Gothic thrillers anyone?

[Eric Christopherson]

Hey I've decided my new WIP is going to be a Gothic thriller that takes place in a spooky mansion during the course of one night. I'm trying to get more familiar with the sub-genre. I've been turned on to Britain's Patrick McGrath but can you recommend any other writers working in this area?

Just for kicks, here's the (very short) prologue. See if it catches your interest ...

I, Miles Trenowyth, write down this record at the goading of Dr. Horace James, practitioner in the newfangled black art of psychotherapy. Robbed by an injury of my ability to speak—at least at this time—I am unable to partake in the so-called Freudian talking cure. Thus I am induced to vomit my soul across these pages, to recall and recount in detail that which I would smoke an opium pipe to forget—Nay, every pipe in Chinatown!—given the chance.

I insist, as the price of my cooperation, that this account of my night in the Langley mansion on October the Twentieth, 1919, never be copied by the hand of a scrivener, although the original manuscript may be shared with Detective Brian McDonough of the New York City Police Department to help bring his investigation to a close and spare me further official visits.

I demand, moreover, that this document be destroyed upon the conclusion of my treatment in a cleansing conflagration. I am to burn it myself on the day of my discharge from this cursed asylum, when entrusted again with the simple pleasure of striking my own match.