I often approach contemporary writers with some trepidation, much like Margaret Lea, the narrator of The Thirteenth Tale. I need not have worried, because this gothic tale hooks and reels you in as you open its first pages. It was November – Diane Setterfield The book’s opening sentence is simple and yet it contains the promise of a dark, grim ghost story. For in the end, this is what The Thirteenth Tale is; a ghost…
Gothic
Wilkie Collins is famous genre-defining novels like The Moonstone & The Women in White – these novels often make it to the top hundred lists. The Haunted Hotel is a lesser known work – a purely gothic story with interesting characters, haunted rooms and scandalous love affairs. Without spoiling the plot, there is a lot making it a page turner. A hush-hush marriage, a scorned lover, rivalry between brothers, missing servants and phantom visions –…