Sometimes a book’s setting can be as captivating as its characters, even transforming into a character itself. This is probably the most true with haunting, creepy, unforgettable houses. In this guest post, author Elka Ray shares her favorite fictional houses in the suspense genre. Her own latest release, A Friend Indeed, also features a memorable dwelling.

A Friend Indeed by Elka Ray

Jo, a single mother with no job and nowhere to go, asks her friend Dana McFarlane for help. Dana sets her up with a teaching job and a fresh start in Glebes Bay. Since the job change, Jo and her family are settling in nicely to their new home and routines. One night, Dana calls Jo in a panic, desperately pleading for her help. Seeing this as a chance to help her friend and pay her back, Jo rushes right over to Dana’s circa 1900s grand and ominous beachside mansion. Once there, Jo finds Dana’s husband, Stan, face down, dead on the floor, with his murderous wife standing over his corpse. Jo agrees to help Dana cover up the crime, but when a blackmailer threatens to expose them, truth and lies become muddied. With nosey neighbors and eager police officers, the girls must watch their every word and step to survive.

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Guest post by Elka Ray

The reader of an early draft of my upcoming novel A Friend Indeed sent me a note that simply read: “More house.”

I got it—and got to work, creating Winderlea, the seaside Scottish Baronial mansion in a small town in Washington State, USA where much of the story is set. In true Gothic tradition, the house had to be ominous. I introduce it this way:

As I approach the house, I stare at the huge blocky thing, its tall windows aglitter. Built in 1908, it’s the real deal, one of those grand old piles with a name, not some pseudo-aged plywood McMansion. Tonight it’s unlit, which is odd, albeit a blessing—it’s even uglier floodlit. Normally, come dusk, Winderlea lights up like the Titanic.

Winderlea is where the two best friends in my book decide to hide a dead body. As their paranoia grows, so does their conviction that everyone–and even the house–is against them.

Here are six of my favorite houses in suspense fiction.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: Manderley

Who can forget the opening line of Daphne du Maurier’s suspense classic, Rebecca?

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

Set by the seaside and surrounded by woods and fields, this manor house captivates both du Maurier’s unnamed and insecure young protagonist and her readers with its elegance, opulence, and aura of mystery. From the outset, we’re told that Manderley is as famously alluring as Max de Winters’ departed first wife, Rebecca. The house and the dead woman are forever linked in our minds—gorgeous, intimidating, and fickle.

There was Manderley, our Manderley, secretive and silent as it had always been, the grey stone shining in the moonlight of my dream, the mullioned windows reflecting the green lawns and the terrace. Time could not wreck the perfect symmetry of those walls, nor the site itself, a jewel in the hollow of a hand.

Given how vividly this house is described, it’s no surprise that it was inspired by a real place: a historic estate in Cornwall called Menabilly, in which Daphne and her family lived for 26 years. While the estate is private, a walking trail from the town of Fowey takes fans close to the grounds that inspired this iconic story.

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The Family Plot by Megan Collins: “Murder Mansion”

When her dad dies, Dahlia Lighthouse, who’s named after the Black Dahlia, returns to her family’s secluded mansion, set on a rugged island off Rhode Island. The family crypt is opened to inter the patriarch only for a corpse to be found inside—that of Dahlia’s long-lost twin, Andy, who’s clearly been murdered. Will Dahlia manage to solve her brother’s killing, ID a serial killer who’s terrorized the island for decades—and maybe even bond with her true-crime-obsessed mother and siblings? Given that the Lighthouse family has turned their big old house in the woods into a shrine for cold cases, it’s no wonder that the locals have dubbed this place “Murder Mansion”. Megan Collins has created the ultimate spooky setting for this tale of murder and family dysfunction.

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The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware: Trepassen House

Grieving the loss of her mother, Hal is eking out a living reading tarot cards on a pier in Brighton when she gets a letter reporting that her grandmother has died and left her a fortune. While Hal isn’t the intended recipient, she decides to impersonate the rightful heir and winds up at Trepassen, a once-grand but now crumbling old manor house in Cornwall. Pulling up, “an image flashed into her head—tall windows, a sweep of grass falling away –and there it was, appearing before her eyes, like a conjuring trick”. In the local dialect, the house is named after the magpies that inhabit its grounds— a symbol of divination and trickery. Ruth Ware does a fine job of conveying this cold and claustrophobic old house, where con-woman Hal finds she’s not the only one hiding secrets.

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Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins: The Master’s Lodging

Magpies make another appearance in Lucy Atkins’ brilliant novel about a missing child and her no-nonsense nanny, Dee, whom the police suspect of involvement. Unlike the other books on this list, this story is isn’t set in a mansion with huge grounds but in the Master’s Lodging—a wonderfully drawn house tucked down a historic alley in an Oxford college. Dee moves into the home of Oxford college master Dr. Nick Law and his pregnant new wife to help care for Nick’s struggling eight-year-old daughter, who’s mourning the loss of her mother. As we peek below the family’s charming veneer, we grow more familiar with their ancient—yet modernized and newly “minimalist”—house. With its attic priest hole and carefully restored antique wallpaper, this place is so vivid that I wasn’t surprised to learn it was based on the real house of an Oxford college master. Lucy Atkins tweaks every sense and emotion while describing this ancient house:

The chemical paint smell in the hot bedroom was heady, and as I threw open a window, the Chapel bells began to clamour and clang. The sound was shockingly chose—centuries of accumulated joy and sadness.

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The Only One Left by Riley Sagar: Hope’s End

With few career choices, in 1983, health aide Kit McDeere arrives at Hope’s End, a decaying mansion on the coast of Maine, to care for elderly stroke survivor Lenora Hope, who can’t walk or speak. Back in 1929, the rest of Lenora’s family was murdered, leaving her the sole survivor—and prime suspect in their unsolved slayings. As Kit unravels the family’s dark secrets, it’s increasingly clear that danger lurks around every corner. The house itself exudes menace, perched on a cliff, ready to dive into the swirling Atlantic. With its listing floors, the mansion keeps Kit–and us readers–off balance. Through Lenora’s perspective we see Hope’s End in its cruelly bright glory days, while Kit reveals its treacherous decay. Long after you shut the book, Hope’s End will stay with you.

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The Villa by Rachel Hawkins: Villa Aestas/Villa Rosato

Rachel Hawkins’ richly layered gothic suspense novel The Villa opens with an excerpt from Lilith Rising, a fictional horror novel written in the villa where the story unfolds. Its first line sets the story’s ominous tone:

Houses remember.

Back in 1974, the author of Lilith Rising spent a debauched summer with some famous rock stars in Villa Rosato—a rural Italian villa. The party ended with a notorious murder. Going on five decades later, successful self-help author Chess rents this villa and invites her struggling mystery writer friend Emily to join her on vacation. In this sumptuous but oppressive setting, Emily grows obsessed with the long-unsolved murder—and increasingly resentful of Chess. The story alternates between the 1970s and today, building to shocking revelations in both eras. As well as holding clues to the old murder, the villa adds to the book’s haunting atmosphere, by turns inspiring and sinister. This book has a lot to say about friendship, creativity, success, and male confidence.

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Out on May 14th, Elka Ray’s suspense debut A Friend Indeed follows best friends Jo and Dana as they team up to hide a dead body—and uncover a mess of secrets. Learn more on Elka’s website or reach out on Instagram to share your thoughts on the best houses in suspense fiction.