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Review: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
In the exotic vacation destination of Monte Carlo, we find a quiet and insecure woman on holiday. The young lady is a companion to a wealthy eccentric woman. While in Monte Carlo the young lady meets a dark, mysterious widower named Maxium de Winter. They fall in love and marry almost immediately. Maxium is a wealthy man who’s wife just passed away back in England. The circumstances surrounding her death don’t sounds sinister in nature but they are horrific. Supposedly the first Mrs de Winter was killed in a boating accident. Many years his junior, the new Mrs de Winter returns with Maxium to his country estate of Manderley on the…
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Review: The India Fan by Victoria Holt
Blackmail. Murder. Scandal. Lies. Deceit. Romance. Adventure. This book has it all! Growing up, I loved Victoria Holt but sadly I haven’t read her in a number of years…..nor have I read many of her novels. But she is the queen of a genre that calls to me–the gothic romance genre. When I saw The India Fan on Amazon, I knew it was time to it up this talented authoress again and see if she could still seduce me with her tales of suspense. Drusilla Delany is the rectors daughter and has always grown up in the shadow of Framling House and the Framling family. Fabian Framling has always been…
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Review: Dark Angel: A Gothic Fairy Tale by T.J. Bennett
Strong winds and storm surges batter the hull of a ship carrying the young widow Catherine Briton home to England. Catherine spots land and tells the captain that they should abandon ship and try to make it to the island. To her dismay the captain refuses and denies that he even saw the land. The ship eventually sinks and Catherine is left floating in the ocean waiting for death to overtake her. Instead of dying, she wakes up on the beach of the island she saw from the ship. A stranger rescues her and takes her back to his castle. When she awakes she finds that the man, Gerard, not…
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Review: Bellman and Black: A Ghost Story by Diane Setterfield
As a child, William Bellman makes one tragic mistake that will haunt him all his life. Though it doesn’t seem like a big deal, William soon finds out what a big deal it was. William is showing off for a few of his friends. He has perfected his slingshot and to impress his friends he claims he can hit a rook (of the raven family) with absolute precision. When he kills the bird with that fateful shot, he has no idea it will be the mistake that alters his life and the lives of those present that day forever and those that William cares for most. The Bellman family has…
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Review: Mrs Poe by Lynn Cullen
The greatest love affairs are between two souls that speak to each other in a language that no one else but them can understand. On a fateful night in 1845, Frances Osgood meets the most famous writer in all of New York society, the dark and mysterious Edgar Poe. From the moment they are introduced, Frances can’t help but feel a strange and unexplainable connection to Poe. A writer herself, they run in the same circles of New York society. At the time, Frances’s philandering husband has taken up with a rich divorcee and basically abandoned Frances and their children. Frances and the girls are staying at the home of…
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Review: The Arrow Chest by Robert Parry
Ghostly hauntings, forbidden love, high society, the occult….what could be more thrilling? The Arrow Chest is a haunting Gothic tale of love set in the Victorian era with a distinct Tudor element. Painter Amos Roselli has been in love with his childhood friend and muse, Daphne for years. Daphne has modeled for a number of Roselli’s paintings for years, but when the rich industrialist Lord Oliver Ramsey of Bowlend commissions Roselli for a portrait he discovers the course of Roselli’s inspiration–the strikingly beautiful Daphne. Ramsey pursues Daphne with vigor and vengeance, ultimately winner her hand. A marriage to Ramsey is ideal for Daphne. He is rich and can offer her a…
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Review: Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell
Terror has gripped the foggy streets of London in 1854. A family of five has been found brutally murdered–beaten to death with their throats slit–the youngest victim was an infant. Since nothing was taken and the crime scene neatly staged, it can only be considered a crime of the deranged. Constable Becker was first on the scene, only missing the murderer by a matter of minutes. After raising the alarm, Detective Inspector Sean Ryan arrives and he immediately sees potential in Becker as an assistant. They gather what few clues were left at the crime scene and realize they aren’t dealing with a mad man, but rather an educated man…
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Review: The Tutor’s Daughter by Julie Klassen
High on the cliff tops of Cornwall, the distant sounds of a pianoforte can be heard echoing through Ebbington Manor late at night. Emma Smallwood and her father have come to Ebbington Manor as live in tutors for Sir Giles Weston and his family. Emma and her father ran a small boarding school where the two eldest Weston boys, Henry and Phillip, attended in their youth. Emma doesn’t harbor much affection for the eldest brother, Henry. All she remembers of Henry was that he was a bully who always played pranks on her when he was at the school. As for Phillip, Emma remembers him as a kind hearted, friendly…
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Review: Stabs at Happiness by Todd Grimson (Short Story Collection)
These are the stories of societies taboo outcasts. The characters that polite society would rather ignore. Degenerative and hopeless, these characters help set the tone and paint this collection of short stories the darkest black. Many of the characters in this collection are drug users/dealers, prostitutes, killers, and transvestites…..but they all have something in common, they are all looking for a little bit of happiness and hope in their own hopeless lives. Author Todd Grimson effortlessly blends powerful storytelling with gritty prose to create a new provocative approach to contemporary literature. Grimson’s style has been described as esoteric, and I would agree….I think his style would appeal to a limited audience, however it…
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Review: Cashelmara by Susan Howatch
In the wild, untamed Irish wilderness lies a stark and cold Georgian era estate known as Cashelmara. Lord Edward de Salis is the master of Cashelmara, but as an Englishman he resides primarily in London but deep down he always considers Cashelmara home. When his wife dies, Lord de Salis travels to America hoping to ease his grief. What he doesn’t expect to find is love. Marguerite is young enough to be Edward’s daughter but there is something about her that makes Edward feel at ease and happy once again. After they marry he takes Marguerite back to Ireland and Cashelmara where tragic events begin unfolding. Cashelmara chronicles three generations of…