The Haunting of Drumroe - a Fawcett Gold Medal gothic

This is another one of those gothic novels that I bought some time ago because the cover image resembled the cover of a Nancy Drew mystery (in this instance, the cover to The Secret of Red Gate Farm).  It has been sitting on my shelf with the other books whose covers are similar to Nancy Drew books for years, so I figured it was time to dust it off, pull it out, and actually read it.  When I bought it, I had not even bothered to read what it was about, so imagine my surprise to find it is set in Ireland!  Having visited there just a couple of years ago, I was thrilled to read a book whose setting would bring back some great memories of my trip there.  Plus, it was fun to see how many places in the book I had actually visited, and how many were fictional settings created by the author.  And speaking of the author, as with so many, "Claudette Nicole" is a pseudonym for Jon Messmann, who wrote several Gothics under this name, but also wrote some men's adventure books as "Nick Carter."  It still amazes me how many male authors wrote these romance and Gothic titles back in the day under female pseudonyms.

 

The Haunting of Drumroe was first published in 1971 (with a date of March 1971 on the copyright page) and features a rather dramatic cover, painted by Jeffrey Jones (1944-2011).  Jones was a rather prolific artist, who not only provided cover art for gothic, horror, and fantasy novels in the '60s and '70s, but also contributed to a number of comic book publishing companies with art for DC, Charlton, Marvel, Gold Key, Pacific, Warren, and a number of others.   I was actually surprised to discover that I have a number of comics for which Jones painted the covers (such as Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love, Wonder Woman, Heroes Against Hunger, Heroes for Hope, to name a few).  Jones' art, as can be seen on the cover to this book, is haunting and definitely Gothic in nature.  One can almost hear the drums and feel the wind blowing through the woman's flowing gown as she hides from the hooded figures in the background (which, again, is very similar to the cover of Nancy Drew's The Secret of Red Gate Farm, which has the young detective doing the very same thing!).  

 

The story is not only one of Gothic suspense, but it is one of almost erotic terror.  This is the first Gothic novel I've read where the author makes repeated references to the title character's breasts, and the number of times Eileen Donegan lies naked in her bed could be the target of a drinking game.  It is scenes and descriptions like these that make it clear the author was a man - the constant focus on Eileen's body reads more like a men's adventure tale than a Gothic romance.   However, when you ignore those scenes, the book actually has a really great plot to it.   Eileen is called to Ireland by her aunt, who insists she must come and sign documents that would make her heir to Drumroe should anything happen to her aunt.  Immediately upon arriving, Eileen begins to feel a sense of dread and foreboding - and she realizes her precognition ability is warning her of danger!

 

I like the fact Messmann a/k/a Nicole gives his title character a form of psychic ability, as it adds a new dimension in terror to the story.  Eileen has these visions, but she cannot make sense of them, and the more she tries to fight them, the more insistent they become.  A falling tree, a crash into a lake, a collapsing bridge, and the disappearance of her aunt without explanation make for a very suspenseful read, and the standard trope of two men vying for Eileen's attention leaves the reader tottering back and forth, questioning which one is good and which one is bad - honestly, it could have gone either way!  And when you throw a mysterious devil worshiping cult into the mix, as well as a rather frightening handyman, it seems poor Eileen is not safe no matter which way she turns.  Thankfully, the author provides one steady rock in the story with Molly, her aunt's cook at Drumroe.  Molly is introduced as a caring, very welcoming member of the household - the only one, in fact! - and as I read the story, I kept waiting for the shoe to drop and some revelation to occur that she was not as good as she seemed; yet, it turns out Molly truly was a good person, the only true friend Eileen was able to make and depend on while trying to make sense of the danger around her.

 

There are some ingenious plot twists that make the story well worth the read (so long as you can get past the very strong sexualization of the main character).  The mystery surrounding the missing aunt, the devil cult, and the attempts on Eileen's life, as well as the bitter hatred the townspeople have against the Donegan family, make for a suspenseful story.  One thing I did find rather odd was that at the back of the book, there is a glossary which provides readers with the definitions of many of the Irish terms used throughout the story.  This is the first time I've ever seen such a thing in a Gothic novel; usually, the reader is simply left to look up the definition of any words on his or her own.  And even more surprising is the recipe on the very last page of the book for "Irish Green" or "Erin Sauce," which is a sauce cooked up by Molly for one of the dinners she makes for Eileen within the story.  I have to wonder what prompted Fawcett (the publisher) to include the glossary and recipe into the book!

 

I am definitely intrigued with Messmann a/k/a Nicole's writing, and I am already on the haunt for more of his Gothic novels!

 

RATING:  9 beds of violets turned away from the sun out of 10 for a story filled with plenty of dark mystery, dangerous romance, and deadly Gothic terror!

Karamour - a Fawcett Gold Medal gothic

I purchased this book a number of years ago, not because it was a gothic novel, but because the cover had some resemblance to the third cover art of The Bluebeard Room, the seventy-seventh Nancy Drew mystery. Both covers feature a man and a woman on a stairwell with a stone wall behind them, the woman higher on the stairs holding an oil lamp.  While not identical and published approximately twenty years apart, the similarity was enough to get me to pick it up.  Now, though, as I am avidly reading through all of my gothics, I thought I would pick this one up and see just what story lies behind that ominous cover...

Karamour, published in 1968 by Fawcett Publications under their "Fawcett Gold Medal" imprint, was written by Ariadne Pritchett.  I found next to nothing about the author, other than the fact she wrote four other gothic novels between 1968 and 1976.  If this book is any indication of her writing style, I would have to say that her books certainly do not follow the standard gothic form.  Yes, we still get the young woman in the spooky mansion, and yes, we still get the two men fighting over her, one of whom is good and the other is evil (but which is which?); however, the young woman is not the main focal point of the story.  Pritchett alternates points-of-view for this story numerous times throughout the book.  It changes from one person to another without warning, and even though we do follow each of the characters at some point, the author does manage to keep the secrets from being revealed too early in the story so that there are no major spoilers to ruin the story.

From the opening chapter when a boat carrying Lord Dunsan, his wife, his two children, and their governess, Enid Garth, is dashed against the rocky shore during a horrific storm, one is under the impression that young Enid will be the protagonist of the story.  After all, the cover blurb tells readers that "[s]aved from the angry sea, she became the innocent prey of a danger even more terrifying than the horror she had just escaped."  Even the synopsis on the back of the book leads one to believe Enid is the main character.  However, Pritchett spends little time on Enid during the first act, when Enid lies in bid recovering from nearly drowning at sea.  Instead, we follow Daniel Hawks as he takes Enid from the local town minister and moves her to his own great house, where he expects his Haitian slave, Hanna, to take care of her.  But Hanna is wary, claiming the girl will bring nothing but trouble.  Then we switch gears and follow Leigh Rainey, the local schoolmaster who is definitely more than what he claims to be.  Unlike the rest of the town, he is not fearful of Hawks and has no problem standing up to him - especially when it comes to Enid's welfare.  

Pritchett also gives readers a taste of Nancy, who is Hawks' mistress and who makes it crystal clear she does not want Enid in the house, as well as Mrs. Whipple, who is Rainey's landlady and for a short time Enid's nurse.  Then there is the pirate, Keen, who is always looking for treasures to steal and will do whatever it takes to accomplish the goal.  All of these characters - and I do mean ALL of them - are connected in ways that the reader does not discover right away.  But as the story progresses, we learn each of their secrets and soon discover that the threat to Enid is not the one she thinks it is!  I give the author credit for weaving a rather complicated web, and honestly, I think the constantly changing point-of-view helps to keep the reader from being left too much in the dark, but at the same time, providing just the right amount of information about each character at the right time to feed into the suspense.  And I am happy to say that my suspicions about Rainey proved to be correct, which definitely made me a happy camper!

There is a small amount of voodoo in the tale, and Pritchett plays up the whole terror connected with the storm several times throughout the book.  And while she is young and somewhat weakened by her near-drowning, Enid ultimately proves to be much smarter and quicker on the draw than anyone gives her credit for, as she ultimately solves the mystery of what is really happening in this small town along the Cornish Coast of England - a revelation that puts her life in jeopardy from more than one person.

The cover art is provided by Harry Bennett (Harry Bennett - Artist), who did a number of paperbacks in several genres for various publishers over the years.  If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you might remember I mentioned he did the cover for Hurricane Nurse and that I own one of his cover paintings for a young adult novel published in 1972.  I have to say that while this cover definitely sets the mood for the story, the woman is not depicted with any beauty whatsoever.  I definitely prefer his work on Hurricane Nurse and The End of Innocence far better than this one.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, and it offers up a different style than most of the gothics from that period. It does provide a rather intriguing mystery, and one should be warned that it pushes the envelope somewhat (for its time) with the sexual content (poor Enid is revealed naked on more than one occasion).  This is something the standard gothic shies away from, but Pritchett has no problem depicting the characters in very harsh situations.  I suppose that only makes the story that much darker, as the reader begins to worry that one of these characters is more violent than we first assume.  The book is worth the read, and the cover blurb describes the story with 100% accuracy!

RATING:  9 tankards of mulled wine out of 10 for daring to put the book's heroine in far more danger than just someone trying to frighten her away from the dark house, and yet still giving her the strength to come out on top!