The Shivering Sands

An old-fashioned, Gothic style mystery/suspense novel by the prolific Victoria Holt, written in 1969, and set in what appears to be the late Victorian era in England (there are trains but no automobiles; girls put their hair up at age 17). Caroline Verlaine, a young widow and very talented pianist w......more

Oh. My. Another shiveringly good book, of which I've no idea what to say. What can one say when a book is so good? Caroline Brandon was the black sheep of her family. She had dared to turn her nose up at archaeologists and therefore, her parents as well as her older sister, Roma. Their one comfort wa......more

An entertaining gothic just as I remembered. I have been revisiting the gothics of my mother and my teen years. I am certain I would have rated this very highly when I was younger. I've picked this up at this time as part of a buddy read. Atmospheric and intriguing it was more predictable than my you......more

This was a chance read - a copy was lying about my ancestral house (the place which collects books, as I remarked once) and being stuck without anything to read, I sank my teeth into this one. And it was a very satisfying experience. I remember very less of it: only the first person narrator (a youn......more