Books like 'Hearts Strange and Dreadful'
Readers who enjoyed Hearts Strange and Dreadful by Tim McGregor also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical horror historical-fiction spooky gothic
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Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsA woman’s mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family.A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved... -
![Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi]()
Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSt. Vincent's Orphanage for Boys.Turn of the century, in a remote valley in Pennsylvania.Here, under the watchful eyes of several priests, thirty boys work, learn, and worship. Peter Barlow, orphaned as a child by a gruesome murder, has made a new life here. As he approaches adulthood, he has friends, a future... a family... -
![Cardinal Black by Robert McCammon]()
Cardinal Black by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsCardinal Black is the latest installment in Robert McCammon's unique series of historical thrillers featuring Matthew Corbett, professional problem solver, who has been called "the Early American James Bond." December 1703 finds Berry Grigsby living as Mary Lynn Nash in a small English village where she has fallen victim to Professor Fell's involuntary drug experiments... -
![The Pit and the Pendulum - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Pit and the Pendulum - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsGet set for true terror in one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories.We enter the mind of a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. The dank prison room is without light and he begins to feel his way around the walls... -
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![Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim, Hugh Wheeler]()
Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim, Hugh Wheeler
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBook by Hugh Wheeler Introduction by Christopher... -
![Hell Screen by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa]()
Hell Screen by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratings"There can be no doubt that Akutagawa had more individuality than any other writer of his time and has left in Japanese literature a mass of artistic work, often grotesque and curious, that, while it undoubtedly angers the proletarian experimenters who now hold the stage and fight with lusty pens and a highly developed class consciousness against all that he stood for, will continue to live as... -
![Callie by Bill Thompson]()
Callie by Bill Thompson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDeep in the bayous of southern Louisiana, an ancient mansion called Beau Rivage sits empty and abandoned. Arceneaux family members built the house and lived there for two hundred years. The house is inherited by Callie Pilantro, a down-on-her-luck granddaughter of Juliet Arceneaux, its most recent owner who died there a few months ago... -
![The Midnight Hour: All Hallows' Brides: A Gothic Regency Historical Romance collection by Kathryn Le Veque, Meara Platt]()
The Midnight Hour: All Hallows' Brides: A Gothic Regency Historical Romance collection by Kathryn Le Veque, Meara Platt
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen doors creak and ghostly whispers are heard in the midnight hour, this stunning collection of Gothic Regency Historical Romance is sure to leave you breathless with Poe-inspired, romantic dreams… Welcome to the All-Hallows’ Brides collection... -
![The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy]()
The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe bestselling author of The Witch of Tin Mountain and Parting the Veil mines the subtle horrors of 1950s America in a gripping novel about a woman under pressure—from the living and the dead. The first day of autumn brought the fever, and with the fever came the voices. Missouri, 1955... -
![The Vanished Bride of Northfield House by Phyllis M. Newman]()
The Vanished Bride of Northfield House by Phyllis M. Newman
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsEngland, 1922. Times are hard. Anne Chatham is a clever, modest young woman with little money, no prospects for marriage, and a never-shared secret—she can see spirits. Anne finds employment as a typist at Northfield House, the grand country manor of the Wellington family. Her employer, the wheelchair-bound Mr. Wellington, is kindly. His haughty wife is not... -
![Charlotte Says by Alex Bell]()
Charlotte Says by Alex Bell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe much-anticipated prequel to the bestselling FROZEN CHARLOTTE, a Zoella Book Club title in Autumn 2016. Following the death of her mother in a terrible fire, Jemima flees to the remote Isle of Skye, to take up a job at a school for girls. There she finds herself tormented by the mystery of what really happened that night... -
![The Hanging of Hettie Gale by Tess Burnett]()
The Hanging of Hettie Gale by Tess Burnett
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA mother's love will never die. Neither will a mother's fury . . . The moor is a difficult place for a young woman to grow up in the eighteenth century, and life for Hettie Gale is no different. Abused by her father and abandoned by her family, she builds a new life for herself and her young son... -
![The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano]()
The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA gripping and intimate novel based on the true story of Margaret Jones, the first woman to be found guilty of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Massachusetts.Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1646. Thomas and Margaret Jones arrive from England to build a life in the New World. Though of differing temperaments, cautious Thomas and fiery Margaret, a healer, are bound by a love that has lasted decades... -
![My Brother's Keeper by Marcia Davenport]()
My Brother's Keeper by Marcia Davenport
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBased on the true story of the Collyer brothers.Inspired by the 1947 New York Times articles detailing items taken from the Collyer's brownstone after their deaths, Davenport constructs a tale of the Holt brothers, one a failing concert pianist and the other a naval architect, and the events that prompted them to become recluses in later life... -
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![The Resurrectionist by Paul T. Scheuring]()
The Resurrectionist by Paul T. Scheuring
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt's 1820, and the physicians of London are on fire to unlock the secrets of human anatomy, some consorting with criminals to get their scalpels into a fresh body. Job Mowatt has become such a criminal—a body snatcher, a resurrectionist. The wages are just enough to keep his brilliant daughter, Ivy, clean and safe in London's worst slum... -
![The Bayou by Arden Powell]()
The Bayou by Arden Powell
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratings"Eugene didn’t know if he believed in the devil beyond the wicked things people did of their own accord, but if the devil had a face, it would look like Johnny Walker’s."Small-town Louisiana, 1935.When Eugene was twelve, a girl from town disappeared. Everyone said the gators must have got her when she strayed too near the bayou. No foul play, just a terrible accident... -
![Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia]()
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film--and awakens one woman's hidden powers.Montserrat has always been overlooked... -
![The Phantom of the Opera by Diane Namm, Gaston Leroux]()
The Phantom of the Opera by Diane Namm, Gaston Leroux
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe lights dim at the Paris Opera House. The exquisite Christine Daaé enraptures the audience with her mellifluous voice. Immediately, Raoul de Chagny falls deeply in love. But the legend of the disfigured "opera ghost" haunts the performance, and as Raoul begins his pursuit of Christine, he is pulled into the depths of the opera house, and into the depths of human emotions... -
![Katie by Michael McDowell]()
Katie by Michael McDowell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsKATIE KILLED FOR KICKS AND CASHEver so nimble at bashing heads with her little hammer, Katie Slapes was her parents' joy and certain fortune. As the cellar filled with corpses, the family coffers filled with cash.Pretty young Philo Drax didn't have a family anymore. Katie had finished off her grandfather and her mother, and promised to put Philo out of her misery very soon now... -
![The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights by Bridget Collins, Susan Stokes-Chapman]()
The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights by Bridget Collins, Susan Stokes-Chapman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the creators of The Haunting Season comes a dazzling collection of never-before-seen ghostly tales.The tradition of a haunted tale at Christmas has flourished across the centuries... -
![Through the Mist by Lindsay Jayne Ashford]()
Through the Mist by Lindsay Jayne Ashford
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTwo women disturb the dark history of a deceptively quiet postwar Cornwall village in a haunting novel by the bestselling author of A Feather on the Water and The Woman on the Orient Express.It’s winter 1947 when newlyweds Ellen and Tony Wylde move into an abandoned Cornish farmhouse overlooking the sea... -
![Heart Burn by C.J. Archer]()
Heart Burn by C.J. Archer
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTime is running out for Hannah. With her life hanging by a thread and Tate trying to kidnap her, she finds help in an unusual quarter - the man who put the narcoleptic memory block on her as a child. Yet the powerful hypnotist may not be all that he seems... -
![The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell]()
The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a gripping tale of obsession, superstition and ambition, set against the atmospheric backdrop of Victorian London. Be careful what you wish for it may just come true.At The Mercury Theatre in London's West End, rumours are circulating of a curse... -
![House of Echoes by Barbara Erskine]()
House of Echoes by Barbara Erskine
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe past isn't always dead or buried...When Joss Grant, adopted at birth, inherits Belheddon Hall – a beautiful old house on the East Anglian coast – it is like a dream come true. Eager to begin a new life there with Luke, her husband, and Tom, her small son, she is also impatient to find out about her newly discovered family who lived there for generations... -
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![Playing With Fire by C.J. Archer]()
Playing With Fire by C.J. Archer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsPRAISE FOR THE WRONG GIRL (BOOK 1 IN THE 1ST FREAK HOUSE SERIES):"It is incredibly well written and pulls you in from page one." ~ Annaleen, Amazon and Goodreads reviewer"This was one fantastic read! A really fascinating story which I couldn't put down, so this is easily a 5 stars... -
![Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp]()
Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsEmily was a selfish, willful, hateful child who died before her thirteenth birthday. But that was a long time ago.Jane is nine years old and an orphan when she and her young Aunt Louisa come to spend the summer at Jane’s grandmother’s house, a large, mysterious mansion in Massachusetts. Then one day . . -
![The Awakening Evil by R.L. Stine]()
The Awakening Evil by R.L. Stine
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNow the terror begins…Everyone knows the story of the Evil. The Evil that terrorized Corky Corcoran and the cheerleaders of Shadyside High. The evil that destroyed Sarah Fear one hundred years ago.Everyone thinks they know the story.But the true story has remained hidden. Only Sarah Fear knows where the Evil began. What it wants. And why it kills.Read Sarah’s story…and discover the truth at last...Categorized as:
gothic historical-fiction book children-books fiction historical horror middle-grade -
![The Delicate Dependency: A Novel of the Vampire Life by Michael Talbot, Thomas Walker]()
The Delicate Dependency: A Novel of the Vampire Life by Michael Talbot, Thomas Walker
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEver since Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the vampire has evolved from the ferocious blood-sucking fiend as portrayed in the penny dreadfuls such as Varney the Vampyre into a strangely alluring, erotic figure promising eternal life. But, it’s eternal life with a horrifying price attached, the overwhelming need to feast on the blood of the living... -
![The Apparition Phase by Will Maclean]()
The Apparition Phase by Will Maclean
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSome ghosts never leave us.SHORTLISTED FOR THE MCKITTERICK PRIZE 2021'A wild rural gothic with some slick plotting . . . the perfect novel for our phantom present' Guardian'Outstanding . . -
![Fitzwilliam Darcy An Honourable Man by Brenda J. Webb]()
Fitzwilliam Darcy An Honourable Man by Brenda J. Webb
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFitzwilliam Darcy, An Honourable Man is a Pride and Prejudice variation. Not a simple retelling, it is an intriguing new story. Leaving England after his disastrous proposal was refused at Hunsford, Darcy spent two lonely years in Scotland and Ireland before returning home to face Elizabeth Bennet, certain that he could regard her as an indifferent acquaintance... -
![Orpheus Builds a Girl by Heather Parry]()
Orpheus Builds a Girl by Heather Parry
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBased on a true story, Orpheus Builds a Girl is a novel of sisterly love, sinister obsession, and the battle for control of the story. A dark, chilling debut novel from award-winning writer Heather Parry.German doctor Wilhelm Von Tore shares with the reader the story of his one true ove; a love written in the stars, decades in the making, a love so strong it transcended death itself...Categorized as:
gothic historical-fiction horror fiction literary-fiction retellings historical dark -
![The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal]()
The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Doll Factory, The Burial Plot is an unstoppable historical thriller about murder, manipulation, and a young woman trying to wrestle power from the hands of a dangerous man. But he’s always one step ahead . . .London, 1839...Categorized as:
historical-fiction gothic spooky historical fiction mystery industrial-era victorian -
![Midnight Harvest by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro]()
Midnight Harvest by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFleeing Spain as it becomes engulfed in Civil War, the immortal vampire Saint-Germain heads for California, where he is reunited with Rowena Saxon, unaware that Cenere, a ruthless assassin, is pursuing him and will do anything, even kill those under Saint-Germain's protection, to achieve his objective. Reprint... -
![A Candle for d'Artagnan by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro]()
A Candle for d'Artagnan by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOlivia Atta Clemens, immortal vampire, Roman noblewoman, beloved of the Count Saint-Germain-has come to Paris seeking only peace. But the year is 1637, and there is no peace to be found in the Court of Louis XIII, where Cardinal Richelieu maneuvers to control the throne... -
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![Seven Ghosts by Chris Priestley]()
Seven Ghosts by Chris Priestley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJake and the other finalists in a writing competition have been invited to a stately house for a tour like no other. As their guide leads them through grand rooms, hidden nooks and magnificent grounds, they hear the stories of seven ghosts who haunt the halls... -
![A Spectral Hue by Craig Laurance Gidney]()
A Spectral Hue by Craig Laurance Gidney
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor generations, the marsh-surrounded town of Shimmer, Maryland has played host to a loose movement of African-American artists, all working in different media, but all utilizing the same haunting color... -
![Jassy by Norah Lofts]()
Jassy by Norah Lofts
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsShe was the daughter of a preacher and a gypsy. A strange and elusive child with powers of prophecy, she grew into an even stranger woman. From those around her she inspired love and admiration or furious hatred. Nothing in between. And somehow Jassy could transform even those who loved her into her enemies. Barney Hatton, the disposessed heir of Mortiboys, loved her but not enough... -
![Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic by Daisy Butcher]()
Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic by Daisy Butcher
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsStrangling vines and meat-hungry flora fill this unruly garden of strange stories, selected for their significance as the seeds of the "killer plant" trope in fiction, film, and video games... -
![The Soprano by S.E. England, Sarah E. England]()
The Soprano by S.E. England, Sarah E. England
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA Haunting Supernatural Thriller by the author of bestselling occult horror trilogy, Father of Lies. REVENGE WAS NEVER THIS WICKED! For decades, this lonely English mining village has harboured an intricate web of jealousy, rage and deceit ....all carefully woven and interlaced with dark witchcraft....and it's about to come to fruition... -
![The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories: Volume One by James D. Jenkins, Bernard Taylor]()
The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories: Volume One by James D. Jenkins, Bernard Taylor
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSpanning two hundred years of horror, this new collection features seventeen macabre gems, including two original tales and many others that have never or seldom been reprinted. Table of ContentsForeword by James D... -
![Whiteoak Heritage by Mazo de la Roche]()
Whiteoak Heritage by Mazo de la Roche
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen Renny Whiteoak came home from the war he discovered many strange things at Jalna. Not least among them was his young brother Eden's romantic affair with an attractive widow. Renny determined to put a stop to it. But when he met the infamous Mrs. Stroud, Renny found himself reluctantly entangled in her dangerous web... -
![The Shivering Sands by Victoria Holt]()
The Shivering Sands by Victoria Holt
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsThe new novel by the modern mistress of romantic suspense is set on the coast of Kent, at a great estate overlooking the infamous "shivering sands" - quicksands that have swallowed entire ships unfortunate enough to sail into them... -
![The Witching Hour: From the creators of The Haunting Season and The Winter Spirits comes a spellbinding new collection of original haunted tales by Bridget Collins, Andrew Michael Hurley]()
The Witching Hour: From the creators of The Haunting Season and The Winter Spirits comes a spellbinding new collection of original haunted tales by Bridget Collins, Andrew Michael Hurley
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the creators of The Haunting Season and The Winter Spirits comes a brand new collection of ghostly talesThere is something peculiar about the hour after midnight.It is the time when darkness reigns.And strange things roam the earth.In this dazzling collection of new and original haunted tales, thirteen bestselling and much-loved authors bring this hour to vivid, spine-tingling life... -
![Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud]()
Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe sequel to Crypt of the Moon Spider, Cathedral of the Drowned is a dripping, squirming, scuttling tale of altered bodies and minds.There are two halves of Charlie Duchamp. One is a brain in a jar, stranded on Jupiter’s jungle moon, Io, who just wants to go home... -
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![The King in the Golden Mask and Other Stories by Marcel Schwob]()
The King in the Golden Mask and Other Stories by Marcel Schwob
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsFirst published in French in 1892 and never before translated fully into English, The King in the Golden Mask gathers 21 of Marcel Schwob’s cruelest and most erudite tales. Melding the fantastic with historical fiction, these stories describe moments of unexplained violence both historical and imaginary, often blending the two through Schwob’s collaging of primary source documents into fiction... -
![The Plague Charmer: A gripping story of dark motives, love and survival in times of plague (171 POCHE) by Karen Maitland]()
The Plague Charmer: A gripping story of dark motives, love and survival in times of plague (171 POCHE) by Karen Maitland
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Plague Charmer, by Karen Maitland, Queen of the Dark Ages and bestselling author of Company of Liars, will chill and delight fans of C.J. Sansom and Kate Mosse's Citadel in equal measure. 'A compelling blend of historical grit and supernatural twists' - Daily MailRiddle me this: I have a price, but it cannot be paid in gold or silver.1361. Porlock Weir, Exmoor... -
![Darkwater by Dorothy Eden]()
Darkwater by Dorothy Eden
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA tale of love and peril in a haunted old English mansion. Fanny knew then that Adam felt as she did about the strange events at Darkwater. Even before the sudden death of the old Chinese amah, she had sensed a chill of menace in the atmosphere. Now there was real peril in the mists and fogs that beshrouded the ancient English estate. There was danger.. -
![The Devil's Playground by Craig Russell]()
The Devil's Playground by Craig Russell
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA riveting 1920s Hollywood thriller about the making of the most terrifying silent film ever made, and a deadly search for the single copy rumored still to exist, from the internationally acclaimed author of The Devil Aspect .1927: Mary Rourke—a Hollywood studio fixer—is called urgently to the palatial home of Norma Carlton, one of the most recognizable stars in American silent film... -
![The Ghost Wore Gray by Bruce Coville]()
The Ghost Wore Gray by Bruce Coville
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 9 ratings“What a Hunk! Too bad he’s dead…”Sixth-grader Nina Tanleven persuades her architect father to let her best friend, Chris, go with them to stay in the old country inn he’s restoring. The afternoon they arrive, the girls find a faded Civil War photograph of a very handsome Confederate soldier... -
![A Flame in Byzantium by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro]()
A Flame in Byzantium by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOlivia Clemens, a vampire, is caught up in the complex political plots of sixth century Byzantium.546-551 AD. Vampire Atta Olivia Clemens is forced to leave Rome and journeys to the Constantinople of Justinian and discovers how much she has lost.Number 4 chronologically in the Saint-Germain series. First in the Olivia Clemens series...
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