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!

Hurricane Nurse - a Berkley orginal romance novel

I am not one for romance novels, but I happened across this book at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair a few years back.  I remember being curious about it, because with "hurricane" in the title, I figured it must have a Florida setting.  The price was a bit on the high side, so I passed it up.  The next year, I saw that the seller had the same book at the same price - meaning it clearly was not selling for the price he was asking, so I held off.  When I hit the book fair this year, you guessed it - the book was still with the seller, having not sold now for three years.  I made an offer, which the seller took, and I became the proud owner of a nurse / romance novel set in the southernmost part of Florida.  Now the question became - would I enjoy the book?

hurricane nurse (and yes, the title is actually spelled with small letters, not capitals) does not actually begin in Florida; rather, the reader is introduced to Betsy Stockwell and her father, Dr. Cal, in their hometown of Atlanta, where Dr. Cal is quite the famous surgeon at the local hospital.  When he has a serious heart attack, Besty is told her father must go someplace to convalesce where he can get plenty of rest and sunshine - hence, he is shipped off to Blue Heron Cay just off the Florida Keys (NOTE - there is no such place as "Blue Heron Cay," although, as we all know, the Florida Keys, and Key West in particular, are very real places).  Betsy, whose mother died when she was young and who is very close to her father (gee, what titian-haired detective does that sound like?), feels duty-bound to go with him, and thus, she must postpone her planned marriage to Dr. Paul Norbert, who is a bit hurt, but understands and promises to wait for her (yeah, like we don't already know that's not going to happen...).

Based on the title, I was expecting that once Nurse Betsy arrived in the Florida Keys, a horrific hurricane would come through, and she would be put to the test with her nursing skills helping out people injured due to the horrific storms that swipe through the area.  I mean, the cover gives the idea that in the middle of the storm, a shirtless man is carrying an injured woman to Betsy, so that she can administer first aid during the dangerous conditions.  The actual story, however, deals very little with the hurricane that does eventually come through - a hurricane that does very little damage.  There is a young girl who is injured when she crawls under her house trying to rescue her kitting just as the storm hits (this would be the young girl in the arms of the man on the cover - but in the story, the man is not shirtless, and Betsy is not outside waiting for him); but that is truly the only "drama" associated with the hurricane.

The main gist of the story is the hate/love relationship between Betsy and the island doctor who is watching over her father's recover, Dr. Mark Everett.  While Dr. Everett is congenial and friendly with Dr. Cal, he is aloof and downright rude to Betsy from the get-go.  She immediately resents the man to the point of almost hating him.  But, of course, as with any typical soap opera romance story, Dr. Everett has a secret in his past that, when Betsy learns what it is, paints the man in a whole new light, and she soon finds herself falling for him despite her fiance back home.  When Dr. Everett admits his own feelings for her after the hurricane, Betsy is torn, but she decides to remain true to Paul, and she returns home to Atlanta with her father after he is deemed fully recovered.  Of course, as can be expected, during her absence, Paul has fallen for Betsy's best friend, leaving Betsy free to back to Dr. Everett - but is it too late?  Has he already fallen prey to a bombshell vixen down in Key West, or does he still want to make her his wife?

Other than flying into the Key West airport, and brief mentions of Miami, there is very little detail at all about Florida, which was disappointing.  And the lack of any real hurricane drama also left me with a bad taste in my mouth regarding the book and its deceptive title.  The one part of the story I did rather find amusing were the residents of the Inn there on Blue Heron Cay where Betsy and her father stay.  The owner, Davanna (no last name), is a gruff woman who has a heart for starving artists who are trying to make their big break (but none of whom are talented, so that big break is likely never to come).  There was the "tall, thin, emaciated looking woman" named Mavis, who is a poet; the "short, intense, bald man" name Allan, who considers himself a composer; the "middle-aged, rather fluttery woman" named Gertrude, a self-proclaimed artist; and the "lank, bearded young man" named Slug, who has no job, no talent, and no patience for those who do work in the real world (pp. 34-25).  It's definitely a motley crew of residents, and it was somewhat engaging to see Betsy's first reaction to them, but gradually watch as she becomes not only accustomed to their idiosyncrasies, but eventually feels they are a part of her own extended family. 

With regard to the hurricane, Davanna makes mention that the hurricanes do not usually come through there until late September (p. 62); however, Florida's hurricane season is typically from June through November, with August through September being the "busiest" months.  And looking back at the hurricanes that went through the Keys prior to 1961 when this book was published, it seems most of them hit in September (making Davanna technically correct in her observation).  And when the eye of the storm reaches the Cay (p. 66), you gotta give Davanna credit, as she warns Betsy that the calm is deceiving, as the storm will come back with full force as soon as the eye passes over.  I just truly wish the hurricane had made a bigger impact in the story, to give some level of credence to the title.

 

The author is Peggy Gaddis,  who was rather popular back in the day with her nurse romance novels.  She was a rather prolific author, with a writing career spanning thirty years.  While she wrote a number of books under her maiden name of Gaddis, she also wrote under a number of pseudonyms, such as Gail Jordan, Joan Sherman, Carolina Lee, Georgia Craig, and several others (including some male names).  I do have a couple of her other books, so when I do get around to reading them, I'm hoping they will be a bit better than this one.

The cover art is painted by Harry Bennett, who provided cover art for a large number of romance, gothic, and mystery paperbacks over the years.  You can find out some of the artist's history at this website:  Harry Bennett - Artist.  And, coincidentally enough, I actually own one of Bennett's original paintings, which was used for a young adult novel called The End of Innocence, published in 1972.  I would love to track down the original art for hurricane nurse, as that cover is definitely much more dramatic than the story inside!

RATING:  6 battered, spray-stained yachting caps out of 10 for at least throwing in a bit of mystery surrounding the island doctor's past to provide some drama to the story.