She was the author of 56 books, novels and short stories, and also became part-owner and editor of St. James's Magazine, a prominent London literary journal in the 1860s.

Born Charlotte Eliza Lawson Cowan in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland, on 30 September 1832, Riddell was the youngest daughter of James Cowan of Carrickfergus, High Sheriff for the County of Antrim, and Ellen Kilshaw of Liverpool, England.

In 1857, she married Joseph Hadley Riddell, a civil engineer, originally from Staffordshire but residing in London.

She also edited a magazine called Home in the 1860s, and wrote short tales for the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and Routledge's Christmas annuals.

Five of her novels—Fairy Water, The Uninhabited House, The Haunted River, The Disappearance of Mr. Jeremiah Redworth and The Nun's Curse—deal with buildings blighted by supernatural phenomena.

[2] Riddell also wrote several shorter ghost stories, such as "The Open Door" and "Nut Bush Farm".