Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

When glamourous party girl Noemi Taboada receives a letter from her cousin, stating that her new husband is trying to poison her; it’s clear that something is not quite right. The Doyle family are not exactly welcoming, Virgil Doyle, her cousin’s mysterious and handsome husband is alluring, but there is dark edge to his charms. Noemi’s only ally appears to be the younger son, Francis but he is hiding the dark secret of High Place, the Doyles ancestral home. A secret that this peculiar family have been carrying for a long time indeed.

As a writer and avid reader of horror anything that has that word ‘Gothic’ in the title is bound to attract me. Oddly, though the novel is based in Mexico and bar the odd Mexican term, the house and characters within it feel very English. Indeed, the leading protagonist, Noemi would not be out of place in an Agatha Christie thriller. A typical Christie protagonist, who appears on the surface superficial but is a strong willed woman and is determined to get to the bottom of things no matter what. The mansion itself is suitable gothic, and probably wouldn’t look out of place in any classic horror novel, again strangely English. Virgil, the brooding and slightly sinister husband of Noemi’s cousin is a suitable villain, and find myself comparing him to the ultimate gothic baddie, Dracula, alluring and threatening all at once. The rest of the Doyle family don't appear to be any better and come across at times, to be a less charming version of the Adams family, with the younger sibling, Francis being the only sympathetic character and a necessary ally for Noemi, which helps the dynamics of the story.

At first the novel reads like a run of the mill Ghost story, a dark tale of how a young woman’s mind can be turned by a handsome but somewhat threatening man and a creepy house. The unpleasant secret that the Doyles are hiding was an interesting twist and a clever idea of Moreno-Garcia and pulled me in and made me want to read on.