The most important thing any author does is read, so it isn’t surprising that our characters are often also great readers. Here we have a closer look at the bookshelf of Stephen Davenport from The Heir of Ravenswick. Stephen likes sensation fiction, a genre popular in the nineteenth century and now mostly known from the novels of Wilkie Collins. It is the more domestic sister of gothic fiction, dealing with human scandal rather than supernatural threats; illegitimacy and bigamy are frequent themes. Sensation novels were the ancestors of the psychological thriller, but instead of delivering an unexpected twist, the reader is usually already aware of the situation, and the interest lies in seeing how the characters deal with it.
Clicking on the cover will take you to the book’s Goodreads page.
