Ghost of Dark Harbor - the first Dark Harbor Gothic Novel

"Visions of a terrifying phantom sent her to an institution.  Cured, she returns ... only to be tormented again!"  (cover blurb)

 

Having finished the Lucifer Cove series by Virginia Coffman, I decided to try a Gothic series by one of my favorite authors, W.E.D. Ross - this time, writing under his pseudonym Clarissa Ross.  The Dark Harbor series consists of six books, published between 1974 and 1975.  The books are set on "Pirate Island," a fictional island said to be set 30 miles south of Cape Cod (p. 12).  Ross goes on to describe the dimensions of said island as "fourteen miles long and three miles wide at its widest point" (p. 12).  The specific distance from Cape Cod, and the specific dimensions for the size of the island clearly indicate Ross was using Nantucket for his "Pirate Island," as Nantucket is literally 30 miles south of Cape Cod, and it is 14 miles long and approximately 3.5 miles wide.  An online search reveals that Ross's other series, Fog Island, also appears to be based on the island of Nantucket, leaving one to wonder if Ross regularly visited the often fog-shrouded island and found it the perfect setting for his stories.

 

Ghost of Dark Harbor is the first book in the series, and introduces readers to the island community, which was said to have been named Dark Harbor because its original settlers had left the mainland under the suspicion of being in league with the devil (p. 13).  The reader is brought to the island along with the main character for this story, Joyce Mills.  Poor Joyce has just been released from a mental hospital, where she was being treated after a complete breakdown following the death of her young daughter, Lucie.  The doctor has proclaimed she is sufficiently of sound mind to return home, but Joyce is not so sure.  Even her husband, Derek Mills, seems to be unsure, with his attitude towards her somewhat distant.  Without a doubt, her mother-in-law (Regina Mills) and sister-in-law (David's adopted sister, Mona) believe she is still mad, and they make it clear they do not want her back on the island, with their constant quips and smart remarks regarding her mental state.  The only understanding she receives is from the young David Chase, a painter who is staying at Mills Castle while he uses his talent to paint some ships for the Dark Harbor Museum (where Derek works).  While the household staff are nice enough, Joyce can see it in their eyes and in the quiver of their voice that they are wondering about her mental state.

 

Of course, it doesn't help that when she first arrives home, the black cat, Timmy, appears out of nowhere, startling her so that she screams in terror - after all, Lucie had been chasing after Timmy when she fell to her death from atop the high cliff behind the great house.  Then the ghostly apparitions start to appear.  Joyce is sure that she sees the ghost of Captain Peter Mills, that sea-faring man who build the castle for his new wife, then killed her and her lover when he returns home to find him in bed together, after which he took his own life by hanging himself in the basement.  No one believes her, but Joyce knows what she saw.  Only David Chase listens to her without judgment, as he admits that he was once in a mental hospital following a horrific car accident in which a friend of his was killed.   Ross slowly builds the suspense in the story, as Joyce's visions become more frequent, and it is not until she speaks with Zachary Miller, an elderly man who used to be a ship captain many years ago, that she begins to wonder if the apparitions are not ghosts at all, but a real person who is purposefully trying to scare her away.

 

Is it her own husband doing this?  After all, she did find an old captain's uniform hidden in the chapel near Mills Castle, and he was upset that she had discovered it.  Could he be trying to get rid of her so he would be with Faith Patterson, the woman with whom everyone says he is having an affair?  Or is it Regina and Mona, working together to remove a woman they do not see mentally fit to be a member of their prestigious family?  With her gone, Mona would have a chance with her adopted brother (since they are not blood related).  Or, as much she hates to think it, could it be Uncle Henry Mills, her husband's uncle who lives with them at the castle, and who spends most days drinking more alcohol than he should while living off of his relatives' money.  He seems to be in the right place at the right time whenever Joyce has a scare.  Could he have some secret reason for wanting her gone?  And what about David Chase?  She really knows nothing about him, and although he has declared his love for her and wants nothing more than to rescue here from the taunts and terrors of the Mills family, could he be trying to scare her so that he can have her all to himself?

 

Ross certainly provides the readers with plenty of suspects, plenty of motives, and plenty of questions as to whether Joyce is really seeing anything at all, or if it is all in her imagination.  Regina and Mona are downright nasty, and I kept waiting for Joyce to stand up for herself against them (the few times she does, I nearly cheered!).  Even Derek, her own husband, comes across as cold and pretty much heartless, constantly berating her for expressing what she sees, threatening to send her back to the mental hospital if she does not stop.  I found Joyce to be an extremely weak-willed character, and maybe Ross intended her to be that way; but all the while I was reading, I kept waiting for Joyce to grow a backbone and finally stand up to all these people.  She had the support of David Chase, Uncle Henry, and even Captain Miller, who listened to all of her problems every time she visited him and offered her sound advice.  Sadly, although she has a few moments of strength, Joyce remains the helpless victim through most of the story, even reaching the point where she begins to question her own sanity and believe maybe she does need to go back to the hospital. 

 

In true W.E.D. Ross style, the big reveal and climactic revelations and battle all occur within just the last few pages of the story, with no huge fanfare at all.  After spending nearly 175 pages building up the suspense to the point where you think you are going to burst if the story doesn't break, Ross gives readers a quick reveal of the culprit behind everything, with a paragraph, maybe two, that explains why the person did what they did.  Then, it's all over, Joyce is safe, and it turns out she is not crazy after all.  Sadly, Ross does not give the reader any satisfaction when it comes to seeing the people who treated Joyce so poorly eat crow for thinking she was making up everything she saw.  I would have liked to have seen some sort of recompense, but instead, we simply get a closing scene of Joyce realizing that the horrors are all behind her, and everything "is going to be different!" (p. 190).  But, Ross is pretty much consistent in his writing, as every story I've read of his ends in this same manner.

 

One thing Ross does do in the story is give readers a quick look at some of the members of the community in Dark Harbor, which makes me wonder how many of these inhabitants will become the focus of future books in the series.  We get brief glimpses and information about Matthew Kimble, who came home after being in prison to run the local inn and tavern (p. 19).  There is also the unnamed New York playboy who purchased the old monastery up on the hill, which used to be a place where monks cared for lepers and is now rumored to be a secret house of debauchery and partying (p. 20).  Captain Zachary Miller, on the other hands, names off a list of the island's more colorful characters:  Crevecoeur, the French nobleman; Ruben Chase and Long Tom Coffin, who cared for nothing but the sea; Ratliff, the British bluejacket; Billy Clark, he town crier; Mary Starbuck, the queen among women; her ruthless maid, Keziah Coffin; and the rather rotund Deborah Chase, who literally threw suitors up on rooftops!  There was also Maria Mitchell, the astronomer, and Lucretia Mott, the crusader (p. 124).  It leads me to wonder how many of these "legends" will appear and play a role in the remaining five books.

 

The cover art is provided by the Italian artist extraordinaire, Lou Marchetti, who was quite well known for his cover art for paperback novels and more than a few Gothic novels.  The cover scene, however, is quite deceptive.  At first glance, once would think this was a period piece, as the clothing and hairstyle, and quite frankly, the whole scene, appears to be something of the 18th or19th century.  Yet, the story takes place in modern times (well, modern at the time it was written).  The woman in red is meant to be Joyce Mills, and the dress is one that she is given by her sister-in-law to wear from a grand ball; but the dress is ripped to shreds before she ever has a chance to wear it.  Thus (as with so many Gothic paperback covers), the scene never actually appears anywhere in the story.

 

Overall, I'd say this was a fairly decent start to this series, and I look forward to seeing what's up next in Dark Harbor!

 

RATING:  8 slashed up crimson gowns out of 10 for a ghostly story of mental madness, sinister spirits, and terrifying torments that create a true Gothic tale of suspense and mystery!

House of Dark Laughter - an Avon Gothic Original

Any fan of the Gothic novels from the 1960s and '70s knows that the plots to these books all follow a similar formula - a young woman goes to a mansion/house/castle for whatever reason, and she faces multiple dangers from unknown sources, all while fending off two men, one of whom is good and one of whom is bad - but which is which?  Sure, the settings change, the characters change, and some plot elements same, but they all basically boil down to the same story when you get down to it.  This particular book, published by Avon Books in July 1972 under their "Avon Gothic Original" line, not only follows that pattern, but it shares a lot of story elements with other Gothic novels that I have read in recent years.  Two are The Dornstein Icon and The Ravens of Rockhurst (in which the main character goes to a house to evaluate antiques, like our young heroine in this book does); and the other is ... well, if I said which book it was, it would definitely spoil the big surprise in this one!

 

House of Dark Laughter was written by Melissa Napier.   I was unable to find any information about the author online, so it is uncertain whether "Melissa Napier" is the author's real name or simply another pseudonym.  The copyright page for this book does not offer any aid, as the copyright is to Script Associates, and not the author.  (And as a side note, the copyright page indicates this book was "Published by arrangement with Script Associates," which was a book packaging agency back in the day.)  This might tend one to believe the author's name is merely a house pseudonym for this agency.  In any event, the story itself is not half-bad, although the main character is certainly put through the wringer!  Betsy Vaughn is a young woman who is about to start a new job.  Hired by Carter Willard, Betsy heads off to a remote town in Pennsylvania where she will be cataloguing antiques in the stately Dalton Mansion.  Old Man Dalton has been ill for some time, and he wants all of his possessions catalogued and valued before he dies.  Carter, as the man's secretary, has brought Betsy to the great house, as she is an expert in her field.  The only problem is, the members of Dalton's family do not want her there (big shock)!

 

Dalton's wife, Alice, is a nasty piece of work who makes it clear from the moment Betsy arrives that she runs the household and Betsy had better not be snooping and better stay out of her way!  Dalton's nephew, Derek, and his niece, Lorna, are spoiled and want nothing more than to see their uncle die so they can get their hands on his money.  Even Edith Austin, the Daltons' housekeeper, runs hot and cold - one minute she is friendly, and the next she is spewing nothing but hatred.  Betsy quickly learns no one can be trusted in the house - not even Carter, for whom she is beginning to develop feelings.  Everyone seems to simply be biding their time until Mr. Dalton dies.  But the mystery lies in the question - why is everyone so dead set on getting rid of Betsy?  She is simply there to catalogue, evaluate, and value all of the contents of the house.  Wouldn't they want to know the value, so that when they do get their grubby little hands on the countless antiques, they will be able to sell them for what they are really worth?  What possible reason could they have for trying to get Betsy to leave?  And who is so dead-set against her being there that they would be willing to kill her?

 

Yes, poor Betsy suffers more in this book than even Nancy Drew did in any of her mysteries.  Betsy gets conked on the head not once, not twice, not even three times - but on four separate occasions over the span of just a week or so, the woman is knocked unconscious by the cruel culprit determined to rid the house of her presence!  She is also attacked in the basement, nearly electrocuted, and near the end, she is almost buried alive!  All of this because of a secret of which she has absolutely no knowledge.  Oh, the reader surely will begin to suspect about half-way through the story when there is a passing mention of a certain incident from the Dalton family's past; but Betsy does not make the connection, as it is so far-fetched and not within her realm of knowledge that she would never even suspect the key that she holds.  Overall, the mystery and suspense are built at a pretty rapid pace, which makes the story much more engaging than it might otherwise be.

 

The title is somewhat misleading, as there is only one very brief moment in the book where there is any "dark laughter."  With that title, I was expecting Betsy to hear laughter reverberating through the house and the hallways late at night or when no one else was around, but that is not the case.  Rather, the only time the laughter is heard is for a brief second before Betsy falls unconscious after being struck on the head (twice, to make sure she goes out!) when she is about to enter a dark room where she was lured by the villain.  The woman's laughter, combined with the smell of perfume that Betsy remembers lingering in the air just before she was knocked out, is what helps our young heroine figure out who is trying so desperately to get her out of there. 

 

As with so many of these books, there is no credit given for the cover art, and the art itself shows no signature.  However, a quick online research reveals the artist is Robert McGinnis (1926 - 2025), who only recently passed away last year.  McGinnis was quite the busy artist, painting covers for countless paperback novels - including men's adventure series, romance books, historicals, westerns, and Gothic novels - as well as a large number of movie posters and art for magazines.  You can check out his work at the official Robert McGinnis Artwork website.  The one thing I should note about the cover for this book is that the woman running away from the house is definitely NOT our heroine, Betsy Vaughn.  The cover depicts a young blonde beauty running fearfully from that mansion in the background; yet, in the story, Betsy is described as having hair that is "thick and as luxuriantly black as a raven's wing" (p. 6).  Thus, either the artist was not given any description of the characters from the book when commissioned to do the cover, or the publisher simply chose an already completed painting and slapped it on as the cover for the book without any regard as to whether it matched the story or not (which, as we all know, happened quite often during this period).  Despite this discrepancy, the cover art is beautiful in its own right and can be appreciated for the gorgeous work that it is.

 

While not necessarily one of the best written Gothics of the period, it is a fairly enjoyable read.

 

RATING:  7 original manuscripts of Samuel Clemens out of 10 for crafting a wickedly fun tale filled with absolutely vile people, a determined young heroine, and a house filled with more danger than you can shake a stick at! 

The Dornstein Icon - an Avon Gothic original

I have to make a confession about this book before I even start this blog post.  The sole reason I bought this book is because a friend of mine had shown me the cover to the book, and we laughed about the comparisons it has to the second cover art to the Nancy Drew mystery, The Hidden Window Mystery.  Yes, the similarities are slight, but there are enough common elements that when I happened across the book in my local used bookstore, I went ahead and picked it up.  It has been sitting on my shelf for several years now, and I finally decided it was about time I read it.  

 

The Dornstein Icon provides that tagline that "[a] young American becomes a terrified prisoner and an unwilling bride in a castle in Austria" on its cover.  It tells the story of Caroline Dudley, who work for an American art dealer, Greg Alpert.  She was a student of art in college, and she has just started in her career with Greg.  The two are in Vienna, where Greg is hoping to return some very valuable art objects to their rightful owners, including an extremely old "icon" to a prominent Austrian family.  Now, I'll admit, I wasn't sure what an "icon" was in art world terms, so I had to look it up.  It turns out an icon is a religious work of art, usually a painting of a sacred image - in this instance, it is a small painting of the Holy Mother, Mary.  Caroline is excited about being in Vienna, and she is anxious to meet the Graf Rudolf von Dornstein, whose home they will be visiting so Greg can show him the numerous items in the hopes of returning some of the lost items to their rightful owner.

The mystery that presents itself as soon as Caroline and Greg arrive at the Dornstein manor is actually pretty dark.  There's a strange old man who seems to dance erratically in the garden and around the grounds' fountain.  Soon enough, he attacks Caroline, nearly choking the life from her.  He is revealed to be Rudolf's uncle, who became mentally unstable after the war with the Turks.  Then there's Rudolf's mother, the Countess von Dornstein.  She is friendly enough, yet when shown the Dornstein Icon, it is clear that she recognizes it immediately - so why does she deny its authenticity after her son sternly tells her to reconsider?  And then there is Rudolf von Dornstein himself.  Like hot and cold running water, he switches from the kind and considerate lord of the manor to the brash and domineering despot who demands obedience from those around him.  Caroline is not sure what to think, but she and Greg begin to realize something is wrong when Rudolf sends Greg's car down into the village to be "repaired," leaving them stuck at the castle.  Are they truly guests, or have they become captives with something much more sinister in mind?

 

I recently read some commentary about the author, Janet Louise Roberts, who was dubbed "The Mistress of Romantic Mystery," and who wrote quite a number of gothic and romance novels under her own name, as well as under pseudonyms such as Louisa Bronte, Rebecca Danton, and Janette Radcliffe.  According to an interview she gave to Publishers Weekly, Roberts used pseudonyms "to avoid embarrassing her father, a missionary in a rather conservative church."  Another blog I discovered gives some background information on Roberts (The Compleat Janet Louise Roberts), including a quote from essayist Barbara E. Kemp from the book, Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, in which Kemp opines that Roberts portrays women in her novels "as ineffectual beings, subject to much degradation," and that the men are"rough and overbearing..."  I have to say, that is a pretty apt description of the characters in this book.  

The manner in which Roberts writes poor Caroline is extremely submissive.  In the beginning, I thought Caroline was going to be a strong character, who would prove herself by overcoming and solving whatever mystery lie ahead at the Dornstein's estate.  Instead, she gets drugged repeatedly, to the point where she willingly subjects herself to a very unusual wedding in the family's crypt under the house.  And yet, despite Rudolf von Dornstein's actions, she still wavers back and forth between loving him and distrusting his action!  I mean, c'mon, seriously?  What woman is going to be knowingly poisoned by a man who is holding her captive and still believe he is a good person?  I think that takes the whole "suspension of disbelief" way too far.  And the overbearing, controlling manner in which Rudolf treats poor Caroline, I just can't imagine any woman falling for that kind of man (or, at least, if she does fall for him, why would she continue to accept such treatment?).  Thus, based on this story, I'd have to say Kemp gives an accurate description of Roberts' portrayal of women and men in her novels.

Regardless of the characterizations, however, I will say the mystery does resolve nicely.  Are the treasures truly the Dornstein's missing heirlooms, or are they fakes?  How does Rudolf's actions tie into the answer to that question?  And what is Greg's part in this whole drama?  The final revelation results in a rather tense cliff-side battle where two of the characters meet their untimely demise!

The cover art is beautifully rendered, with Caroline running through the Dornstein's manor, the only lights streaming through a stained-glass window behind her.  The emptiness and gloom of the manor, with its rock floor and walls, the empty dining room in the background, and the look of desperation on Caroline's face give the reader a clue as to the intensity of the story that is held behind the cover.  I'm not really sure the import of the stained glass, though, as the only mention of stained glass in the story is the fact that one of Caroline's artist friends actually did work with such glass. It does not really play into the mystery at all, particularly since the "icon" in question is a painting of the Virgin Mary.  I guess it was simply used to make a beautiful cover.

RATING:  6 pairs of sapphire drop earrings out of 10 for creating a dark and sinister mood of fear, dark motives, and desperation - all necessary elements of a good gothic tale!