Victorian crime/supernatural fiction

[Effnjeff]

Anyone suggest any good novels set around Victorian era. I quite enjoy dark, eery tales, set in this period.
Although not Victorian quite enjoyed 'Her Fearful Symmetry', with a good twist at the end.

Wilkie Collins

Thanks Oink! Think my Mum may have a copy of Woman in White I could borrow.

Anyone else?

Affinity by Sarah Waters.

The Woman in White or The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Quincunx by Chalres Palliser

I've just finished The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Moss which is set just after the Victorian Era.

Thanks for all the suggestions

The Alienist by Caleb Carr is an excellent book. Set in NYC in 1896 I think

And yy to Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. brilliant book. Affinity is good too.

There's a brilliant twist in Fingersmith.

Fingersmith is winging its way

Seconding Fingersmith and Affinity. I'd also suggest the Inspector McLevy series of crime novels, set in Victorian Edinburgh and based on a real policeman. The Radio 4 adaptations are great too.

Lady Audley's Secret?

Yes, yes, yes to Wilkie Collins. 'Fingersmith' is a very pale imitation, at best, imvho.

This is a children's book, but definitely has the right sort of feel.

You'd probably like, 'The Turn of the Screw' too.

I recently bough Anno Dracula by Kim Newman. It is set in the London of 1888 where Queen Victoria has recently been re-married to a Wallachian prince, otherwise known as Count Dracula!

Contains vampires (of course!) and other fantasy elements, together with mystery (the Jack the Ripper case has a whole new interpretation put on it)! I have only had time to read the first chapter yet, but it seems interesting, and has great reviews on Amazon.

I think you would like Drood by Dan Simmons.

I forgot to say that the narrator in Drood is Wilkie Collins.

Seconding the Taxidermist.
The Quick by Lauren Owen.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
The Crimson and the Petal by Michael Faber.
All reasonably recent.

There is no crime in The Crimson Petal And The White except for the cruel, pointless, and long-winded assault on the reader's intellect. And the only supernatural part of the book is the magical speed with which domesticity is shown to morph an interesting & intellectual prostitute that writes a book about a serial killer into one of the dullest, most uninteresting people in the history of published fiction

The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue. It's a Victorian crime novel but not in a dark alley clock you over the head way. It is about the crime of adultery. I thoroughly recommend it.

Nadia - I was also taken in by the reviews of, 'Anno Dracula' and invested 99p for it on Kindle. It's absolutely, jaw-droppingly, teeth-grindingly awful.

Cote - 'Drood' = great concept, really interesting and engaging first half, ridiculous final quarter or so. As you know, I'm a huge Wilkie Collins fan, so that might be one of the reasons why it ended up annoying me so much!

I couldn't read, 'The Crimson Petal.' So, so boring.

I felt a bit let down by Drood's ending as well, but thinking back, how else was it going to end? I looked up Wilkie Collins after reading Drood and was to find out that some of the stranger stuff about him in the book (like 'other w') were actually true. It definitely ticks all OP's boxes - Victorian, crime, supernatural. And Wilkie Collins as narrator. I might read it again at some point

Try some books by Tim Powers. The Stress of Her Regard or The Anubis Gate to start. He also did a wonderful sci fi spy novel called Declare.

Fab, great suggestions.
Have read The Thirteenth Tale and The Sealed Letter.
The Fingersmith has just arrived, can't wait to start!

The Somnambulist. Gothic and great.

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters might hit the spot. I thought it would have benefitted greatly from heavy editing (suspect it might have been self published initially), but it's an interesting idea well carried through.

While I was trying to remember what it was called, I came up with A Face Like Glass which isn't a Victorian setting (and is a YA novel), but which I would recommend to anyone who likes gothic-esque novels. (I know that isn't a word, but YKWIM!)

The journal of Dora Damage by Belinda Starling

I read The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters a few years ago. It started off well but was too long and a bit self indulgent. I think there are sequels but I wasn't sufficiently interested to follow up.