Five top thrillers that blend true crime with a gothic ambience

Tara Goedjen loves anything mysterious. Her books include The Breathless (2017) and No Beauties or Monsters.

[My Book, The Movie: The Breathless; Writers Read: Tara Goedjen (December 2017); The Page 69 Test: The Breathless]

Goedjen's new novel, Please Enjoy Your Stay, is her adult debut.

At CrimeReads Goedjen tagged five thrillers that blend true crime elements with a gothic ambience, including:

Jennifer Fawcett, Beneath the Stairs

This one delves into an (sub)urban legend-type crime in a truly terrifying setting. The murder is chilling: decades ago, a man allegedly killed his family in the “Octagon House,” now abandoned in the woods….

Award-winning playwright and author Jennifer Fawcett delivers glimpses of the tragic crime through the perspective of Clare, who went inside the Octagon House as a teenager with her friend as a prank, and who must now trespass again as an adult. Clare needs to find out why her friend recently tried to commit suicide within its walls, and what exactly she remembers when they first went into the haunted Octagon house all those years ago.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue