gothic fiction (literary genre)

Rose Rita wishes she could go to camp like her best friend, Lewis. She's sure that boys get to have all the fun, but instead she must stay at home and get ready to attend Junior High, where she will have to do 'girly' activities - something she hates! That is until Mrs Zimmermann offers her an adventure of her own - a trip to cousin Oley's farm. Mrs Zimmermann's cousin Oley has left her his farm, as well as a ring that he thinks is magic. But when Mrs Zimmermann and Rose Rita arrive at the deserted farm, the ring has mysteriously vanished. Strange things start to happen around them - Mrs Zimmermann becomes ill, Rose Rita keeps on seeing scary images and Mrs Zimmermann goes missing. What power does this magical ring have? Will the person who took the ring use it to do evil? And will Rose Rita be able to rescue Mrs Zimmermann from whatever evil force that has taken her?.

It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts--or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy. But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears.