The Asylum by John Harwood

"... I have been robbed of everything, even my name..."

The year is 1882. The place England. Georgina Ferrars wakes at Tregannon House, a private asylum for the insane, with no memory of how she got there. And her doctor keeps insisting that she is someone else. When she tries to prove her identity to him, she finds out that there's already a Georgina Ferrars living in London. So, who's the imposter, and who's telling the truth? It's enough to make her start doubting her own sanity. I can't imagine a worse nightmare. Or a better mystery.

Somehow, Georgina must discover how she ended up at the asylum, and why she's being kept there...before it's too late. The past tangles with the present in this Gothic thriller, and while it starts out a little slowly, it picks up speed at the end. I enjoyed this book. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White. I think Harwood's first book, The Seance, is still my favorite, but this is definitely a good runner-up.