The Widow's House

"The reason you can't live in Riven House is because it's haunted. Why do you think I moved out? It was sucking the life force out of me. It's an unhappy place. There's a spirit there that begrudges the living their happiness. It will tear you and Jess apart. It will tear you apart."

The Hudson River Valley is where Clare Martin grew up, where she went to college, and where she met her husband, Jess. After years away, she and Jess have returned hoping that Jess will finally be able to finish his second novel here. And maybe that Clare will be inspired to start writing again, too. They move into the caretaker's cottage at Riven House, the crumbling estate of their old writing professor. But the history and haunting atmosphere of Riven House soon has Clare questioning the past, her marriage to Jess, and even her own sanity.

I loved all the Gothic elements of this Carol Goodman novel. It's part ghost story, part psychological suspense, and a very entertaining read. From the strange figure Clare keeps glimpsing in the fog, to the unexplained cries of a baby she hears late at night, Goodman really knows how to build tension. And then there's those unexpected twists at the end! I couldn't read this book fast enough. So, if you love an intense Gothic mystery, give this one a try.

Happy Reading!

Going Gothic...

Anya Seton's Dragonwyck has the same Gothic atmosphere and underlying tension as Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. This historical fiction novel is set in 1844 in the Hudson River Valley, where many old Dutch families settled on large estates they called manors. Into this old-world and monied luxury comes a young farm girl from Connecticut.  Poor Miranda Wells. At 18, she's naive and unsophisticated and longs for a life beyond the narrow confines of her father's strict morality. She dreams of adventure, travel, and romance. So when her cousin, Nicholas Van Ryn, invites her to stay at Dragonwyck with him and his wife, Johanna, she begs her parents to allow her to go. Somewhat reluctantly, they agree.

For Miranda, life with the Van Ryn's is like entering another world.  "...her first sight of Dragonwyck was the most vivid and significant impression of her life. She stared at the fantastic silhouette which loomed dark against the eastern sky, the spires and gables and chimneys dominated in the center by one high tower; and it was as though the good and evil, the happiness and tragedy, which she was to experience under that roof materialized into physical force and struck across the quiet river into her soul."

It doesn't take long before Miranda is enamored of her handsome, well-educated and worldly cousin. Nicholas is very charming when he wants to be, although he can also be very cold and cutting. He is a man who is a little "too polite" to his obese, dull wife; a man with hidden depths of violence. But Miranda can't help falling in love with him. There is both mystery and romance, tragedy and drama, in this Gothic novel. And Seton's writing is amazing. Even when I could see exactly where this story was headed, I couldn't put it down.

Happy Reading!