Kate hasn’t seen her mother for eighteen years, not since the mysterious and tragic disappearance of her younger sister Lacie. Susan, her mother’s caretaker, phones Kate to tell her that Grace is dead. It seems that Kate’s long self-imposed exile from Villa Magda, the gorgeous, sprawling oceanside estate in Maine where she spent every summer…
We only go a few more yards before we find the place Jake must have been talking about. It’s like the lagoon where the boats are anchored, but much smaller, a cove surrounded on three sides by sand, and we don’t even pause before diving into the water. When I break back through the surface,…
On this, the 171st anniversary of his death, Edgar Allan Poe is more popular than ever and more misunderstood. Mystery writer S. S. Van Dine describes the detective story as a contest, in which the author seeks to “outwit the reader” by presenting a puzzle that the reader is unable to solve, despite being given…
The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James is a chilling modern gothic novel, spanning multiple generations, of a family consumed by the shadows and secrets of its past. Rebecca James certainly knows her horror stories! While reading The Woman in the Mirror, I kept nodding at the deft allusions to the works of her…
When You Find Me by P. J. Vernon is a debut Southern Gothic tale about an heiress returning home for the holidays who wakes up one morning with a wicked hangover and no trace of her husband. If you enjoy Southern Gothic chillers, P. J. Vernon’s When You Find Me is the debut for you. It’s…
From Catriona McPherson, the Agatha-Award winning author of Quiet Neighbors, comes a spine-tingling standalone Gothic thriller in Go to My Grave. Donna Weaver has put everything she has into restoring The Breakers, an old bed and breakfast on a remote stretch of beach in Galloway. Now it sits waiting—freshly painted, richly furnished, filled with flowers—for the first…
Haunting and atmospheric, The End of Temperance Dare by Wendy Webb is another thrilling page-turner from the Queen of the Northern Gothic (available June 6, 2017). Crime beat journalist Eleanor “Norrie” Harper has been fired from her job after being diagnosed with PTSD and letting it affect her work—although she’s skeptical of the PTSD diagnosis. After…
*Deep breaths* Okay. Because I am a Gothic Victorian novelist well versed in Penny Dreadful’s tropes and subject matter, I’ve spent the past few months railing on panels (like DragonCon), ranting on Twitter, writing requested posts about the ending of the show, and addressing the regressive aspects of the finale and the storytelling disservice to…
The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young is a Southern Gothic mystery debut that combines literary suspense and romance with a mystical twist. I don’t usually pass up a southern gothic novel. With The Gates of Evangeline being just that—along with suspense, a deep and entrenching mystery, and a paranormal twist—I was easily sold. It…
My relationship to one of Manhattan's most strangely haunted houses is a complex one that goes back to my first year in New York City, eleven years ago. I was on a meandering, wandering research quest, noting the locations of some of New York's most renowned haunted places as background for one of my many…
