"Her visit vividly brought back the unhappy past - and with it an unknown evil presence..." (cover blurb)
I finally reached the first entry into this series by Marilyn Ross (a/k/a W.E.D. Ross, best known for his series of Dark Shadows novels based on the successful television show of the '60s and '70s, as well as his countless other Gothic novels written under various pseudonyms). Ross wrote a number of series (the Dark Shadows tie-in novels, the Fog Island series, the Dark Harbor series, and others), but he also wrote a few books in various other Gothic series, such as the Birthstone Gothics for Beagle Books, as well as the Gothic Romance line for Harlequin. This is the first of only two books that Ross wrote for the Harlequin line, and while he captures the Gothic feel of the story perfectly, the ending was somewhat of a disappointment.
Shadows Over Briarcliff (I suppose he had to sneak the work "Shadows" in there somehow, eh?) is set in 1884 and features a rather dark mystery surrounding the death of the main character's sister. Jessica Rice's sister, Ann, married well when she wed Stephen Briar. But something was amiss, and when Jessica leaves London to visit her sister at the somewhat isolated Briarcliff manor, she can sense her sister is worried about something. Before she can uncover the truth, there is a horrific carriage accident, and Jessica awaks to learn that her sister plunged into the ocean, her body never recovered and presumed to have been washed out with the tide. Jessica returns home, ultimately leaving her unscrupulous guardians and moving in with a friend's family who help her regain the wealth her guardians had been stealing. A note soon arrives from her brother-in-law, asking her to come back to Briarcliff, as he was still grieving Ann's death. Jessica decides to make the trip, but she soon discovers there is evil awaiting her at Briarcliff!
The story follows poor Jessica as she must not only cope with her sister's death and Stephen's grief, as well as her own growing attraction to her sister's husband - but she must also face the various attempts to scare, injure, and even kill her. Plus, there are the mysterious appearances of a ghostly woman in a shawl, wearing the same perfume that Ann wore. Is her sister's spirit really come back from the grave, or is someone simply trying to make Jessica think that so she will leave Briarcliff and never look back.
There can be no doubt that Ross knows how to build suspense and tension (he certainly had plenty of practice!). Unfortunately, he spends so long building up the mystery that when the resolution comes, it is a bit of a let down. For 200 pages of great Gothic storytelling, Ross resolves the mystery, has Jessica face off against her adversary, and gives her a happily-ever-after all within the last four pages of the book! I don't recall ever seeing a story wrapped up in such a short amount of pages before - I would have preferred to see a more dramatic confrontation, with lots of dramatic fighting and scares before the truth is revealed and the villain ultimately vanquished. I think this is the first Harlequin Gothic that did not give me full satisfaction with the read, which is surprising, since Ross is one of my favorite authors.
The cover art, depicting the scene where Jessica awaits to not only smell the scent of her dead sister's perfume, but also finds one of her sister's handkerchiefs on the floor (p. 99), was pained by Len Goldberg (a/k/a Leonard M. Goldberg), who also provided the cover art for two prior Harlequin Gothics: Castle at Jade Cove and The Blue House. A superb artist, Goldberg is an expert at capturing terrified expressions on the faces of his women, and it's almost a shame he did not provide the covers for all the books in this series!
The next book in the series is also by Ross, so we will see what that holds in store...
RATING: 8 large carriages careening off the side of a cliff out of 10 for a psychologically thrilling tale of ghosts, mystery, suspense, and moments of terror!
