Gothic Historical Fiction

Boston, 1870. Photographer Edward Moody runs a booming business capturing the images of the spirits of the departed in his portraits. He lures grieving widows and mourning mothers into his studio with promises of catching the ghosts of their deceased loved ones with his camera. Despite the whispers around town that Moody is a fraud of the basest kind, no one has been able to expose him, and word of his gift has spread, earning him money, fame, and a growing list of illustrious clients.

The Man Behind the Glass is based around a character called Septimus Blackwood, a Victorian photographer with a difference. The tale is set in London’s East End in the year 1860. A mysterious Gothic adventure of a man’s quest to capture life and cheat death through photography. Septimus races against time to discover his family’s long lost legacy buried deep among the forgotten rivers and cellars of old London. Unbeknownst to him a mysterious old woman looks on....

I am William Lee: brute, liar and graveside thief. But you will know me by another name. Heathcliff has left Wuthering Heights and is travelling across the moors to Liverpool in search of his past. Along the way, he saves Emily, the foul-mouthed daughter of a highwayman, from a whipping, and the pair journey on together. Roaming from graveyard to graveyard, making a living from Emily's apparent ability to commune with the dead, the pair lie, cheat and scheme their way across the north of England.

Welcome to 1830s Bermondsey, London's most notorious slum, a land of gang wars, freak shows, and home to every depravity known to man. Dr. Thomas Grant, a disgraced physician, adopts Wynfield, a ten-year-old thief savagely battered by a gang leader for insubordination. The boy grows up to be a slender, idealistic opium addict who worships Victor Hugo. Wynfield senses that he has a purpose outside of his rat-infested kingdom, but he never guesses that he had been selected at birth to topple the British aristocracy.

Laura and Monique were cousins and, in childhood, had been as close as twins. So when Monique's husband, the Comte de Montigny, came to Laura and asked her to impersonate Monique in order to protect Monique's child, she agreed. His story of Monique's disappearance and suicide, however, did not sound like the actions of the cousin Laura had known, and the rest of Monique's family reacted with odd hostility to "Monique's" reappearance...She feared that Monique had been murdered - and that she would be next.

Those in line to the Malenfer estate are succumbing to terrible ends - is a supernatural legacy at work, or something entirely more human? Young Irish mercenary Dermot Ward retreats to Paris at the close of World War I where he drinks to forget his experiences, especially the death of his comrade, Arthur Malenfer. But Arthur has not forgotten Dermot.

Mandy's brother Ned is in trouble. He has been accused of murdering the woman who had been clearly trying to seduce him. Their guardian, the Duke of Margate, is summoned to help. Mandy had always assumed he was an old man. But, the duke was far from old. He was, in fact, virile, dashing, and oh so good looking. The duke enjoyed being a confirmed bachelor…and then he met Mandy. But, first things first - they had to prove Ned innocent.

The year is 1928. Kate Moore is looking for a way out of the poverty and violence of her childhood. When a chance encounter on a transatlantic ocean liner brings her face-to-face with the handsome heir to a Chicago fortune, she thinks she may have found her escape - as long as she can keep her past concealed.

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' behaviour 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.

New Hampshire, 1865. Marion Abbott is summoned to Brawders House asylum to collect the body of her sister, Alice. She’d been found dead after falling four stories from a steep-pitched roof. Officially: an accident. Confidentially: suicide. But Marion believes a third option: murder. Returning to her family home to stay with her brother and his second wife, the recently widowed Marion is expected to quiet her feelings of guilt and grief. Just when the search for the truth seems hopeless, a stranger approaches Marion with chilling words: I saw her fall.

Paris, 1810. Haunted by the French Revolution, Marie Tussaud has locked herself away in her shop with the death masks she was forced to make to avoid the guillotine. Philidor, a famous magician, offers her the chance to accompany him to London to assist in creating a wax automaton that will bring them both money and success. Following a disastrous performance on their opening night in which the wax on their prized spectacle melts, the eccentric duke, William Cavendish, invites them to his rambling estate, Welbeck.

Anglo-Saxon England, AD 997. Brother Galen is anxious about leaving the haven of his abbey. Suddenly reconciled with his father after being disowned, he fears he will never again fit in with his estranged family. But when he’s commissioned to produce a manuscript for the king, the shy scribe has the chance to visit his relatives after three years of banishment.

Rome, 1965: Aspiring actress Silvia Whitford arrives at Rome's famed Cinecittà Studios from Los Angeles, ready for her big break and a taste of la dolce vita. Instead, she learns that the movie in which she was cast has been canceled. Desperate for money, Silvia has only one choice: seek out the Italian aunt she has never met. Gabriella Conti lives in a crumbling castello on the edge of a volcanic lake. Silvia's mother refuses to explain the rift that drove the sisters apart, but Silvia is fascinated by Gabriella.

When Lady Claire Deering's mother enters an insane asylum, society is quick to scorn her, dubbing her the Mad Daughter. But Claire's tattered reputation is the least of her worries, as those rumors hold a horrible, terrifying truth: The Deering women are victims of a dark witch's curse. If Claire marries her true love, she'll spend the rest of her life under the thrall of madness. To save herself, she remains isolated...until a will reading at a mysterious castle on All Hallows Eve places her in close confines with her dearest friend and secret love.

"[Lemon] is a poet with knives for teeth." —Roshani Chokshi "Reads like a grimoire for overcoming." —Hannah Whitten "A gorgeously gothic fairy tale." —Ava Reid Inspired by the tale of Bluebeard, A Dark and Wild Wood is the lush and atmospheric story of a maiden with dark magic who becomes...

A queer, gothic horror romance set in a necromancy-tinged London, sure to entrance fans of The Death of Jane Lawrence and Mexican Gothic. London, December 1849­ Irene Shallcross Haley has dedicated her life to necromancy, a forbidden, reviled art that is passed along through sentient grimoires...

Thirty miles off the coast of San Francisco lie the Farallon Islands, known to sailors as the Devil’s Teeth. Despite their fearsome reputation, their remote nature appeals to young Lucy Riley, who in 1859 seeks a new start as a teacher to the lighthouse keepers’ children. But Lucy brings treacherous secrets with her, including a name that isn’t hers and a past she can’t escape. On the island, she meets Will Sisson, a mysterious man who seems to recognize her name—but not her face. Wary of Will at first, Lucy slowly starts to trust him.

Sometimes protecting those we love means working with those we hate. Seven years ago Sorcha saved the life of Lachlan, Crown Prince of the Seelie Court, and became the object of affection for the kelpie, Murdoch, who sought to best him and destroy the court from within. Five years ago she saved them both from the wrath of the Unseelie king by giving up half her life. Now it’s time to pay up. The last thing Sorcha wanted was an immortal life, but now she may not have a choice in the matter.

Although Ophelia Garrett loved Cade Scott first, it was her sister he married and took home to his plantation. When Ophelia receives word of her sister's murder and Cade's arrest, she travels there on a mission to learn the truth. She soon finds the halls of Almenara are haunted by secrets, peril, and quite possibly her sister's ghost. Despite the cold, angry man Cade has become, Ophelia's heart refuses to believe he is a murderer. Vowing to do everything she can to prove his innocence, Ophelia must open wounds she'd hoped were long healed.

He was the shameful cause of his sister Elena's death, and he stole state papers from England, yet Adrian Hart is feted by the best of society in Rome and boldly dubs himself "Iago". Determined to avenge Elena, his unrequited love, Lieutenant Andrew Sullivan asks the advice of poet and Shakespearean John Keats and his artist friend, Severn. Soon, Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley join them, then Lord Byron and his servant, Fletcher. But how can the seven of them work against this man when they can't even agree what he is?