixed on the church. No one sees the gloved hand pick up a flint. As the last notes fade into the dark, a woman lies dead.While the village braces itself against rising waters and the highest tide of the season, Connie struggles to discover who is responsible, but finds herself under suspicion. Is Constantia who she seems - is she the victim of circumstances or are more sinister forces at work? And what is the secret that lies at the heart of Gifford House, hidden among the bell jars of her father's workshop?Told over one summer, The Taxidermist's Daughter is the haunting new novel from the bestselling author of Labyrinth, Sepulchre, Citadel and The Winter Ghosts.

The Daemoniac


Kat Ross - 2016
    With taunting messages in backwards Latin left at the crime scenes and even more inexplicable clues like the fingerprints that appear to have been burned into one victim's throat, his handiwork bears all the hallmarks of a demonic possession.But consulting detective Harrison Fearing Pell is convinced her quarry is a man of flesh and blood. Encouraged by her uncle, Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry hopes to make her reputation by solving the bizarre case before the man the press has dubbed Mr. Hyde strikes again.From the squalor of the Five Points to the high-class gambling dens of the Tenderloin and the glittering mansions of Fifth Avenue, Harry and her best friend, John Weston, follow the trail of a remorseless killer, uncovering a few embarrassing secrets of New York's richest High Society families along the way. Are the murders a case of black magic—or simple blackmail? And will the trail lead them closer to home than they ever imagined?

The Haunting of Saxton Mansion: A Haunted House Mystery- Book 0


Roger Hayden - 2017
    Few in the town of Cypress Creek even remember the house and what had occurred inside its walls decades before. In the present time, author Rob Hooper and his wife, Janet, are looking for a quiet place to live. The grandiose, isolated Victorian-style relic is everything they could want. A mysterious, widowed owner offers them a deal that can't be passed up. But they quickly discover that some things are too good to be true.

Hauntings: Is There Anybody There?


Norah Lofts - 1974
    

Winterbay Abbey


John Bladek - 2016
    Written in the tradition of classic English ghost tales, "Winterbay Abbey" is an unsettling Gothic thriller.Will Larson has one last chance to save his stagnant career as an architect: design a grand restoration for a long-abandoned abbey. Looming above the breathtaking, windswept coast of Maine, Winterbay Abbey offers a picturesque spot for a charming hotel. But the locals harbor a peculiar distaste for the ruined Gothic convent. After witnessing a drowning within sight of the abbey, Will wonders why the police seem disinterested in the case. He begins looking deeper into the incident, gradually uncovering chilling secrets behind the old nunnery's walls. Will's wife, Emily, becomes convinced the drowning is a ghostly replay of a forgotten death. But their investigation into the abbey's frightening history results in a tragic end with no escape from Winterbay's dark curse.

Thirst


Guy N. Smith - 1980
    Ron Blythe was the chemist who helped to create the spray and now, with thousands of people suffering and dying, his conscience forces him to try to work to find an antidote. Unfortunately, he gets stranded inside Birmingham, now sealed off, and full of anarchists, escape criminals and weedkiller-poisoned sufferers from the Thirst, all of which turn the city into a hell inside England.

Black Eyed Children


Sara Clancy - 2017
    For months, she could stay in a cabin in the middle of the Yukon wilderness with only a pack of sledge dogs to care for. But from the moment she arrives in the isolated dog yard, something is terribly wrong. She can feel it watching her from the woods. She can hear them whispering to her in the silence. But she is sure it is just a trick of her mind. Until the night they arrive. Three children appear on her doorstep in the middle of the night; each one with pitch black eyes. They plead with her to let them inside, but her rejection draws her into a war of wills against the demonic forces. Isolated in a terrain she doesn’t understand, and trapped by an oncoming blizzard, Ruby will have to decide how far she’s willing to go to survive. She’ll soon learn that it’s hard to keep the devil out when you’ve already opened the door.