Checkmate

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Checkmate (first published in 1871) is a lesser-known work in his oeuvre, yet it encapsulates several hallmarks of his literary imagination: psychological suspense, gothic intrigue, moral ambiguity, and the slow unspooling of dark family secrets. Though overshadowed by better-known novels like Uncle Silas or The House by the Churchyard, Checkmate is a noteworthy example of Le Fanu's fascination with the intersection of crime, the supernatural, and the fragile struc...