If the Gothic romance novel is your shadowy cup of tea, you can't do better than Darkwater, by Dorothy Eden. A lonely house on a moor. Orphans. Inheritances. Ghosts. Murder. Obstacles to love. Madness. All present and accounted for.
Eden's imagination when walking on the dark side (Great-Aunt Arabella's bedtime stories, for example) almost rivals Angela Carter's for sheer nastiness at times; yet she is also a page-turning storyteller in the conventional sense. It's this odd mixture that sets her apart from other romance authors.
There's a Dickensian cast of characters: Francesca Davenport, the novel's heroine; mad cousin George; two orphans from China; Amelia, the spoiled daughter; the repulsive Hamish Barlow; the handsome yet questionable Adam Marsh.
All set against the backdrop of Darkwater, the Elizabethan manor house with the black lake in the middle of a foggy moor. What more atmosphere is needed?
Eden's imagination when walking on the dark side (Great-Aunt Arabella's bedtime stories, for example) almost rivals Angela Carter's for sheer nastiness at times; yet she is also a page-turning storyteller in the conventional sense. It's this odd mixture that sets her apart from other romance authors.
There's a Dickensian cast of characters: Francesca Davenport, the novel's heroine; mad cousin George; two orphans from China; Amelia, the spoiled daughter; the repulsive Hamish Barlow; the handsome yet questionable Adam Marsh.
All set against the backdrop of Darkwater, the Elizabethan manor house with the black lake in the middle of a foggy moor. What more atmosphere is needed?
