Showing results by publisher "Penguin Audio" in Gothic

From the first moment Vincentio di Vivaldi, a young nobleman, sets eyes on the veiled figure of Ellena, he is captivated by her enigmatic beauty and grace. But his haughty and manipulative mother is against the match and enlists the help of her confessor to come between them. Schedoni, previously a leading figure of the Inquisition, is a demonic, scheming monk with no qualms about the task, whether it entails abduction, torture - or even murder.

After a serious case of school bullying becomes too much to bear, sisters July and September move across the country with their mother to a long-abandoned family home. In their new and unsettling surroundings, July finds that the deep bond she has always had with September - a closeness that not even their mother is allowed to penetrate - is starting to change in ways she cannot entirely understand. Inside the house the tension among the three women builds, while outside the sisters meet a boy who tests the limits of their shared experiences.

With the Great War finally behind them, many Americans flock to South Florida with their sights set on making a fortune. When wealthy industrialist Robert Barnes and his wife, Anna, build Marbrisa, a glamorous estate on Biscayne Bay, they become the toast of the newly burgeoning society. Anna and Robert appear to have it all, but in a town like Miami, appearances can be deceiving, and one scandal can change everything.

A new era has begun for the Caskey family. Elinor’s relentless determination and the years of struggle are finally beginning to bear fruit: old hostilities have faded and the town is ripe for change. The conflict in Europe has brought new blood to Perdido, men arriving from far afield wanting to ingratiate themselves with the powerful family. But tangling with the Caskeys comes at a cost, and soon they must ask themselves how close is too close…

A gifted, idolized singer returns to his poor hometown and a life and family he is so far removed from he now holds them in contempt. The Gospel Singer reveals the absurdity of blind religious faith and idol worship and the hypocrisy that results with the offering of money or sex. Crews grapples with race, gender, religion, and place and steps back to divulge the secrets of his characters - including a dead girl awaiting the gospel singer’s melodious eulogy, his dysfunctional family, a murderer, the zealous town residents, and a traveling freak show.

Death, accidental and early, has always been Abby Walters's preoccupation. Now 33 and eager to settle down with her commitment-shy boyfriend, a recurring dream from her past returns: a paralyzing nightmare of being buried alive, the taste of dirt in her mouth cloying and real. But this time the dream reveals a name from her family's past. Looking for answers, Abby returns home to small-town Minnesota for the first time in 14 years, where she reconnects with her high school crush, now a police detective on the trail of a violent criminal.

The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter is drawn into the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison.

From the attic of a dilapidated English country house, she sees them - Cara first: dark and beautiful, clinging to a marble fountain of Cupid, and Peter, an Apollo. It is 1969, and they are spending the summer in the rooms below hers while Frances writes a report on the follies in the garden for the absent American owner. But she is distracted. Beneath a floorboard in her bathroom, she discovers a peephole which gives her access to her neighbours' private lives.

In Perdido, Alabama, the Caskey family have endured; some face death whilst others welcome new life. Unexpected alliances have formed, bitter conflict divides former friends. Hardened by years of experience, Miriam, now head of the family business, is relentless in her pursuit of wealth. And when she makes a surprising discovery beneath their lands, it is not just the Caskey family that benefits, but the whole town. But will this sudden fortune be enough to lay to rest the ghosts of the past? And how long before nature comes to reclaim its debt?

Lisa needs to disappear. And her friend's rambling old home in the wilds of Yorkshire seems like the perfect place. It's miles away from the closest town, and no one there knows her or her little boy, Joe. But when Lisa meets some of the locals and hears some disturbing rumours about the house, she realises it might not be the sanctuary she thought. What secret has Rowan Isle House - and her friend - kept hidden all these years? And what will Lisa have to do to survive when her own past finally catches up with her?

Paris, 1866. When Baroness Sylvie Devereux receives a house-call from Charlotte Mothe, the sister she disowned, she fears her shady past as a spirit medium has caught up with her. But with their father ill and Charlotte unable to pay his bills, Sylvie is persuaded into one last con. Their marks are the de Jacquinots: dysfunctional aristocrats who believe they are haunted by their great aunt, brutally murdered during the French Revolution. Sylvie and Charlotte will need to deploy every trick to terrify the family out of their gold – until they experience inexplicable horrors themselves.

Sixty seconds after she wakes from a coma, Maggie's world is torn apart. The police tell her that her daughter, Elspeth, is dead. That she drowned when the car Maggie had been driving plunged into the river. Maggie remembers nothing. When Maggie begs to see her husband, Sean, the police tell her that he has disappeared. He was last seen on the day of their daughter's funeral. What really happened that day at the river? Where is Maggie's husband? And why can't she shake the suspicion that somewhere, somehow, her daughter is still alive?

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Shadow Hour by Kate Riordan, read by Eve Webster, Rachel Bavidge, Andy Secombe, Roy Mcmillan, Helen Fraser, Daniel Weyman and Steven France. Nineteen twenty-two. Grace has been sent to the stately and crumbling Fenix House to follow in her grandmother's footsteps as a governess.

Abigail is a proud member of the New America Baptist Church. Living miles away from the nearest town in South Carolina, she is safe from the depraved modern world. She is a good daughter. A valued member of the community. So when she is the sole survivor of a fire that burns her family's home to the ground, it seems like a tragic accident. Until a surprising discovery is made: before the fire, Abigail let a stranger in. Who was the stranger? What started the fire? And was the outside world always the threat - or did danger lurk within the community's walls?

Perdido, Alabama, has scarcely recovered from the floods that devastated the community. Now a scheme to build a levee is dogged by a series of mysterious events: unpredictable currents in the river, worrying disappearances. Meanwhile in the Caskey family, Marie-Love, the matriarch, continues her machinations against Elinor, her strange daughter in law. Plots, unholy alliances, sacrifices - in the struggle between them, nothing is off limits. In Perdido, the changes will be profound; the consequences irreversible.

I still dream, every night, of Polneath on fire. Smoke unravelling from an upper window, and the terrace bathed in a hectic orange light.... Now I see that the decision I made at Polneath was the only decision of my life. Everything marred in that one dark minute.

Josephine del Rosario feels like a pariah in her town. Long ago orphaned after her father’s political campaign ended in tragedy, she’s all alone, taking care of the family home while her older brother is off in Manila, where a revolution brews. And it’s starting to feel like he’s abandoning her. When she receives a letter from a cherished childhood friend, Hiraya, inviting her to play a game, she jumps at the chance to leave town. Josephine will have whatever her heart desires if she wins. Maybe she can change her life. It doesn’t matter that dark rumours have always surrounded Hiraya.

Aya has gone missing after Kakos’ brutal attack on Dunmeaden. Will is desperately searching for her and is joined by Aidon, who’s on the run after showing his forbidden power during the battle. But what no one knows is that Aya has been abducted by the vengeful first saint, Evie, who plans to join Kakos and help destroy the gods who killed her 500 years ago. Aya must decide her true fate. Can she fulfil the prophecy and save the realm? Or should the gods pay for what they’ve done?

Eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley has fled London with her lover, Percy Shelley, and her sister, Claire. Tormented by Shelley’s betrayals, haunted by the loss of their baby and suspicious of her sister’s intentions, Mary seeks a refuge. But Lord Byron’s villa, lying under ominous, ash-shrouded skies, feels more like a trap. When Byron suggests each guest write a supernatural tale, Mary is as drawn to the challenge as she is, unexpectedly, to Byron himself. And so an idea begins to form in her mind . . .

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Zodiac by Sam Wilson, read by John Chancer. Every murder is a sign. In a society divided along Zodiac lines, status is cast at birth - and binding for life. Who you are can be determined by a matter of days, hours, even minutes. Even for the most experienced detectives, every once in a while a murder can shake them to the core. Like when the Chief of Police is killed in his own home.