Creating a Best Gothic Romance List

[MysteryMind]

#38: Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer. See my comments under British authors. The story begins with the murder of a butler in the middle of a road. The body is discovered by a young woman who was supposed to meet him and a barrister who happened to be in the wrong spot at the right time.

[whitelady]

#39: Brownstone Gothic by Elizabeth Shenkin

[MysteryMind]

I think we need to look back and redo the list with appropriate numbers. I briefly reviewed it and it seems we got the numbering wrong.

Anyway, my next recommendation is something from Hilda Lawrence. She wrote several mysteries, Gothic suspense in the 1940s. I read one book and 2 shorter stories by her recently. I'll add one to the list:

#40: The Pavilion

[ginnystrait]

Nice to see another new member. I'll add something:

20. I believe it was Nora Lofts who wrote "Gad's Hall" and "The Haunting of Gad's Hall". There was an element of the occult that I found particularly eerie.

21. Perhaps someone can suggest something from Anne Maybury. I only read one and it was OK except for the inconsistencies within the story. I know she gets very good critical reviews generally.

22. Some consider Mary Roberts Rinehart as Gothic. I think they are more romantic suspense but "The Wall" has a feel of the Gothic.

22. "Girl on a High Wire" by Rae Foley. Several of her works could be considered Gothic, even the ones featuring amateur sleuth Hiram Potter. I really enjoy reading her works.

For #11, how about "Devil Vicar"?

I enjoy Mary Stewart as well and I'd put "My Brother Michael" or "This Rough Magic" on the list.

Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart is excellent.

[Monique Devereaux]

#41. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (2006) Gothic, not Gothic Romance, but should captivate and please just about any fan of either genre of writing.

excerpt from Amazon's book description:

Former academic Setterfield pays tribute in her debut to Brontë and du Maurier heroines: a plain girl gets wrapped up in a dark, haunted ruin of a house, which guards family secrets that are not hers and that she must discover at her peril. 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. With the aid of colorful Aurelius Love, Margaret puzzles out generations of Angelfield: destructive Uncle Charlie; his elusive sister, Isabelle; their unhappy parents; Isabelle's twin daughters, Adeline and Emmeline; and the children's caretakers. Contending with ghosts and with a (mostly) scary bunch of living people, Setterfield's sensible heroine is, like Jane Eyre, full of repressed feeling—and is unprepared for both heartache and romance. And like Jane, she's a real reader and makes a terrific narrator. That's where the comparisons end, but Setterfield, who lives in Yorkshire, offers graceful storytelling that has its own pleasures.

[maisonvivante]

Please see the first post in this thread for the newly revised list that specifies Gothic Romances ONLY.

With the new numbering, the next book suggested should be #37.

[Penfeather]

Please see the first post in this thread for the newly revised list that specifies Gothic Romances ONLY.

With the new numbering, the next book suggested should be #37.

I recommend The Evil of Time by Evelyn Berckman. Beautifully written, as good as anything by Holt or Stewart.

[cjsteiner]

I completely agree with you about Dragonwyck and Green Darkness. I enjoyed Dragonwyck much more. You would love "Black Rainbow" by Barbara Michaels.

[Monique Devereaux]

Maisonvivante, why would you include Flowers in the Attic on this list but remove The Thirteenth Tale? Your own rule states gothic ROMANCES only. I'd hardly call Flowers in the Attic a romance no matter which way you look at it. At least The Thirteenth Tale has a romantic subplot as strong as any in Jane Eyre or any other classic, it's just not the thrust of the entire book.

[MysteryMind]

Please see the first post in this thread for the newly revised list that specifies Gothic Romances ONLY.

With the new numbering, the next book suggested should be #37.

#19 needs a title.