Books like The Winding Stair by Daphne du Maurier

Set in north England, Jane Eyre follows an orphaned governess who faces abuse, hardship, and ultimately a complicated love with her employer, Edward Rochester, while contemplating marriage to her austere cousin St. John Rivers.

Shirley Jackson’s classic psychological horror, *The Haunting of Hill House*, follows a lonely woman drawn into an abandoned mansion whose malevolent presence ultimately consumes her.

A young bride, the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter, arrives at Manderley on the Cornish coast and finds her new home haunted by the memory and housekeeper’s obsession with her mysterious, stylish predecessor—Rebecca.

A young governess in a remote estate discovers that the souls of two children are threatened by the malevolent ghosts of a former governess and her lover.

In 1950s Mexico, the glamorous debutante Noemí Taboada investigates her cousin’s distressing letters at the enigmatic High Place, a remote mansion where hidden family secrets and a haunted past converge into classic gothic horror.

Young detective Herculeah Jones partners with her mother, a private investigator, to unravel a chilling mystery that tests their courage and wit.

Set in a crumbling Georgian manor in rural Warwickshire, *The Little Stranger* follows a doctor arriving at a long‑standing family home where a death‑bed patient and chilling supernatural forces intertwine against the backdrop of post‑war Britain.

Juana Brett's hapless father has dragged her to England from her beloved home in Portugal. In Portuguese, she is not hindered by the stutter that plagues her when she speaks in English, and she is not at the mercy of her teasing stepsisters and icy stepmother. When Gair Varlow fixed his political machinations on her, he never expected to fall in love with her too. Pulling strings to get her an invitation back to Portugal, he knows he is sending her into danger. For Juana, nothing could be better than going home. But as the threat of invasion by France hangs over her return, she has no idea how completely the political intrigue has taken hold of her Castle home, and soon finds herself amidst terrorists and spies. Juana can trust no one, which is made all the more difficult when she is caught between the persistent courtship of her handsome cousin, and the draw she feels towards Gair Varlow. But all this is dimmed by the mystery and terror of the winding stair...

In the secluded Warren estate, newly hired live‑in lady‑helper Helen Capel finds her idyllic routine shattered by a string of murders when her host, Professor Sebastian Warren, locks the house in an attempt to safeguard everyone.

Witching Hour is a horror novel by Anne Rice set in New Orleans, Louisiana, exploring the supernatural life of the Mayfair family, a fictional lineage of witches. It offers atmospheric storytelling amid the city’s gothic charm.