English Gothic

Death courts Astasiya Davenport at every turn. Dark fates lurk in the shadows of the night. And a prophecy looms unbidden on the horizon. With her future in shambles, she leans on Issac Wakefield for his love and support. They crave just one more moment together, one more night, until a massacre destroys everything in their path. Will their relationship perish in the embers of destruction, or will love persevere? Kingdoms will fall. New powers will emerge. And a Seraphim will rise from the ashes of despair.

I have 36 hours to live. Thirty-six hours to find a solution. Thirty-six hours to kill them all. My friends. My family. My subjects. It's a cruel fate, one my maker subjected me to over a century ago when she placed me in this hell. I learned then that freedom is a falsehood. Escape doesn't exist. I'm a ticking time bomb, slated to erupt.

Naomi Alderman's The Lessons reflects the truth that the lessons life teaches often come too late. Hidden away in an Oxford backstreet is a crumbling Georgian mansion, unknown to any but the few who possess keys to its unassuming front gate. Its owner is the mercurial, charismatic Mark Winters, whose rackety trust-fund upbringing has left him as troubled and unpredictable as he is wildly promiscuous.

Imagine the twisted evil twins of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson and you have the dangerous duo of Professor James Moriarty - wily, snake-like, fiercely intelligent, terrifyingly unpredictable - and Colonel Sebastian Basher Moran - violent, politically incorrect, debauched. Together they run London crime, owning police and criminals alike. When a certain Irene Adler turns up on their doorstep with a proposition, neither man is able to resist.

The seamstress is found in the darkened docks, floating, silenced. Those who found her are sure it must be a tragic accident, probably the result of too many drinks in a nearby public house. But journalist Nelly Brooks recognises the dead woman immediately – Nelly has her emerald shawl in her bag. Because they had met just one day before, when the seamstress had begged Nelly to investigate the death of the woman who’d given her that same shawl – a wealthy man’s wife.

In the Gothic towers of the cathedral of Notre-Dame - which has been subjected to decades of degradation and neglect - lives its bell ringer, Quasimodo. Persecuted as wicked and pilloried for his broken appearance, he’s shown kindness only by the alluring Esmeralda, an outsider herself, who fills Quasimodo’s heart with a hope and devotion beyond reason. When she falls victim to the lies of the vengeful and lustful Archdeacon Claude Frollo, only Quasimodo can save her from the gallows. In sanctuary, looming high above Paris, their fates entwine.

An unexpected connection led to a forbidden affair that ended in blood. Now Sethios will stop at nothing to find his mate, even if it means risking his life and love in the process. Caro’s mind is fractured, her body destroyed, her heart broken. She thought he would come for her, save her, free her from this nightmare. But her hope flees with every wave, her soul teetering on the brink of madness. Will Sethios arrive in time? Or will other powers intervene?

Run, run, run! They're chasing me, even into my dreams. And when I awake, I see him. Striking blue eyes with a hint of the devil inside. He's my savior and my worst nightmare combined. Because he owns me. He found me. He saved me. But I don't want to be owned. I want to be free. Even if it kills me.

From the attic of Lyntons, a dilapidated English country mansion, Frances Jellico sees them - Cara first - dark and beautiful - then Peter - striking and serious. The couple is spending the summer of 1969 in the rooms below hers while Frances is researching the architecture in the surrounding gardens. But she's distracted. Beneath a floorboard in her bathroom, she finds a peephole that gives her access to her neighbors’ private lives.

The Phantom of the Opera is Gaston Leroux's exquisite blend of Gothic horror and tragic romance that formed the basis for a world-renowned stage musical. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with notes by Mireille Ribiere and an introduction by Jann Matlock.

Orphaned as a young child, Mirin O'Malley has been brought up by her grandparents on their isolated, rambling estate Hob's Hallow. Long ago her family prospered due to a deal struck with the mer, the terrifying creatures who live in the depths of the sea: safety for their merchant ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and their fortunes have suffered as a result. When Mirin's grandfather dies, her grandmother puts in train a plan to restore their glory - but at the price of Mirin's freedom.

Whimbrel House is changing. Merritt and Hulda are raising a family. Owein has signed a marriage contract with the magically compatible Lady Cora, a heavyweight of British nobility who’s an ocean away. And the lovely shape-shifting druid Fallon makes a distractingly fetching friend for Owein. But another change is in the air, and this time it’s something wicked. The greatest wizard of the millennium, Silas Hogwood, is back—after five years dead. New body, same foul scent, and driven by madness and revenge.

Yewon dreams of a hotel. In the hotel, there are infinite keys to infinite rooms—and a quiet terror she is desperate to escape. When Yewon wakes, she sees her life: a young woman, trapped in the tiny South Korean village of her birth, watching her mother wash the bones of their ancestors in their decrepit bathtub. Every house has them, these rotting and fragmented bones, reminders of what they have all lost to a war that never seems to end.

Elizabeth, Lady Beauchamp, fears for her life. When she discovers her dissolute and long-estranged husband has syphilis—and he wants to beget an heir no matter the cost—she flees to a remote part of Scotland to begin a new life as the widowed governess, Mrs. Beth Eliott at Eilean Tor Castle. When Mrs. Eliott unexpectedly arrives on his doorstep, the reclusive and recently widowed Marquess of Rothsburgh is both irritated and intrigued. No longer in need of a governess—his young daughter now resides with his sister's family—he proposes the beautiful widow fill a position of a different kind.

1927: Mary Rourke—a Hollywood studio fixer—is called urgently to the palatial home of Norma Carlton, one of the most recognizable stars in American silent film. Norma has been working on the secret film everyone is openly talking about…a terrifying horror picture called The Devil’s Playground that is rumored to have unleashed a curse on everyone involved in the production. Mary finds Norma’s cold, dead body, and she wonders for just a moment if these dark rumors could be true.

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre starts where Pride and Prejudice ends and introduces a dark family curse so perfectly that the result is a delightfully thrilling, spine-chilling, breathtaking read. A dark, poignant and visionary continuation of Austen's beloved story, this tale is full of danger, darkness and immortal love.

Family is who you make it and I’ve discovered blood means nothing, not unless I’ve slipped my blade into flesh and drawn my scythe with it. Just when things were starting to look up and all the pieces of my f--ked up life were coming together, I’m once again thrust into a war and this time I’m taking no prisoners. This is it, the final showdown, my scythe is sharpened and my boys are by my side. We might just find ourselves dead but not before I’ve drawn my scythe on every one of our enemies’ foreheads.

On a blistering summer day in 1968, nine-year-old Tommy vanishes without a trace from Coram House, an orphanage on the shores of Lake Champlain. Some say a nun drowned him, others say he ran away. Or maybe he never existed. Fifty years later, his disappearance is still unsolved. Struggling true crime writer Alex Kelley needs a fresh start. When she’s asked to ghostwrite a book about the orphanage—and the abuses that occurred there—she packs up her belongings and moves to wintry Burlington, Vermont.

On the darkest night, amidst a terrifying storm, Dinah's parents go missing. While anxious Dinah and her brother and sister worry and huddle for warmth, their cousin Gage tells them an unlikely story - that tooth fairies, known as skibbereen, are living in warring colonies right in the neighborhood. According to Gage, they actually put those teeth to good use. And he, Gage, has met them. Dinah is skeptical, but as the story unfolds and the storm rages on, she begins to believe.

In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds...and remembers.