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Pub date October 13, 2023

ISBN  979-8370883125

Price $8.99 (USD) Paperback, $2.99 Kindle edition

Author interview

Giampaolo offers a taut mix of suspense, Gothic dread, and supernatural allure, expertly evoking the eerie elegance of Victorian ghost stories in his latest collection of five short stories. The book opens with “Wrath of the Sentinel,” a historical thriller set in a shadowy London, where a member of Parliament delves into paranormal threats targeting his daughter’s fiancé. “Theodore and Augusta’s Wedding Journey” combines Italian folklore and Gothic suspense, as a honeymoon in Rome turns into a nightmare when a sudden storm leads a newlywed couple into the city’s haunted depths, where spectral figures and a ghostly carriage await. In “The Holy Relic,” readers are transported to 19th-century Hampshire for a haunting bedtime story of magic, sacrifice, and ancestral duty. 

“The Asylum: A Victorian Ghost Story” follows a young journalist in 1897 as he investigates the chilling mystery of a spectral woman in red haunting a mental hospital. In “What If… A Journey into the Mind of a Madman,” the final story, Giampaolo plunges readers into the fractured psyche of a troubled man institutionalized since 1926, whose reality bends in terrifying ways. Giampaolo’s meticulous attention to detail and evocative prose breathe life into each setting, capturing the sinister charm and haunting beauty of Victorian landscapes. His characters are richly drawn, with fears and obsessions that drive them deeper into the supernatural, making their encounters feel intensely personal.

A must-read for fans of Gothic literature and ghostly tales, this collection offers an immersive journey into the uncanny and a poignant exploration of timeless human struggles.

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