Tree of Evil - a Paperback Library Gothic

This is one of those books where, from the very first page, there is tension and suspense that holds strong throughout the entire story!  I was not familiar with the author Roberta Morrison prior to picking up this book, and it turns out this is Morrison's only book - although it is NOT the author's only book.  How, you ask, can that be?  Well, obviously, "Roberta Morrison" turns out to be just one of many pseudonyms used by prolific author Jean Francis Webb III (1910-1991), which is a name I have seen before.  Webb wrote mysteries (1930s), nurse romances (1950s), and a number of Gothics (1960s), using not only the pen name Ethel Hamill (his mother's name), but also his own name (which many probably mistook for a woman's name).  He also wrote a short story for the first issue of Dell's Gothic Romances magazine published in 1970.  You can find out more about Webb from this vintage nurse romance novel blog page (Jean Francis Webb III).

 

Tree of Evil was published in 1966 by Paperback Library, Inc. as "A Paperback Library Gothic."  This is the only Gothic that Webb wrote using the pseudonym Roberta Morrison, which was  play on his maternal grandfather's name (Robert Morrison).  The story is set on a remote island in Hawaii, where young Nell Jordan goes to perform research for a book she has been hired to write about the history of the Drakewood family.  The family patriarch, Calvin Drakewood, has hired her to go through all of the family's papers and compile a comprehensive history - but upon her arrival at the isolated Drakewood mansion, she is met with outright hostility by members of the family who clearly do not want her there. Calvin is back on the main island, and the only person who could possibly help Nell, Roy Walker (a friend of Calvin who ferried Nell through the treacherous waters to the remote island), is unable to stay on the island.  Thus, our poor heroine is left to face the regal yet austere Cornelia Drakewood, her adopted son Dr. Horton McGrath, and her niece Bernice "Bunty" Drakewood, all by herself.

 

Despite the resentment towards her intrusion into their private lives, Nell is determined to move forward with her work.  But, from the moment she arrives at the dark estate, she is plagued by uncertainty and fear.  The horrific screams that haunt the night ... the cloaked figure that seems to stare up at her room from the garden ... that dark, foreboding tree on the lanai that seems to keep the house in darkness ... the strange drums that sound at night, frightening the native staff ... and the ghost of Bunty's dead sister, Lila, who seems to haunt the halls of the mansion.  Nell realizes there is a deeper mystery to be solved here on the island, and the longer she stays in the house, the more danger she finds she faces!  Soon enough, Nell starts to suspect that accident that took Lila's life was not necessarily and accident - and perhaps it did not even take her life at all!

 

Webb (a/k/a Morrison) truly plays up Nell's fears throughout the whole story, using the bumps in the night, shadowy figures, and the menacing tree to increase the terror of what his main character faces.  The isolation she feels in a house where she is not wanted, surrounded by strangers who seem to menace her at every turn - the morbid curiosity that continually grows within her concerning Lila Drakewood's death and the possibility that the girl may be alive, yet somehow mentally damaged by her accident - and the mystery surrounding the Drakewood's history and exactly what it is within those family papers that could warrant the deadly attacks on her person - all of it combines to make for a very suspenseful tale of true Gothic terror.

 

The author does a nice job of misleading the reader in a number of ways; however, any true fan of these '6s and '70s Gothic novels will immediately start to pick up on the clues and figure out that the real villain or villains will not be the most obvious suspects (rarely does it play out so conveniently in these books). The  mystery surrounding Lila Drakewood (is she, or isn't she, alive?) is very well done, and the climax provides the readers with some nice and somewhat unexpected surprises.  

 

The cover, with its heavy use of black shadows, features Nell looking back tentatively at a house barely visible through the branches of that ever-menacing tree.  A light is visible in an upstairs room (of course, what Gothic cover would not have that?), and the sky is a dark shade of blue.  There is no signature on the cover art, and the copyright page does not identify the artist.   

 

I definitely want to find more of Webb's books, as this was a fantastic read, and I suspect his other books will be just as enjoyable.

 

RATING:  10 garnet-colored, velvet gowns out of 10 for a wonderfully crafted tale of Gothic horror and mystery that keeps the readers on the edge of his or her seat until the very end!