Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia *****

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia opens in Mexico City in the 1950s. Noemi’s father has received a disturbing letter from Catalina who had been taken to a distant rural village by her new husband. Noemi was dispatched to rescue her cousin. Upon arriving in High Place, Noemi finds a Victorian house atop a mountain. The house is dark. Catalina reports ghosts, while those in town say the place is cursed. Noemi is haunted by visions or nightmares. Clearly, something supernatural and malevolent is happening, but what? And can Noemi rescue her cousin?

The house is occupied by three servants and the four Doyles: Florence who imposed the house rules (no talking, no smoking, no guns, no leaving without permission), Francis (Florence’s son), Virgil (Catalina’s husband), and Howard (the ancient patriarch). The family was once rich from its silver mines, but all the workers have died and the mine is shut. The house is rotting with mold everywhere.

The founder wanted to emulate the English countryside. The designer, builders, and materials were all imported from England, including the dirt for the garden. Now all those people are buried in the graveyard and the Doyles are in the mausoleum.

Ruth Doyle killed as many of the Doyles as she could before committing suicide.

The Doyles had their own doctor caring for Catalina. Noemi brought in the doctor from town, who had never been to the house, but he couldn't help her cousin. Catalina requested a tincture from a healer in town. When Noemi brought it, it gave Catalina a seizure, and Florence confiscated it.

Noemi never gave up trying to learn the mystery and rescue her cousin. The more she learned, the worse it got.

A classic gothic story with elements of eugenics and incest. And romance.

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