I did not even realize when I bought this book that it was illustrated - fancy that! I bought the book mainly because the cover was reminiscent of the original cover for Nancy Drew #75 - The Emerald-Eyed Cat Mystery, with the cat's eyes staring straight out ... the spooky mansion in the background ... the young woman in the foreground, her hand raised to her mouth ... there was enough similarity to intrigue me, so I picked it up. It has taken me a number of years to finally get around to reading it, and I can honestly say, it was worth the wait. While the story is a bit more mystery-focused and not so much ghost or supernatural related, it was still a pretty good read.
Summerhaven, written by Linda Masterson, was published in 1979 by the Kensington Publishing Corp. under the "Zebra Illustrated Gothic" banner. The book has 15 internal illustrations, beautifully rendered in pencil drawings, which I find interesting, because most adult books do not have internal illustrations. Although, around this same time, Zebra was also publishing a series of mystery novels under the banner, "A Zebra Mystery Puzzler," in which the last chapter was sealed, and readers had the opportunity to guess the identity of the killer by finding the clues in the story as well as clues in the cover art and in the internal illustrations throughout the book. Thus, Kensington Publishing Corp. was obviously testing the waters to see if adult readers would enjoy the illustrations, since both their Zebra gothic and mystery lines had them. Speaking solely for myself, I love them! I've always been a fan of internal illustrations, because for me, it adds something to the story. But, let's look at the story itself, and then I'll discuss the art a bit later...
Tiffany Chaplin is the main character of the book, and as the story opens, this young writer finds herself arriving on Gull Island to join her new husband, Derek Chapin, as they move into his family's homestead, known as Summerhaven. The first person she meets on the island turns out to be her new husband's brother, Jason, who also happens to live at Summerhaven. Soon enough, readers meet Maggie, the Chapin's housekeeper and cook, as well as Teri Manchester, a vivacious young woman who grew up with Derek and Jason, living at the cottage on the Chapin's rather large estate. And, of course, we quickly discover that Summerhaven has its own mysteries - Derek and Jason's grandfather was allegedly a rum runner who stashed a secret treasure somewhere within the halls of Summerhaven, but no one has ever been able to find it; Derek and Jason's parents died under mysterious circumstances when the two of them were still children, and they were raised by their grandfather, with Maggie's help; their grandmother had a mental illness, which could have been passed down to her descendants; and Derek's first wife also died more than a decade ago under somewhat questionable circumstances. For Tiffany, a mystery writer, all of these questions lead her to begin looking into the Chapin family history ... and, as anyone who has ever read a gothic novel knows, that is definitely going to lead to some major trouble!
Tiffany gets tangled up (quite literally) in some dangerous situations - from nearly drowning when she finds herself wrapped up in a net under the water (a net that she drags to shore and mysteriously disappears afterwards...), to having a heavy barrel of wine come crashing down on her (luckily she ducks out of the way, but not before splinters from the shattered barrel cut open her arm...), to discovering a dead body under the dock leading to the boathouse (thus eliminating one of the suspects...), to being locked in an underground tunnel, where she quickly discovers she is not alone! The story definitely has its suspenseful moments, but none of them supernatural; rather, the story focuses more on a realistic terror and a realistic mystery that has to be solved before Tiffany can find the security she hopes to discover in her new home.
At times, I felt like I was reading an adult Nancy Drew novel. The foibles are there, the red herrings are there, and at one point, Tiffany even gets a blatant warning, telling her that if she knows what is good for her, she will leave Summerhaven at once! How many times did Nancy Drew get warnings like that? And, just like our favorite teen detective, Tiffany refuses to budge; if anything, the warning just bolsters her courage to uncover the truth of what's going on. She suspects it might be her husband, who has been rather indifferent to her since coming to Summerhaven and who has been showing an inordinate amount of attention his childhood friend, Teri. She suspects Teri may be wanting to get her out of the way, so she can have Derek all to herself. She suspects Jason may have inherited some of his grandmother's mental illness, taking out on her the resentment he has over Derek inheriting the Chapin fortune. She suspects Maggie may simply be too overprotective of "her boys," seeing Tiffany as a threat to their well being. When she uncovers an old diary hidden away in a secret drawer of Grandfather Chapin's desk (gee, doesn't that sound like a Nancy Drew gimmick as well?), she hopes it will provide her with all the answers she needs to get to the bottom of this before she becomes the next victim of the curse that seems to be hovering over Summerhaven!
Now, as promised, let's discuss the art for this book. Starting with the cover, I have to question why the publisher chose this image. Tiffany is clearly described in the book as having short, curly dark hair - yet, the woman on the cover has flowing blond hair. The foreboding house in the background is rather nondescript, so it could potentially represent Summerhaven. But the cat's eyes glaring out from behind the woman - what in the world are they for? There is not one cat in this story at all, so I'm at a complete loss to figure out the purpose of this cover art. I'm aware that many publishers during this time period were slapping covers on books that often had no relation to the story inside, but I think this one goes a bit too far in that direction. And what's even more odd is that this same cover was also used for another gothic novel titled
Witch, by Barbara Michaels. That book was published in 1977 (by Pan), and this one was published in 1979 (by Kensington / Zebra), meaning
Witch used the cover first and this book is basically recycling that cover art. Very interesting...
As far as the interior illustrations go, they truly are beautifully rendered pencil drawings (and, oh, how I love pencil sketches). They allow for much more use of shading, allowing the artist to truly inject some moodiness and darkness into the illustrations. Some of the scenes are rather mundane (such as Tiffany and Jason riding bikes, or Tiffany looking at a book), but others are much more intense (such as Tiffany being grasped by someone from behind, or Tiffany screaming at something looming over her). For me, the illustrations add a new level of enjoyment to the reading of the story. Sadly, the book does not provide any credit for the illustrations (neither the interior art, nor the cover art), so I have no way of knowing who provided the art for the book.
That being said, I have to think the publisher did not give the artist the full details for the scenes to be drawn. In a couple of instances, the illustrations are definitely not accurate portrayals of the scenes in the story. For example, on page 45, Tiffany is looking at a painting of Grandfather Chapin, and it says "he was simply standing in front of a large roll top desk holding a book open in his hand..." However, in the illustration on page 44, the man in the painting has no desk behind him, and the book he is holding is closed, being held up near his face. Worse, though, is the scene on page 107, when Tiffany happens across Jason coming out of his bedroom in nothing but a towel (having just stepped out of the shower). In the previous illustration, just two pages before, Tiffany is drawn with a dark blouse and a light colored jacket over it; yet, in the illustration on page 106, she is wearing a rather sexy, almost backless dress and Jason is fully dressed with a vest and tie! I can only surmise that the artist was given minimal descriptions for the scenes, so they did not match up with the final published story.
Despite those discrepancies, I still thoroughly enjoyed the story, and I was relieved that Tiffany was not left to die in the underground tunnel. The ultimate reveal was not what I would say a huge surprise, but the author did manage to keep me guessing until near the end. And speaking of the author, just who is Linda Masterson? I was able to locate an author named Linda Masterson who lives in Florida and has written non-fiction books about surviving a wildfire and living with bears, as well as some children's books based on the Precious Moments figurines. Thus, I suspect this is not the same "Linda Masterson" that wrote Summerhaven. Thus, I'm left to wonder if this is yet another one of the many pseudonyms used to write gothic novels of this era, and the real author remains a mystery to be solved...
RATING: 8 not-so-exciting games of pinochle out of 10 for a wonderfully suspenseful tale that provides a great mystery to read!
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