This HaBO request comes from CrankyBeach, who is hoping to track down two historical romances of the gothic variety:
Looking for two books, actually. Both historicals, of the gothic sort, more than likely set in England, both published at or before the mid 1970s (the time of my major gothic kick), and most likely library books, as I had a very limited book budget at the time. Also, the libraries I frequented didn’t have a lot of paperbacks in those days, so these books were likely hardcovers.
Both books probably had the usual cover art. You know, the large foreboding house or castle, nightgown-clad terrified female fleeing therefrom, and of course the light in the high window or tower. Back in those days, I often chose books based on such covers.
Both books naturally involved that ubiquitous large house, and both houses had … structural challenges, shall we say. Beyond that, I remember only the following.
First book. Concerns were expressed along the way about the very “fabric” of the house, such that at the end, all the inhabitants (not just an inappropriately-dressed-for-flight young woman) fled the building, then turned around to watch as it collapsed. I have a vague recollection that the “fabric” issues were brought to light during repairs, perhaps of the roof.
Second book. This house’s structural issue concerned a blocked-off, partly-ruined stairway. The villain (at least, I think it must have been the villain) tries to use that stairway to escape from his nefarious deeds, and receives his just reward, either falling to his death or being hopelessly injured when the stairway predictably collapses under him.
I have no clue who the authors might have been, nor the titles.
Do either of these houses sound familiar? Help a Bitch out!
So this book is probably too new to be the one you read, but Rose Red culminates in a stairwell death scene if I recall correctly.
The second one sound like it might be an Amanda Quick but one does not come to mind. The first one sounds like Eager Allen Poe’s The fall of the House of Usher. That is probably too literary for what you are looking for 🙂
No, definitely NOT Usher, though I do remember thinking of that as the house fell down. (Derivative, anybody?) And it doesn’t appear that Amanda Quick got started until a good bit later than the early to mid 1970s. Thanks anyway. Anybody else have any ideas?
My first thought was Victoria Holt, because she’s really the only gothic author I read in the 80’s, and I think the books I was reading had been on the library shelves for many years.
This site has a long list of gothic romances from the 60’s and 70’s – maybe one of them is the book you’re looking for? Unfortunately, it’s just authors and titles, but maybe one of them will seem familiar.
http://www.mysteryfile.com/Gothics.html
By the time I read the structurally-challenged house books, I would have already plowed my way through the entire Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart and Phyllis A. Whitney catalogs, and thus was looking for more….
I second Victoria Holt and add in the Phillipa Carr books of hers as well for contenders. I read both authors as a teen at the library and they were ALL about the terrified heroine fleeing a forboding mansion/castle/fortress.
I have not a single clue about book #1, but as for book #2, Jennifer Blake was publishing Gothics under the name Patricia Mathews and this like one of hers. They are now being republshed as Jennifer Blake.
Bride of a Stranger: Justin Leroux was the tall, dark stranger of Claire’s girlhood dreams, even if their sudden and silent wedding wasn’t. Now he’s whisked her away to Sans Songe, the Leroux family plantation in Louisiana — where dangerous accidents and nasty surprises lurk at every turn.
Voodoo magic, poisoned food, and a murder mystery force Claire further into isolation. Helpless within the bosom of her frigid new family, with a new husband who has yet to come to her bed — and who may well be hoping for her demise — Claire is relentlessly drawn into an ever more tangled web of passion and intrigue.
In a harsh world where love means danger, Claire must struggle to simply survive.
The Bewitching Grace:Anne Tarrington, an up-and-coming journalist, is drawn into a world of danger and voodoo magic when she investigates the murder of a young girl. Hot on the trail of the killer, she follows a path of Voodoo mysticism and witchery to a mysterious Louisiana plantation where someone is channeling the forces of evil. But who?
Could it be Nico, the obtuse Greek poet? Maybe Lena, with her expertise in the ways of Voodoo? Even Miranda, Anne’s old friend who has had her soul mangled by a horrendous past? Perhaps it’s Steven with his dark evil eyes that seem to will Anne into forbidden acts?
To find the truth, Anne will have to confront the heart of evil itself — and face the love that kills.
Dark Masquerade: For the sake of her infant nephew, Elizabeth has assumed the identity of her dead sister, Ellen Marie. She arrives at the grand Louisiana plantation of Ellen Marie’s late husband, wearing traditional black widow’s weeds and carrying the baby — determined that the boy will reach maturity and inherit his rightful fortune…
The family at Oak Shade doesn’t suspect they’re harboring an imposter; still, they treat her with only frosty politeness. More disturbing are the unusual accidents that seem to be following in her wake, as if planned for her.
And now, the dark Creole, Bernard Delacroix, seems to be seeing through her assumed persona, right into her soul — where passion and desire war with her “widow’s” dark masquerade.
Stranger at Plantation Inn: Lillian Newton isn’t the only stranger at Plantation Inn. The heavy rains that had flooded the river and forced her to seek refuge at the old stage-stop had driven others to the sanctuary as well.
At first, Lillian pays scant attention to the rest of the group. Soon, however, rumors of an escaped killer — an outlaw whose vicious deeds have terrorized the countryside — spread a chill blanket of unease over the charming old house.
Then inexplicable things begin to happen: the stalking shadow glimpsed through the trees, the cat whose throat has been cut, the mysterious crying of an infant… Lillian is suddenly suspicious of everyone. Especially the handsome young Frenchman, Jean Marsh, whose arrogant manner arouses a curious inner fury she can’t define.
The killer is one of them. Of that she’s certain. But which one? And how long before he strikes again?
Night of the Candles: Shortly after the end of the Civil War, lovely Amanda Trent arrives at her cousin’s Louisiana plantation to find Amelia dead by mysterious circumstances. Amelia’s widower, Jason Monteigne, harbors a darkness in his heart. But Jason isn’t the only one on the war-torn grounds with secrets.
When inexplicable things start to happen, Amanda fears the home is haunted and that she’s being guided from beyond into a dead woman’s life, a dead woman’s romance — and, quite possibly, a dead woman’s grave…
Ensnared in a web of mystery, passion and hidden desire, Amanda vows to unravel the truth about her cousin’s death, and to discover what it is that haunts Jason’s every waking moment.
The Secret of Mirror House: After Amelia Harveston loses her mother to tragic circumstances, she fears she will be forced into poverty and the position of a desperate woman. When distant relatives invite her to live with them at Mirror House, the plantation home built by her grandfather, she readily accepts. Her expectations of a warm family embrace where she’ll be loved and protected, though, are soon shattered.
Mirror House is a home haunted by the past, by dark secrets and by the cruel games its inhabitants play. Alone and with no one to confide in, Amelia struggles to unearth the house’s secrets. Then the accidents begin, and Amelia knows she’s become the target for the hate that infests it.
Out of the despair, two seeming allies appear. Two offers of marriage promise sanctuary. Both men claim to love her. One of them is lying. Amelia must choose the one man whose embrace promises the love and safety her very life depends on. But the house, it seems, has other ideas…
The Court of the Thorn Tree: Lovely Margaret Steward is a proud and spirited young lady–too proud to accept the unwilling hospitality of her only living relative. But in strait-laced New Orleans early in the 19th century, there were few means for a respectable young woman to make her own way in the world–which is why Margaret comes as governess to the forbidding Villars mansion.
Given into her charge is a child seemingly possessed by satanic evil. Invading her dreams is the darkly handsome, fierce-tempered man who employs her. And closing in on her are hate and fear and mystery, as the dark abyss of a sinister past opens to receive her.
I have no idea about the HaBO but am enjoying immensely adding to the TBR pile. I’ve always liked a good gothic romance, there’s something intensely satisfying about them. I hope you find your books, CrankyBeach!
The second book, with the staircase, might be “Moncrieff” by Isabelle Holland. A ramshackle brownstone in Brooklyn (I think) that is inherited by the heroine, who has a very precocious young son. I read this hardback from the library over 30 years ago, and bought it for a penny as a beat up paperback many years ago. I still have it. Maybe I should give it a second read … Good luck!
@YotaArmai, are you able to be more specific? I can’t find any b ook called Rose Red ion Amazon.
Moura by Virginia Coffman? Spirited young Anne Wicklow left her post as housekeeper at a fashionable girls school to look after the safety of one of her charges who was suddenly taken to gloomy Chateau Moura by her strange guardian.
But once at Moura, the shadowy secrets, haunting legends and hostile inhabitants of that terror-filled mansion quickly enveloped Anne herself in a menacing situation that threatened her own life and sanity. At the center of this hidden danger stood the virile, surly master of Moura, Edmond, whose brooding good looks and irresistible fascination lured Anne ever deeper into a love that could prove to be her fatal undoing.
The second one sounds like a Jill Tattersall book, but I can’t remember which one. She wrote splendid gothics with crumbly houses.
Correcting myself… Jennifer Blake did not publish as Patricia Mathews. She published as Patricia Maxwell. My mistake.
Now that you mention it, I do remember having read books by both Coffman and Tattersall. I’ll definitely check those out. I don’t remember ever reading any gothics set in the American south, so that author, based on the books listed, probably isn’t it.
@Gloriamarie Amalfitano, I am so in for anything about “Nico the obtuse Greek poet”!
@Diane, if I recall correctly, Nico, the obtuse Greek poet is goregous, too.
@Gloriamarie Amalfitano, I think YotaArmai means Rose Red by Stephen King.
These sound like something from Barbara Michaels (this and Elizabeth Peters were pseudonyms of Barbara Mertz – she used Michaels for gothics and supernatural thrillers, and Peters for historical mysteries). Her novels started coming out in the mid-60s. I’ll have to peruse my shelves and see if I find any specific title.
Definitely not Peters. I’ve read all of hers multiple times. Could possibly be an early Michaels. Will have to peruse those.
I second the recommendations to look for Victoria Holt and Barbara Michaels. Also perhaps Dorothy Eden or Evelyn Berckman for possibilities as to these two books.
Susan – re: http://www.mysteryfile.com/Gothics.html – I agree, that is an amazing resource! I use it to track down authors and titles of gothic mystery/suspese, etc. to see if they are out on Kindle for reading.
Could one of them be ‘Fairer Than She’ by Theresa Charles? I read it in the early 80s.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6086199-fairer-than-she
Theresa Charles wrote a number of gothics in the 70s.
Only negative help, I’m afraid, but pretty sure neither are Barbara Michaels.
Neither house sounds familiar to me, but them I paid more attention to the peoples than the houses. I will add the sublime–Madeline Brent–and the (comparatively) ridiculous–Velda Johnston–to your list of authors however.
On the other hand, isn’t there a tower with a wonky staircase in Elizabeth Peters’s Borrower of the night?
Suddenly wondering if it could be a novel written by Daphne du Maurier? She wrote some creepy stuff.
Have you tried Library Thing as a search resource? It has an amazing amount of info and search capacity! You can easily search by tags, years, genre and subjects, I found a book easily that I had been trying to locate for years, with only a vague memory of the content. Give it a try!
@Vivian, I just tried Library Thing for another HABO and received zero search results and I am positive I’ve read the book. Is there some special way I would have to enter the info?