Lucifer Cove, Book 1 - The Devil's Mistress (Virginia Coffman's Thrilling Occult Gothic Series)

"Christie Deeth found a paradise at the cover ... or was it the domain of Satan himself?" (cover blurb)

 

With the Harlequin Gothic Romance series now read, it is time to move on to another series, and this is one that took me quite a while to complete - and surprisingly, it was the first book in the series that was the most difficult to find (in the particular format I wanted), rather than the last, which is usually the case.  But I absolutely fell in love with the cover art and design of the Lancer Easy-Eye editions with the stylized logo and the blue sky over the Tudor style black and white house with the girl in the foreground.  Like with the consistency of cover style for the Harlequin Gothic line, I wanted to complete this series with the same cover format - and I was finally able to get this final book I needed at the end of last year at a price I was willing to pay (I mean, seriously, the prices I have seen copies of this book selling for is outrageous!).  Virginia Coffman (1914 - 2005) was one of the leading Gothic novelists, with more than 100 books to her name, most of which were Gothic romances.  It was her first novel, Moura, published in 1959, that is said to have started the "Gothic Wave" of the 1960s and '70s.  If you are going to read Gothics, then sooner or later, you will likely read one or more of Coffman's books.  More can be found about this author in the University of Nevada, Reno Virginia Coffman Papers.

 

The Devil's Mistress is the first of a six-book series set in Lucifer Cove, a small town nestled in a secluded valley of California.  First published in 1969, the book has gone through a number of printings and has had three different covers.  While the Lancer Easy-Eye editions tout the books as "Virginia Coffman's Thrilling Occult Gothic Series," I found the book to be more mystery than Gothic. That's not to say the book was not a great read; I just did not see that many Gothic elements in the story itself.  The "occult" label is probably a more accurate description of the story.  Lucifer Cove is basically a resort, centered around a hot springs spa that offers its guests their heart's desires.  But, as the saying goes, too much of a good thing ... the resort is place where people go to get away from it all ... to open themselves up to new experiences, where the only rules are that you must enjoy yourself to your heart's content.  Any pleasure imaginable can be found here.  For some, Lucifer Cove truly is a paradise, a dream come true.  For the soon-to-be divorced Christine ("Christie") Deeth, however, the Cove is a place of mystery, unexplained deaths, and temptation that could lead to destruction.

 

Coffman's main character is an auburn-haired beauty who receives an invitation to Lucifer Cove from an unexpected source.  An old heiress had visited her at the clinic in San Francisco, where Christie had been recovering from a mental breakdown.  She had left her husband and two children for a love affair with a younger man who quickly dumped her for the next young beauty to come his way. Her actions, though, had consequences, and she not only faced divorce from her husband, but she lost custody of her two children, and her husband refused to let her see them (gee, sounds like a somewhat current storyline on General Hospital!).  Christie would do anything to see her children again, and when the spinster tells her that spending a few weeks at Lucifer Cove could result in her getting her children, as well as her husband, back, Christie decides to take the chance.  After all, what did she have to lose?

 

The story opens with a slow build, as Christie is trying to locate the entrance to Lucifer Cover, some two hours south of San Franciso.  She happens across a lone man who is heading there, and he shows her the way through the cloudy entrance.  After following a maze of roads, she arrives in the small community, which contains not only the spa and the hot springs, but also some cottages, some shops, and a rather out-of-place temple that would likely fit in back in ancient Rome.  The man knows her name, even though she never told him, and as she gets checked in, she gets the odd feeling that she was expected here for weeks, even though she just made her reservations the day before.  There are plenty of warning signals that something is very wrong in Lucifer Cove, but like any good Gothic heroine, Christie ignores those signs, thinking she can face any problems that come her way.  Besides, Marc Meridon, the man she picked up on the road, and who appears to have an ownership interest in the spa, seems to have taken an interest in her, and she cannot deny the strange attraction she feels for him.

 

Then the woman in the room next to her turns up dead from an apparent suicide.  The guests and employees of Lucifer Cove seem to have more than a healthy respect for Meridon - from everything Christie can tell, they actually fear him.  What kind of power does he have over these people?  And what is up with those strange, glowing eyes that she, and others, can just barely make out in the mirrors that are everywhere in every room of the place?  And are those devil worshippers who attend nightly ceremonies in the temple for real, or is it all just for show, so the woman running it (Nadine Janos) can make some easy money?  And what is up with that cat, Klinkajou, who just seems to appear and disappear, just like Marc Meridon himself?  Strange things are afoot, and the longer Christie stays at the spa, the more she realizes there is a dark power that takes a hold of those who give in to their base desires.  When Christie's almost ex-husband shows up with the family's housekeeper, Christie realizes she must do whatever it takes to get them away from Lucifer Cove before they are sucked into whatever is really going on there!

 

Coffman truly surprised me with this book.  The story was engaging, and I found myself rooting for Christie to get to the bottom of everything, reveal the truth behind Lucifer Cove, and leave (whether with her former husband or a new love interest), never to look back.  But that did not happen.  Coffman presents her characters with choices, and each choice made has consequences, some of which are heavy and others of which are deadly.  In the end, Christie must make a choice between her own freedom and her love of her children, and let's just say the story does not end at all the way I had expected or hoped.  While one may think at first that the events transpiring in this spa are all simply manipulations of some mastermind behind the scenes, Coffman leaves it very much open to interpretation as to whether there is black magic, or even Satanic powers, at work, or whether everything is simply coincidence and the over-active imaginations of already troubled people.  I have my suspicions, particularly about Meridon and Klinkajou - but I'm guessing I will have to wait for future books to reveal those truths (if they ever do at all!).

 

As I said above, the book lacks a lot of the standard tropes that one usually finds in these Gothic novels.  There are no secret passages, no young woman trying to uncover some mystery in the dark house where she finds herself.  There are no two men, both vying for the heroine's affections, with one turning out to be the villain after all.  No ghosts, no haunting sounds, no long-hid secrets to be revealed.  Instead, we get a small community that seems to be controlled by one man, who may or may not be using occult or demonic powers to do so.  There is a scene near the end of the book where the reader is given a rather frightening description of what Christie sees (and which, I believe, gives a very strong hint as to who and what Meridon really is!), but whether that is meant to be what she really saw, or what she only imagined she saw in her heightened state of fear ... well, that remains to be seen in later books (I hope!).

 

Not sure who provided the cover art for the edition I have (the cover depicted first above), but I find that cover to be the most attractive and alluring - even if the artist incorrectly portrayed Christie with dark hair rather than the reddish hair she is described as having in the book.  The spa building in the background, however, is a perfect capture of how it, all the other buildings in Lucifer Cove, are described in the story.  There is even a light on in the second story window, keeping with the tradition of Gothic covers from this era. Another printing of the book (see above, middle) is a bit more Gothic in nature, with the dark, brooding house in the background, the mist rolling in, the night sky; however, I do not like how Christie appears to be standing in grass up to her neck, and honestly, that woman on the cover is not attractive at all!  The third cover (the cover to the right, here) accurately shows Christie with her auburn hair, and it has the spa more accurately painted.  Not sure about the red sky thing going on, unless that color was chosen to match the lettering of the title, or to give readers the color of blood on the cover as an enticement to see what the story inside holds.  I do think the tagline for this edition is appropriate:  "Was he the man of her dreams - or the prince of darkness?"  That question makes one think this is more of a nocturnal romance rather than an "occult Gothic."

 

While not at all the type of story I was expecting, and definitely not a happy ending I'm used to with these Gothics, I did enjoy the book for what it was.  And looking ahead at the description of the next book, it seems the characters do carry over from one book to the next - book two contains a story that centers around Nadine Janos, the devil worshiping priestess who appears a few times in this first book.  With that in mind, I'm hoping Coffman builds upon an over-arching story with each book, so that by the sixth and final book, we will see a satisfying resolution, with all questions answered and the villain either redeemed or vanquished.  Looking forward to see what the next five books have waiting for me when I read them!

 

RATING:  9 black gowns and pointed hoods out of 10 for a completely different kind of Gothic tale hinting at a dark power that could come from the one named in the title of both the series and this first book!