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    Houses of Stone
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    Houses of Stone
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    Houses of Stone
    Ebook468 pages8 hours

    Houses of Stone

    By Barbara Michaels

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    It is a find of inestimable value for Karen Holloway. The battered manuscript she holds in her hand—written in the nineteenth century and bearing the mysterious attribution "Ismene"—could prove a boon to the eager young English professor's career. But Karen's search for the author's true identity is carrying her into the gray shadows of the past, to places fraught with danger and terror. For the deeper she delves into Ismene's strange tale of gothic horror, the more she is haunted by the suspicion that the long-dead author was writing the truth . . . and that even now she is guiding Karen's investigation, leading her to terrible secrets hidden behind the cold walls of houses of stone.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 6, 2009
    ISBN9780061984426
    Unavailable
    Houses of Stone
    Author

    Barbara Michaels

    Elizabeth Peters (writing as Barbara Michaels) was born and brought up in Illinois and earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago's famed Oriental Institute. Peters was named Grandmaster at the inaugural Anthony Awards in 1986, Grandmaster by the Mystery Writers of America at the Edgar® Awards in 1998, and given The Lifetime Achievement Award at Malice Domestic in 2003. She lives in an historic farmhouse in western Maryland.

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    Reviews for Houses of Stone

    3.5/5

    117 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Gothic romance is a fun genre for me and this book proved to be a good one by Michaels. As an English lit major, I enjoyed the background story and had met those professors, I am sure. Houses of Stone certainly does show its 1990s roots, but as long as you remember there aren't cell phones and ubiquitous access to the internet, it is easy to sink into the story. I sort of wish that the "found novel" really existed as I think I would have enjoyed it.There are enough plot twists to keep me going, from love interests to dastardly deeds. I think an important quotation from the book is "A house of stone can be either a refuge or a prison." Reading the book lets you see both sides of the story.If you like romantic suspense, I suspect you'll like this book.
    • 4/5
      This was a fun book to read--full of feisty feminist academics and crazy southerners--that has, at its core, a serious subject matter: the subjugation of women writers. The characters were delightful, the plot was believable (even the haunted house aspect), and the women's history lesson was a seamless part of the storyline.
    • 4/5
      I'm not sure what to make of this book. It's a much longer, slower-paced book than most of Barbara Michaels' body of work. It's also a lot meatier and it reads very much like Michaels had a couple of agendas when she wrote it, among them feminism, history and archeology, and the origins of the gothic novel. Anyone familiar with Barbara Michaels knows she was qualified on all fronts. Unfortunately, though she did redeem herself about 75% of the way through, I never really warmed to the MC, Karen. In fact it took me that long to remember her name, though I could have rattled off a list of all the secondary players without a problem. For most of the book she's so ardently 'feminist' that she is paranoid and distrustful of literally every word that comes out of anyone's mouth. Her best friend Peggy spends much of the first half of the book apologising to her for perceived slights. I put the word feminism in quotes before because Karen equates being a feminist with having that mistrustful chip on her shoulder, when in reality that chip has more to do with her own perception of herself and how she is always 'handled' by others. It's no coincidence that the point at which she started letting go of all her resentment was the same one at which I started to like her. Houses of Stone is a story of a story within a story within a story, and though there are suspicious and mysterious events that happen from start to finish, it never really had that typical build up of tension inherent to mysteries or suspense. There was a climax of sorts, but honestly it sort of felt tacked on so the paranormal aspect of the book could be wrapped up. The heart of this book is about the research involved when an important, previously unknown text is discovered. With a tad of romance, intrigue and deception. For me, Peggy made this book. I loved her competent, no-nonsense attitude and Ioved how comfortable in herself she was, and therefore how unstoppable a force. She kept me reading long after I'd have gotten fed up with Karen; a fortunate thing, since I'd have missed a good story otherwise. I read this as a buddy read with Linda Hilton and Moonlight Reader and also for the Gothic Square for Halloween Bingo.
    • 4/5
      3.5 stars-Enjoyed the book but thought the ending was rushed. The rest of the story went at a a nice pace and then it was like Michaels woke up & said oops my deadline is today & just threw the ending together in a couple pages. The fast batch job at the end just didnt flow with the easy pace of the rest of the book.
    • 3/5
      Michaels delivers a poor-man's Posession with Houses of Stone, and I mean that in the best possible way. This has everything I like in a light read: crumbling mansions, literary references, buried documents, near-murders and very old bones. If you like This Kind of Thing (and I do) this is Very Good at This Kind of Thing. If you don't (like This Kind of Thing, that is) I suggest reading a different book.
    • 5/5
      If someone had written a book just for me, this would be it. When I finished reading it the first time, I went back to the beginning and started it all over. Old houses, old books, wonderful stuff.
    • 5/5
      Karen Holloway, a young English lit professor is given the opportunity of a lifetime. Her close friend, Simon, has procured a novel by an obscure 19th century gothic novel, written by a woman. Karen is determined to find out the truth about the woman behind the mask.This is one of Barbara Michaels best novels. The characters are fully developed and likeable. Although you know a romance will develop between Karen and someone, it is up in the air which man is a hero and which is a villain.What I especially like about Barbara Michaels is how she uses characters of various ages, not just twenty-somethings. This is a novel to read again and again.