Gothic Fiction

A novel about the problems of a young governess, whose love affair with her master is terminated when the terrifying mystery surrounding the upper rooms of their home is exposed. –Catalog Summary

The time is the 1950s; the place, Barcelona. Daniel Sempere, the son of a widowed bookstore owner, is 10 when he discovers a novel, The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax. The novel is rare, the author obscure, and rumors tell of a horribly disfigured man who has been burning every copy he can find of Carax's novels. The man calls himself Laín Coubert-the name of the devil in one of Carax's novels. –From Publishers Weekly

Timid, solitary librarian Gerard Freeman lives for just two things: his elusive pen pal Alice and a story he found hidden in his mothers drawer years ago. Written by his great-grandmother Viola, it hints at his mother's role in a sinister crime. And as he discovers more of Violas chilling tales, he realizes that they might hold the key to finding Alice and unveiling his family's mystery or will they bring him the untimely death they seem to foretell? –Catalog Summary

Poor, plain, and alone, a young woman marries a rich widower, but in his great English country house she feels she can't live up to his dazzling first wife, Rebecca-and then a terrible secret is revealed. –From Booklist

Margaret Lea, a London bookseller's daughter, has written an obscure biography that suggests deep understanding of siblings. She is contacted by renowned aging author Vida Winter, who finally wishes to tell her own, long-hidden, life story. Margaret travels to Yorkshire, where she interviews the dying writer, walks the remains of her estate at Angelfield and tries to verify the old woman's tale of a governess, a ghost and more than one abandoned baby. –From Publishers Weekly