Favorite Gothic Books. Spooky atmosphere but no vampires or other occult flavored books please.

[``Laurie]

Remember those wonderful spooky, old fashioned gothic books from the past before vampires and zombies and such? These books are too good to be forgotten so let's remember them here. They don't necessarily have to be set in the South either so feel free to discuss and post your reviews of your favorites.

[Sandy]

The romantic Gothic mystery writers.... Grandmothers boxes where full of them. Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt and my favorite... Phyllis A Whitney's "The Quicksilver Pool"

[``Laurie]

Sandy wrote: "The romantic Gothic mystery writers.... Grandmothers boxes where full of them. Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt and my favorite... Phyllis A Whitney's "The Quicksilver Pool""

I grew up reading these and loved them too Sandy.

[``Laurie]

One of my favorite books of the Gothic genre is one I read about 20 years ago: by Margaret Wasser.
Don't you just love that cover?

I thought it was such a suspenseful story that I turned each page with bated breath wondering if the heroine would survive her travail.

So imagine my surprise when I clicked onto this book's listing to give this treasure a 5 star rating that some felt this story was boring. Boring? I couldn't understand this at all. Then I realized that a lot of people had probably been desensitized to the slow, steady build up by reading much more graphic newer books with a supernatural flavor.

The Priory was a great book though and definitely worth checking out.

[Sandy]

The Thirteenth Tale One of my favorites.. The story is a haunting Gothic tale with ghosts, gardens with secret passageways, a decaying country mansion, relatives with mental illness hidden away, and evil siblings. Death propels the story. The foggy Yorkshire moors add to the atmosphere. There are references to Jane Eyre and other classic Gothic tales woven throughout.

[``Laurie]

Sandy wrote: "The Thirteenth Tale One of my favorites.. The story is a haunting Gothic tale with ghosts, gardens with secret passageways, a decaying country mansion, relatives with mental illness ..."

All right! This sounds like my kind of gothic tale, and the foggy Yorkshire moors clinched the deal. I've heard several different people rave about this one too so I'm confident this one is for me.

[Sandy]

Laurie wrote: "Sandy wrote: "The Thirteenth Tale One of my favorites.. The story is a haunting Gothic tale with ghosts, gardens with secret passageways, a decaying country mansion, relatives with m..."

I love the cover, I even had a maroon ribbon as a bookmark

[``Laurie]

Another more recently written but old fashioned gothic mystery: Yes, My Darling Daughter by Margaret Leroy.

A very *clean* gothic and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.