In my new novel, The Family Upstairs, I knew I wanted to write about a dysfunctional family with a dark secret living in a big house long before I had any idea what form that family would take, what the dark secret might be, or what type of big house they might live in. That all came later. But there’s something irresistible about the idea of what goes on behind those huge doors, all those darkly reflecting windows, all those rooms; the suggestion of ghosts and locked doors and basements and attics, creaking stairs, family rifts, unhappy marriages, revenge, abuse, hysteria. It’s all there, in a way that it just isn’t when you think of a normal sized house.
I went to my book shelves to find some titles to recommend in this vein and was astounded by how many I had to choose from and how they are all written by female writers! It’s a trope, for sure, but it’s endlessly varied and fresh.
Here are nine of the best:
The Cliff House, Amanda Jennings
Here we have a graceful art deco mansion with an azure pool overlooking the sea in 1980’s Cornwall. The glamorous Davenports live here with their edgy and super cool teenage daughter Edie. Sixteen-year-old Tamsyn is the not-so-cool daughter of the Davenports cleaning lady. She yearns for some of the glamour she sees at the Cliff House. She yearns to be friends with Edie. Finally, one summer she is allowed into the sanctum of their inner lives and finds it is riddled with darkness and secrets.
The Stopped Heart, Julie Myerson
A smaller house here; a rambling old farmhouse in the countryside. Mary and Graham move here from London in the aftermath of a tragedy too awful even to contemplate.
A hundred years earlier in the same farmhouse, a red-haired stranger appears in the middle of a storm. Thirteen-year-old Eliza and her parents take him in. But very soon, it’s clear he has no intention of leaving. The pain and suffering he inflicts on the family still reverberate through the house, even now, haunting Mary with fleeting glimpses of small girls, not unlike the ones she has lost. This book broke my heart a hundred times and chilled me to the bone.
The Hidden Girl, Louise Millar
London urbanites Will and Hannah Riley have been waiting a long time to adopt. They have even bought a new house in the countryside, a huge detached manor house, the perfect home for their new family. Then it snows and with Will still in London during the week, overnight, Hannah finds herself cut off from the world in this tiny, isolated hamlet. By day she decorates the new house, waiting for a visit from the social worker who will be assigning them their baby. But by night there are strange noises in the house, footsteps overhead. And the neighbors are very, very weird. Chilling and thrilling in equal measure.
Bitter Orange, Claire Fuller
This is the story of a dilapidated English country house. It is 1969 and thirty-something Frances is here for the summer to compile a report on the follies in the garden for the absent American owner. But she is distracted. She’s not alone, after all. There is a couple here; Cara and Peter, an older man, a younger woman. Cara and Peter are bohemian and mysterious. Frances is dazzled. But as the hot summer rolls lazily on, it becomes clear that not everything is right between Cara and Peter. Amid the decadence, a small crime brings on a bigger one: a crime so terrible that it will brand all their lives forever.
The Sudden Departure of the Frasers, Louise Candlish
Christy and Joe Davenport can’t believe they’ve been able to afford a big house on Lime Park Road. It’s a massively desirable street and the house is newly renovated; it should have been way beyond their budget, but for some reason, the house was sold to them for a song. Christy soon discovers that the previous owners moved out in very mysterious circumstances.
As her curiosity begins to give way to obsession, Christy finds herself drawn deeper into the mystery of the house’s previous occupants—and the dark and shocking secret that tore the street apart.
The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde, Eve Chase
In the middle of a heatwave, four sisters arrive at glorious Applecote Manor to relive their memories of hazy Cotswolds summers. They find their uncle and aunt still reeling from the disappearance of their only daughter, five years before. An undercurrent of dread runs through the house. Why did Audrey vanish? Who is keeping her fate secret?
As the sisters are lured into the mystery of their missing cousin, the stifling summer takes a shocking, deadly turn. One which will leave blood on their hands, and put another girl in danger decades later.
The Death of Mrs. Westaway, Ruth Ware
Harriet (Hal) Westaway is living on the breadline reading tarot cards on a windswept pier. Then she receives an unexpected letter telling her she’s inherited a substantial bequest from her Cornish grandmother. It should have been the answer to her prayers, except Hal’s grandmother died years earlier. The letter has obviously been sent to the wrong person but of desperation Hal decides to go to the stranger’s funeral anyway, to see if she can convince the family that she is a long lost granddaughter and get her share of the inheritance. Here she finds a sprawling, bare-bones mansion set in acres of wilderness. She’s given a bedroom on the attic floor by the frankly creepy housekeeper. Floorboards creak and looks are exchanged. The atmosphere is heavy with secrets, but what part does Harriet actually play in this family? And what are they hiding?
Flowers in the Attic, V.C. Andrews
This is the ultimate big house/big secret novel. Four beautiful children hidden away at the top of a mansion by their cruel and superstitious grandmother. For the sake of an inheritance they have to pretend not to exist. Their loving mother assures them it will be just for a little while. But as brutal days swell into agonizing months and years, Cathy, Chris, and twins Cory and Carrie, realize their survival is at the mercy of their grandmother and that this cramped and helpless world may be the only one they ever know.
A Fatal Inversion, Barbara Vine
In the long hot summer of 1976, a group of young people are camping out in sprawling, decadent Wyvis Hall. Adam, Rufus, Shiva, Vivien and Zosie live hidden away from local villagers, and from the rest of the world, scavenging, stealing and selling the family heirlooms. They drink fine wines and eat bad food and lie out in the garden staring at the moon. It is dreamlike, bohemian, feral. Ten years later, the bodies of a woman and child are discovered in the Hall’s animal cemetery. Which woman? Whose child? This book flips backwards and forward between the mid-eighties and the summer of 1976 as it unpeels the layers of a dark and shocking secret.
