Historical Horror Fiction

1873: In einem verlassenen Château außerhalb von Paris hält die Spiritualistin und Wahrsagerin Vaudeline D'Allaire düstere Séancen ab. Sie ist weithin bekannt für ihr Talent und ihre Dienste werden gleichermaßen von Verwitweten wie von Gesetzeshütern in Anspruch genommen – um Kontakt zu Mordopfern aufzunehmen und deren Mörder zu finden.

Lucy Braithwhite lives a privileged existence as heir to the fortune of Braithwhite & Company - the most successful purveyor of English luxury wallpapers the world over. The company's formulas have been respected for nearly a century, but have always remained cloaked in mystery. No one has been able to explain the originality of design, or the brilliance of their colours, leaving many to wonder if the mysterious spell-like effect of their wallpapers is due simply to artistry, or something more sinister.

1887, the Cornwall coast. For years, rumors have flown through the village of Suttonsbury about Ashthorne Hall—that its occupants hoard pirate treasure, that a ghost walks its halls—but botanist Hyacinth Bell only cares about the estate’s extensive one-of-a-kind orchid collection. As an independent woman, she is eager to focus on her career, even if it means waiting to pursue a romantic relationship. After all, love—like an orchid—must be nurtured and tended before it can bloom. What she doesn’t expect is to be swept away by Lucas Harding, the manor’s caretaker, upon their first meeting.

London, 1833. Doctress Hester Reeves has been offered a life-changing commission. But it comes at a price. She must leave behind her husband and their canal-side home in Kings Cross and move to Tall Trees—a dark and foreboding house in Fitzrovia. If Hester can cure the ailing health of its owner, Gervaise Cherville, she will receive payment that will bring her everything she could dream of. But on arriving at Tall Trees, Hester quickly discovers that an even bigger task awaits her.

Set in the autumn of 1960 in upstate New York, retired theremin musician Sid Kottler has been living alone in his oversized home for the past 13 years and cannot handle even the slightest of human interaction. He is visited by someone he recognizes from a recent encounter of sorts, and realizes that he may not be alone anymore. In fact, Sid may even play party host to an ensemble of "friends"... but not by invitation.

After the death of her husband, Simon, in an accident which rendered her unconscious for a time, Katherine Greene inherits Moorwood Manor. She also becomes a prisoner there. Katherine is accused of murdering her husband during the accident. His cousin, Richard Greene, demands that in exchange for his silence about the murder, Katherine marry him and turn over the estate. If she refuses, he will turn her over to the police. Katherine is completely under Richard's power.

‘The Signalman’ (1866) is a short story by the English writer Charles Dickens (1812-1870). In the story, a practical-minded narrator meets a railway worker who has been seeing supernatural visions. The narrator doubts the man at first, but at the story’s conclusion a strange event makes him a believer.

The events which killed dozens of people and put the word "werewolf" on people's lips have been covered up. Deaths blamed on gang warfare, drugs, and costumes. A secret operation is in process to make sure that the truth about what happened in Boxford stays buried. But some things refuse to lie down and be still. There are perpetual loose ends that continue to multiply and carry on a legacy that began well before the Second World War.

An invitation arrives; Abbey Coote, professor of American studies, has won an extended stay in a historic bed and breakfast: Pine Tree House. The timing is perfect. Abbey is recovering from an accident which left her abusive boyfriend dead, and her with little memory of the event.

1851, Angel Meadow Asylum. Dr. Rutherford, principal physician to the insane, is found dead, his head bashed in, his ears cut off, his lips and eyes stitched closed. The police direct their attention towards Angel Meadow's inmates, but to Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain the crime is an act of calculated retribution, rather than of madness. To discover the truth Jem and Will must pursue the story through the darkest corners of the city.

A ghost in his deserted childhood home in Virginia, Tom Smiley can’t forget the bloody war and its meaningless losses, nor can he shed his revulsion for his role in the Confederate defense of slavery. But when a young couple moves in and makes his home their own in the early twenty-first century, trouble erupts—and Tom is forced to not only face his own terrible secret but also come to grips with his family’s hidden wartime history.

The history of the Alardyce family is fraught with scandal and intrigue. But after her eldest son Robert leaves the country, finally Amy Alardyce can enjoy some peace. Robert is wanted by the police for some unspeakable crimes, and his family hope he has run far enough and never looks back. A decade after his disappearance, Robert has forged a successful life for himself, making his fortune from the diamond and gold mines of Africa. But when he sees a death notice in the newspaper, the call to go home to Scotland grows ever louder.

There is lots of room for debate throughout the world about a man named Cartaphilus. Many people of good reputation claim to have spoken to him, and throughout history, some have claimed to have personally known him. There is no mention of Cartaphilus in the Bible, so many of us would write off these tales as folklore.

Pamela Colman Smith, newly arrived from New York to her birthplace of London, is received as an oddball in Victorian society. Her second sight helps her in her new job: illustrating tarot cards for the Golden Dawn, a newly formed occult group. But when Pamela refuses to share her creations with Aleister Crowley, a controversial magician, he issues a threat: give up the cards’ power, or he’ll harm her muses.

In 1944, Oakwood's town council is desperate to save their young men from being lost to the devastation of the far-reaching effects of WWII, and as such make the unconscionable decision to make an evil deal with an agent of the devil in order to protect their own children, town's citizens and peaceful way of life. Little does journalism student Jim Norton know that his decision to write an article on the town, that seems to have been able to have escaped the pitfalls of progress for his school paper in 1984, will lead him down the treacherous rabbit hole that might end with his demise.

It is too late to retrieve the code. Victoria and Basil must instead recreate it and get it to the queen as fast as possible. To do that, they must travel to the remote Yorkshire seaside, along with Basil’s sister and her husband, and their friend Fred Brody, to a vast, empty house of Professor Winchester’s where Victoria’s reference books reside. But a ghostly presence begins to interfere, drawing closer and closer every day. Will Victoria, who has already lost so much and achieved so much, be able to stop her old mentor’s wicked plans once and for all?

Winter 1862, London. Adelaide McKee, a former prostitute, arrives on the doorstep of veterinarian John Crawford, a man she met once seven years earlier. Their brief meeting produced a child who, until now, had been presumed dead. McKee has learned that the girl lives - but that her life and soul are in mortal peril from a vampiric ghost. But this is no ordinary spirit; the bloodthirsty wraith is none other than John Polidori, the onetime physician to the mad, bad, and dangerous Romantic poet Lord Byron.

When the skeletal remains of a young woman and her baby are found entombed behind the kitchen wall of a historic Tudor house, Cassandra is overcome with grief. She seems to know who the young woman was, but not how she knows, or how she came to be there. Cassandra becomes inexplicably drawn to the house and the mystery of the bones of Blackfriars. As she begins to learn the truth about the Thorne siblings who occupied the house during the reign of Elizabeth I, her own life takes an unexpected turn, and she finds out that her fate is linked to the Thornes in ways she never imagined.

Set in London during the fall of 1897, In Mind of the Vampire draws context from Bram Stoker's Dracula, and features two of the main characters - Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray. But this novel is not a mere retelling of Stoker's tale. Carefully researched and with the full flavor of late Victorian London, In Mind of the Vampire is a haunting tale of mystery, beauty, horror, and agonizing self-realization. Here one is transported to a beguiling and enthralling world, where intellectual sophistication clashes with primal instincts and needs.

Canterbury Cathedral, 1170. Four knights break sanctuary to brutally murder Archbishop Thomas Becket for their king, Henry II. Running from their crime, the four knights - Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy, Reginald FitzUrse, and Richard le Brett - flee north to Knaresborough Castle, where Morville is overlord. Initially celebrating ridding their king of the pest that Becket had become, they find themselves increasingly isolated as the church and public opinion turn against them.