The best historical fiction for January 2024
A gothic mansion, tarot terror, wartime horrors and a mystery on a liner. Nick Rennison on this month’s best historical novels
Recent years have brought no shortage of neo-gothic fiction set in the Victorian era. Hester Musson’s debut novel is an inventive addition to the genre. Harriet Watkins arrives as a housemaid at Finton Hall, country seat of the rising politician Ralph Gethin. She is fascinated by a portrait of his wife, Clara, that she has already seen. She is therefore thrilled when Clara promotes her to a position as her lady’s maid and the two women embark on something more like a friendship than a mistress-servant relationship. However, Finton Hall, like all such mansions in gothic fiction, hides terrible secrets. Although The Beholders loses some of its atmosphere of menace after Harriet and Clara escape the house, it continues to surprise with a series of
