The Scent of Lilacs - from Ace, First in Gothics

As I have gotten more interested in the gothic paperbacks of the '60s and '70s, I find myself learning more and more about the publishers, the authors, the cover art, and the stories themselves.  It has been a great deal of fun delving into this world - ever since I watched my first Dark Shadows episode back in the 1980s (yes, I watched it in reruns - not old enough to have watched it when it first came out!), I've been hooked on gothic!  This book is a recent purchase, made because the vintage gothic group I belong to on Facebook (Vintage Gothic & Romance Paperbacks) has had some posts about how Ace publishing had helped sweep in the whole "gothic" phase of those decades, going so far as to label itself "first in gothics" on the cover of their books.  So, when I spotted a book at my local used bookstore with that tag line, I figured I had to pick it up.  I am SO glad I did!

The Scent of Lilacs may sport many of the standard gothic tropes - a young woman is brought home by her new, wealthy husband to the family home, only to discover the foreboding mansion is filled with dark secrets and people who may want to kill her - as well as a possible ghost haunted the halls!  But, it also provides readers with a truly wonderful little mystery to solve - just what really did happen to her new brother-in-law's wife, who supposedly died of a heart attack years ago?  Rumors abound within the small town of Cedar Falls, and there is talk that when she died, there was a lingering scent of lilacs in her room, and her ghost now roams the halls of the old estate.  As Laura Wainwright begins to suspect something is not right in her new home, she begins to go all "Nancy Drew" and start looking into the mystery of Deirdre Wainwright!

Quite honestly, I could not put this book down.  Once I started it, I found myself turning page after page, chapter after chapter, just dying (no pun intended!) to know what was going to happen next!  Here we start off with a very happy Laura Wainright, returning from her two-week honeymoon with the older and super-handsome Dr. Richard Wainwright, ready to begin her new life in her new home, alongside her toddler son from her first marriage (her first husband died tragically, which is why she returned to Cedar Falls in the first place).  But readers get the sense from the very first chapter that things will not go well for Laura - she arrives home in torrential downpour (always a portent of things to come), and learns from her husband that his family has issues - his brother Miles is still reeling from the death of his beloved wife, having spent a year in a mental hospital after she passed away; his sister Lydia has quite the attitude, not always welcoming to newcomers; and his sister Abby takes care of the house and family, likely the only normal one of the bunch.  

It's not long before things really do start to happen. Laura receives a note warning her it's not too late to get out.  Then she overhears the sisters debating about whether Laura married Richard for his money and how long she would last. Then the chandelier in her bedroom falls from the ceiling, missing her by mere inches.  Then she finds the typewriter in the attic that has the same type as that of the note she received.  Then she discovers the closed off chimney that leads down to a wall in her own room!  Then someone tries to chloroform her, nearly pushing her to her death off the balcony.  Then her young son disappears.   And there is that lingering scent of lilacs ... and the mysterious woman in white, with long dark hair ... and even more important, why does her own husband refuse to believe anything she tells him?   I have to give the author credit, because just when I thought I had it all figured out, BAM!  An unexpected curve is thrown into the story, and the real evil is revealed to come from the unlikeliest of sources!

Carolyn Wilson is identified as the author of this book, but quite frankly, I'm not sure if this is a real person or simply a pseudonym.  I can find no other gothic books written by a "Carolyn Wilson," and while I do find a mystery titled For Your Love written by a Carolyn Wilson, I don't believe it is the same person.  I would definitely love to know the author's true identity, as she crafted a wonderfully suspenseful tale with a fairly strong lead character. The story reads in the same way a Nancy Drew mystery does - the chapter cliffhangers, the slowly revealed clues, the determination of the lead character, and the climactic face-off between the protagonist and the villain.  Since this book was published in 1966, some 30-plus years after the Nancy Drew series began, it stands to reason the author could have been influenced by the sometimes-gothic stories of the Nancy Drew mysteries, providing inspiration while writing this one.  (And, c'mon - "Carolyn" Wilson v. "Carolyn" Keene ... The Scent of Lilacs v. The Mystery at Lilac Inn ... the cover to this Ace edition even bears a strong resemblance to the Rudy Nappi cover to the Nancy Drew title [the lilac bushes, the glowing woman, the house in the background] ... need I say more?)

 

As a quick side note, I did have to smile when Laura visited the "Ferncliff" Children's Home with her mother - "Ferncliff" is also the name of a sanitarium in the daytime soap, General Hospital, and I've seen that hospital numerous times on the show.  To see a children's home with the same name definitely made me chuckle.

This book is definitely one of the better gothics that I've read, and I'd highly recommend it not only to fans of gothic fiction, but also just mystery fans in general.

RATING:  9 unfinished letters at the back of a closet shelf out of 10 for a truly suspenseful, well-written gothic mystery very much worth the read!