The Secret of Barnabas Collins - the 7th Paperback Library Gothic Novel based on ABC-TV's suspense drama (Dark Shadows)

With the introduction of the vampire, Barnabas Collins, in the previous book in this series, author W.E.D. Ross (under his pseudonym, Marilyn Ross), keeps the focus on this sensational new character that took the world by storm on the daytime television soap.  Poor Victoria Winters is pushed even further into the background, and just as her character left the television show, it is only natural that Ross was required to remove the character from the book series, so that it remained somewhat tied in to the characters of the soap opera.  While the stories in these books are most certainly a far deviation from the stories seen every day on the daytime drama, the major players in both series are relatively the same (although, to be honest, once Barnabas Collins, and later Quentin Collins, took center stage, the remaining members of the current-time Collins family were only seen now and again, never truly having any major roles in the book series).

 

The Secret of Barnabas Collins is the seventh book in this series, and it brings Barnabas Collins into the "current" time.  Readers get a surprisingly abbreviated look at Barnabas' arrival at Collinwood.  Gone is any reference to Willie Loomis and his opening of the casket to look for jewels; gone is any reference to Mrs. Johnson opening the door to the "cousin from England"; gone is any surprise on the part of the various family members as to Barnabas looking so much like his "ancestor," whose portrait hangs in the foyer.  Instead, we get a brief reference to Victoria Winters opening the door to find Cousin Barnabas standing there (I should be thankful I get this all-too quick appearance by Vicki!); we get told the portrait of the original Barnabas has been taken down while work is done on the wall; and we hear Vicki relate the loss of her love, Ernest Collins (with a reference by Barnabas that Burke Devlin would make a great match for her).  On top of this, we are introduced to a vicar in Collinsport who is strangely familiar with a lot of Collins' history, and he is able to tell Vicki and Barnabas a few facts about Stormcliff, the house not far from Collinwood that burned down a century before ... a place that Barnabas knows all too well, as his mind returns to that time in 1870 ...

 

And thus begins another flashback tale of an untold story of Barnabas Collins, as he wandered the world in his vampire state.  It is evident in Ross' continuity that Barnabas was never confined to his coffin on the Collinwood estate, but actually did end up going to England, as that is where we find him as the flashback begins. Barnabas is engaged to the lovely Lady Clare Duncan, yet one more woman who resembles his Josette - only this doppleganger has blond hair.  In a twist of fate, Lady Clare discovers the truth about Barnabas, but she loves him anyway, and when he breaks the engagement and disappears, she follows his trail to France (where she must fend off another vampire posing as a doctor), and then to America, where she finds him on the Collinwood estate, staying at Stormcliff rather than the Old House.  

 

Now, let's stop for a second and look at this history of Stormcliff.  At the beginning of the book, Victoria and Barnabas view the ruins of the stone house, discussing how it burnt down a century ago.  In the flashback, we learn that Stormcliff was built in 1850 by Peter Collins for his bride, who died a few months after moving in (p. 85).  Peter Collins left Collinsport, and "[o]ne of the other Collins brothers lived in the house for a while" (p. 85), but that brother is not named.  Ross then goes on to explain that "an uncle came and stayed there until he died" (p. 85), being killed in an accident at the fish-packing factory.  So that is three Collins' ancestors, who of whom are not named, that lived in the 1850s.  There is no connection given to how they are related to any of the known Collins' family members, so trying to fit these three into the family tree seems like an impossible task.

 

Back to the story, readers quickly learn that Barnabas has now taken up a dalliance with the wife of a sea-faring captain, a woman known throughout Collinsport to be unfaithful to her husband.  Lady Clare tries to persuade Barnabas of her love for him and her desire to see him cured of his curse, but Barnabas sees only pity in her eyes.  The story takes some pretty dark twists, reminding readers that in those early days of the show, when Barnabas was still a relatively new character, he was not the reluctant vampire that he later became.  There are a number of deaths, and there is even a doomed trip aboard a freighter bound for the West Indies.  However, during the course of all this, Lady Clare does meet her future husband in the form of Nathan Forbes, the second in command on that freighter (pp. 112-13).  And no, this could not possibly be the same Nathan Forbes from the 1795 storyline on the TV show - even though both men were naval officers, the Forbes in the television drama was killed by Barnabas for telling Naomi Collins that her son was a vampire; plus, this book is set in 1870, nearly 80 years after that storyline, meaning that Nathan Forbes would have been over 100 years old at the time!  Since the Forbes on the TV show had no children, we can only guess that this Nathan Forbes is perhaps a nephew or even great-nephew of the original.  At least this Nathan Forbes escapes Barnabas' wrath and lives a long life with his bride, Lady Clare Duncan.

 

I also have to wonder just who "Ben" is - the manservant who stays with Barnabas throughout the story (although he meets an untimely demise by the end).  In the television show, Barnabas had Ben Stokes (or Ben Loomis in the '90s show) who helped him, even after he was cursed to walk the earth as a vampire. But that Ben was already middle aged in 1795, so there is no way he could still be alive in 1870, unless Barnabas turned him, giving him eternal life (which is never stated in the book).  Perhaps, like with Forbes, this is merely a distant nephew or such of the original Ben Stokes - or, perhaps, he is not even related at all, since the story never provides his last name.  There is an odd contradiction with regards to the character within the book - when we are first introduced to Ben, he is described as "a woefully heavy stopped man with sandy gray hair" (p. 27), which sounds an awful lot like Thayer David's Ben Stokes from the soap; however, later in the story, when Lady Clare is following Barnabas' trail, and innkeeper refers to Ben as "sick" and "the thin one, the servant..." (p. 38).  Either Barnabas switched manservants along the way, or Ben suddenly lost weight on the trip to go from "woefully heavy" to "thin."

 

I will say, I did enjoy this book a bit more than the previous one.  While the story deals with Barnabas' secret life as a vampire, the main character is actually Lady Clare Duncan, and the reader is asked to sympathize with her dilemma - the man she is in love with is a vampire, cursed by a scorned lover to walk the earth as the living dead; should she try to cure him, or should she destroy him before he can harm anyone else?  The Gothic elements are all there, with her doomed love for a villainous man, the dark castles and homes, the secrets and lies everywhere she goes, and the young hero who must fight to save the woman he has fallen in love with from the evil that threatens to take her away.  

 

RATING:  8 goblets of blood-red wine out of 10 for Gothic suspense, mystery, and horror in true Dark Shadows fashion. 

Barnabas Collins - the 6th Paperback Library Gothic Novel based on ABC-TV's suspense drama (Dark Shadows)

And we finally reach the introduction of Barnabas Collins in the Paperback Library Gothic book series.  Published in November 1968, well over a year after Jonathan Frid first appeared as the vampire on the television show back in April 1967.  I'm not really sure why it took the book series so long to catch up to the television show, character-wise; perhaps because the character was never intended to be long-lasting (originally he was intended only for a 13-week stint, and then he was to be killed off), or maybe it was simply that the books were more Gothic than supernatural.  Whatever the reason, it was clear the character of Barnabas Collins was a huge hit on the TV show, so thus, it would only make sense the publisher would want the best-selling character to appear in the books.  Of course, this meant reducing the role that Victoria Winters plays in the books, and to me, that was a major loss...

 

(It should be noted that the month this book was published was the same month that Alexandra Moltke, the actress who originated the role of Victoria Winters in the television show, left Dark Shadows, being replaced briefly by Betsy Durkin and then Carolyn Groves, before the character was completely written out in January 1969.)

 

Barnabas Collins is the sixth book in this series, and it introduces readers to the Barnabas Collins of this book series, which I have come to believe is simply another of the many parallel times that exist within that room deep within Collinwood's haunted halls.  Rather than introducing Barnabas by having Willie Loomis try to rob his gave, only to get an unexpected surprise, we get instead a story told by the ghost of Elizabeth and Roger's grandmother of events that took place at the turn of the 20th century.  In the book universe, there is no Willie Loomis, there is no Mrs. Johnson, and we barely see David Collins and Carolyn Stoddard.  Victoria Winters, who has been the main focus of the first five books, now takes a back seat, as she appears only in the prologue and epilogue, as she sits with Elizabeth to listen to the story of "Barnabas Collins," a name she happens to see while reading a journal of one Jonas Collins.  Elizabeth knows scant details, only what her grandmother told her. With the first chapter, we get a brief introduction of Margaret Collins, whose spirit speaks from beyond the grave to tell the full story of what happened back in 1902 and the ensuing years...

 

Jonas Collins is the head of the family, and his wife Margaret is the mistress of Collinwood.  Their grown son is off on his own, and the only other member of the family on the estate is their invalid daughter, Greta.  Ross never actually states what disease the poor girl has, but she is confined to a wheelchair and said repeatedly to be in poor health.  While not a happy household, there is no real unhappiness - merely melancholy and acceptance.  An elderly housekeeper remains on the property (Granny Entwhistle), as do the sister maids, Ada and Patience Griffin.  The family retains a houseboy, Luke Sinnot, who is mentally handicapped, as well as an unnamed groom.  All is normal and routine on the estate until the day he appears.  While standing at Widow's Hill, looking out over the ocean, she feels his presence, before she sees him.  Barnabas Collins.  An enigmatic man who claims to be the descendant of the original Barnabas Collins, who has come home to the family estate for some peace and quite to conduct "experiments" without interruption (this is the excuse he gives why they will never see him during the day, and why he cannot be disturbed in the Old House).  As you might suspect, once Barnabas arrives, everything changes.

 

Greta is instantly drawn to her cousin, particularly when he shows her special attention, remarking on her resemblance to Josette Collins (gee, can you see where this is going?).  Jonas is just happy to have someone renting the Old House.  Margaret, on the other hand, cannot make up her mind about their new found family member.  He is cordial enough, but there is something about him that unsettles her.  And his servant, Hare, is an ogre of a man, said to be both deaf and mute and rather rough when it comes to strangers.  Then there is Granny Entwhistle.  She is old enough to just barely remember stories of the original Barnabas Collins.  She knows the rumors.  She knows the stories.  And she knows evil when she sees it.  She tries to warn them.  She tries to help them.  But in the end, it does her no good - especially when she ends up dead at the bottom of the stairs to the third floor!

 

This book definitely has a body count.  The Barnabas Collins of this book is similar in nature to the Barnabas Collins as he was originally introduced on the television show.  He has a welcoming, cordial facade that hides a determined, sinister nature that is willing to do anything necessary to achieves his goals.  What did surprise me was how Ross integrated Barnabas' origin into the book, providing just a few scattered details here and there about Angelique being a witch, tricking Josette into believing she loved Jeremiah, and ultimately cursing Barnabas with eternal life as a vampire after he shoots her and she believes she is dying.  Ross even references the duel between Barnabas and Jeremiah - but in this parallel universe, Ross reveals that Jeremiah did not die, and neither he nor Barnabas were severely wounded (p. 73).  And that's it.  While the show spent weeks in 1795, giving viewers a detailed look at how Barnabas came to be the man he is, the book spends only a few sentences.  Clearly, Ross (and likely the publishers, as well) believed those who read these books would already be familiar enough with the television drama that they did not need to repeat what was already.

 

There are some things in the story that are worth mentioning.  When Barnabas first arrives at Collinwood, he talks about how little the estate has changed, saying "Still the sad setting for the widow's wail and the appearance of the Phantom Mariner" (p. 15).  The legend of the phantom mariner was used as a plot device in the fourth book in this series, The Mystery of Collinwood.  It is actually pretty great to see that Ross manages to keep some continuity in his books.  There is also the moment when Margaret discovers the truth about Barnabas' real nature, when she sees him and Greta go past "the great mirror by the door" and is shocked to see that "there had been no reflection of Barnabas Collins at all!" (p. 39).  This is obviously a nod to the television series, in which Dr. Julia Hoffman uncovers Barnabas' secret when she finds he has no reflection in the mirror of her compact she is using (Episode 288).

 

One aspect of the story that really bothered me while reading this was the introduction of young Judith, a child who Barnabas decides he is going to adopt, mostly because of her strong resemblance to a young Josette DuPres Collins.  This was extremely uncomfortable, because Ross has Barnabas inform Margaret of his reason for adopting her:  "In ten years, little Judith could become my bride.  In the interim I'll see she has the life of a rich man's daughter.  Every luxury and advantage will be given to her.  So in the end she will be the same great lady Josette was" (p. 77).  I don't know about you, but the fact that a grown man is looking at a little girl (no more than 8 or 9 years old!) and envisioning this child as his future wife bothers me considerably.  I am surprised not only that Ross would incorporate such a thing into his story, but that the publisher / editor would allow it be stand as written!  It almost makes Barnabas come across as a sexual predator, and I think the story would have been better without this aspect in it.

 

The story was a definitely different take on the introduction of television's greatest vampire, and aside from that one uncomfortable plot element, it was a fairly good read.

 

RATING:  7 sapphire star pendants out of 10 for providing readers an entirely new tale of Barnabas Collins' arrival at the great house of Collinwood, riddled with vampire attacks and coffins in the basement! 

The Curse of Collinwood - the 5th Paperback Library Gothic Novel based on ABC-TV's suspense drama (Dark Shadows)

And with this book, the tone and direction of the Dark Shadows series by W.E.D. Ross (writing under one of his many pseudonyms, Marilyn Ross) changes to include the supernatural.  By the time this book was published in May 1968, the television show had long been dealing with supernatural themes:  from the ghost of Josette, to the phoenix Laura Collins, to the ghost of Sarah, to the introduction of the vampire Barnabas Collins, to the trip in time back to 1795, to the witch Angelique, and was just reaching the point with the evil Dr. Lang and his Frankenstein-type creation, Adam.  Thus, it was only natural that the book series would begin to introduce supernatural elements, which would go beyond the standard Gothic tropes and enter the realm of full-on horror in its stories.  But the addition of the supernatural was not the only change Ross brought into the series, as we will quickly discover...

 

The Curse of Collinwood is the story of Derek Collins and his wife, Esther Collins, who died over a hundred years ago under strange circumstances. Derek had engaged in slave trade in order to make his fortune, and his wife was horrified to learn this about her own husband.  With the help of a voodoo / witch doctor, she had her husband killed and embalmed, as well as orchestrated her own death, with the idea that her husband could never be rid of her.  Their bodies were returned to Collinsport and locked away in the Collins' family masoleum, forever to remain sealed.  Only a shaft of moonlight could unlock the curse placed upon their dead bodies, giving them new life as part of the living dead!  For a century, their coffins remained in darkness inside the cold, cement crypt, never seeing daylight nor moonlight, trapped in an eternal sleep.  But events are about to transpire that will change all of that!

 

Just as Victoria's love interest in the television show, Burke Devlin, was killed (allegedly) in a plane crash while on a business trip to Brazil, suddenly in this book we learn that Victoria's love interest, Ernest Collins, has died in a plane crash en route to Rio de Janeiro (p. 7) for a concert he was to perform (and for those who do not know, Rio de Janeiro is located in Brazil - meaning Ernest was killed in identical fashion and in the same location as Burke!).  Readers also learn that Elizabeth is no longer locking herself away in Collinwood, as she has learned the husband she thought dead for so many years has actually been alive and is pursuing a career on the high seas (p. 6).  David, who had been sent away to a boarding school as revealed in the last book, is back home; and Carolyn, who had been attending school in nearby Ellsworth, had a nervous breakdown and has returned home to recuperate (p. 6).  It seems quite a bit has happened in the Collins' household between books 4 and 5, and readers are brought up to date within just a few pages in the first chapter.  Surprisingly, there is no mention of Victoria searching for the truth about her past and her own identity - Ross apparently dropped that entire plot thread, much as the television show did as it moved further and further into the realm of the supernatural.  (And this is a true shame, as I always hoped it would have been revealed that Victoria was really Elizabeth's daughter - although, Ross did have an outline planned for a book that would have revealed Victoria's parentage and reunite her with her love, Ernest; but, sadly, that book never got written, as Ross was required to write Victoria out of the books, just as she had been written out of the television show - a brief version of that unwritten novel can be found on Craig Hamrick's website: The Secret of Victoria Winters)

 

Ross manages to keep the reader guessing for a good portion of the book as to whether the "large man" and "young woman" who seem to be terrorizing Collinsport are the escaped criminal Big Tim Mooney and his girlfriend, Nora or whether they are Derek and Esther Collins, brought back from the dead to roam the area as zombies.  Victoria, who at first discounts the stories of "Mad Man" Martin, an elderly spiritualist who warns her and Burke about Derek and Esther, soon believes that she and Burke accidentally released  the Collins' ancestors when they went into the mausoleum to satisfy Burke's curiosity regarding the two long-dead members of the family.  When Victoria, Carolyn, and Elizabeth are all terrorized by the large man and the woman with him, Burke and Vicki go back to the crypt and find both coffins destroyed - and the bodies are gone!  Burke insists it was Mooney looking for the treasures supposedly buried with Derek Collins, but Victoria thinks the supernatural is at work and zombies are now walking in the night.  In true Gothic fashion, Ross builds the suspense with disembodied hands, shadowy figures attacking, chases up the steep cliffs in the middle of the night, and plenty of appearances of these two horrors of the night.  Even I was curious as to whether they were actually zombies, or would it all be explained away by the end (as had been done in the four previous books).

 

I enjoyed seeing David and Carolyn back in this book, and I rather liked the fact that Victoria was paired more with Burke Devlin in this story (as I always loved the two of them together in the television show).  Even Roger was back to his nearly-always drunk, belligerent self in this story.  Matthew Morgan is mentioned but never actually appears (and he is referred to as "Matt" Morgan, which I found weird).  And, I know I will probably get some flack for this, but I was actually happy Ross got rid of Ernest Collins.  I never liked the character, and I certainly did not like the romance between him and Victoria.  Yes, his abrupt death and the myriad of changes that took place "off screen" between books 4 and 5 definitely tells the reader that the series is headed in a completely different direction now.  At the time it was published, Alexandre Moltke was still playing Victoria Winters on the television show, so there was no reason for anyone to think Vicki would not continue to play a major role in the books; however, this was actually the last full-length novel written by Ross to feature Victoria Winters as a major protagonist.  Beginning with the next book, Victoria becomes a supporting character, with Barnabas Collins becoming the lead character (much as he did in the television show).

 

The family history truly deviates from that established in the show with this book, as Ross introduces Derek and Esther Collins, who are both said to have died in 1859, which would have made them both contemporaries of sorts with Daniel Collins, a cousin of the Collins family who inherited Collinwood after the events of 1795 (when most of the immediate family was killed).  There is no mention of Derek or Esther in the television show, making them both original creations of Ross.  I am aware that the books play very loose with the family lineage, and from what I can remember, the stories that are told in later books in various time periods do not match up between themselves as to the names of family members living at various points in time.  While I realize the television show played a bit loose with the family tree, particularly once Barnabas came into the picture, the books (from what I have been told) do not even bother with a coherent timeline (which, technically, could be explained by the fact that Barnabas' frequent trips through time messes with the timeline, creating multiple alternate realities with different family trees!).

 

This is the first book to feature only one cover, and it is a hodge-podge to say the least!  The background takes the same painted image of Victoria Winters that was used for the first book of this series, and superimposed over that is a very recognizable photo of Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins, baring his fans and holding that wolf's head cane of his.  Obviously, the use of Barnabas' image is to cash in on the success he was having in the television show, because his character does not yet appear in the books - although, the idea that his character was a vampire could hint at the supernatural part of the story within.  But the re-use of the first book cover art is questionable - perhaps it was done merely to save the expense of hiring an artist to paint an entirely new cover.  This is the last book to feature any painted artwork on the cover - all of the books hereafter feature photo covers, with images of the actors from the television show. 

 

Overall, I would say I liked this book far more than I did the previous one.  The story was refreshingly different from the previous four, and Victoria was a bit stronger of a character than Ross has portrayed her in the last couple of stories.  Plus, the actual supernatural elements were an added bonus!

 

RATING:   8 ornate silver snuffboxes from the 1800s out of 10 for increasing the Gothic terror with the reality of the walking dead!

The Mystery of Collinwood - the 4th Paperback Library Gothic Novel based on ABC-TV's suspense drama (Dark Shadows)

We now come to the fourth novel in the Dark Shadows series by Marilyn Ross (a/k/a W.E.D. Ross) published by Paperback Library.  This particular novel was published in January 1968, which is when the television show was starting what I consider to be one of its best storylines (and by far my favorite one on the show) - when a seance was held at Collinwood ... a seance that transcended time and space and sent Victoria Winters on a journey back into the past ... back to the year 1795!  It was there that viewers learned the origin of how Barnabas Collins was cursed and became a vampire.  So, it seems rather odd that by this point in the novels, we have yet to see any sign of Barnabas Collins, and the stories continue to focus on Victoria Winters as the young Gothic heroine who constantly finds herself being threatened by some dark force (that, like in all the Scooby Doo mysteries, turns out to be a real person in disguise!).  Of course, I have no idea just how far in advance the stories were written, so there is the possibility that the book was written months before it was published...

 

The Mystery of Collinwood (and yes, they finally start calling it Collinwood at least, and have dropped the whole "Collins House" moniker) is more or less a repeat of the previous stories, which is a bit disappointing.  How many times can we have strangers / relatives show up at Collinwood, strange events start to happen that all seem to target Victoria, no one believes Victoria when she tells them what is happening, and Victoria is nearly killed before the villain is finally caught and unmasked?  Don't get me wrong - most of the Gothic novels from this period have many similar plot elements; but for a series of novels utilizing the same characters and setting to repeat the same basic story over and over again feels a bit redundant.  Now, I love Victoria Winters - always have since the very first episode of Dark Shadows that I ever watched - so I absolutely love reading more stories about her that take her beyond what we saw on the television show.  But after three books of her facing off against alleged ghosts/demons/phantoms and finding out they were actually one of the numerous strangers that were staying on the Collinwood estate, once would think that by this fourth book she would have wised up and not fallen from any more ghostly haunts.  I would like to think that at some point, her character would have grown, and she would not always play the helpless victim.  But, alas, Ross apparently did not see her that way.

 

With all that being said, the "mystery" of this book revolves around the rather odd Professor Mark Veno and his daughter, Linda, who have come to stay at Collinwood.  The Professor and his daughter travel the world, putting on show that highlight his mental abilities to supposedly read minds.  Roger Collins thinks it is a hoax, but Elizabeth Stoddard seems to think otherwise, so he is always welcome to stay at the great house when he is in the area.  Meanwhile, down at Ernest's cottage on the property, an ill woman, Margaret Lucas, and her deformed caretaker, Carlos, have been renting the cottage so she can be isolated in what Elizabeth and Victoria believe to be the final months of her life.  Margaret is a loner, but she does enjoy Victoria's company - in fact, Victoria is the only one she will allow to visit her.  Until she hears about Linda, at which point, she invites that girl to pay her visits as well.

 

Oh, did I mention that Linda bears a remarkable resemblance to Victoria?  And that Professor Mark Veno is actually Mark Collins, a previously never mentioned brother of Elizabeth and Roger (say what?!?!)?  And that Mark Collins was married before he met Linda's mother, but the first wife and her newborn baby both died?  Or did they?  Yes, it's another potential parentage for Victoria to fret about (she seems to have a new one in every book, doesn't she?).  While Victoria does not like the Professor - in fact, she can't stand him and is afraid of him! - she firmly believes his first child did not die, and she is that child.  Everyone she confides in tries to dissuade her of this theory, but she is persistent to the point of having Burke Devil hire a private detective to look into the matter.

 

And as far as the mystery - well, that involves the strange phantom mariner that the Professor tells the family about.  As the story goes, whenever the phantom mariner would appear to wives of sea-faring men back in the day, it meant the men would not be coming home, or that the women themselves would die!  To see the phantom mariner means death!  And, wouldn't you know it, the same night Victoria hears the story, she sees the phantom out on the grounds.  And again later in the house.  Again.  And again.  Poor Victoria is taken through the ringer in this story.  Knocked down the well outside (remember the one she almost fell into back in the first book, but Ernest saved her?).  Locked down in the dark cellar. Locked in an upper room with a bottle of gas thrown in for good measure.  Locked in the attic with something moving around.  Nearly hypnotized into jumping off Widow's Hill. Nearly hypnotized into jumping off the Captain's walk atop Collinwood.  And, finally, poor girl is nearly strangled to death before she gets the bead on that phantom mariner and shoots the villain with a gun provided her by Burke Devlin (good for you, Burke!).

 

One continuity error I caught while reading this book:  once again, David and Carolyn are out of the picture.  Even though summer is over (this book is explicitly said to take place in September), Ross writes off David by sending him to a boarding school, and he writes out Carolyn by having her return to Ellsworth to finish her final year of high school.  How convenient.  In any event, when Elizabeth plans a big party toward the end of the story, she mentions that Carolyn will be able to come home for that week to be there for the party.  Upon her return, she and Victoria and Linda go up into the attic to look for old dresses to wear for the costume party (p. 140), and Carolyn is the one who actually finds Victoria locked in the attic (p. 143).  That's all good and dandy.  But then the very next chapter begins by saying "Carolyn returned from school in Ellsworth on Friday evening and so was able to assist Linda with the last minute decorations (p. 147).  So, if Carolyn did not return until Friday, then how was she there earlier in the week to look for costumes for the party and to free Victoria from the attic?  Time travel, perhaps?  Parallel time?  Let's face it, stranger things than that have happened on the television show!

 

Just as the previous four books had two covers, so does this one.  The early printings had a painted cover that features Victoria in the forefront, looking over her shoulder (a very striking image of her, I must say!), with a mysterious man in the background - that could be Roger, Ernest, or even the Professor.  Collinwood looms in the background, menacing as ever.  The later printings feature yet another image of Alexandre Moltke and Jonathan Frid as Victoria and Barnabas, again working to cash in on the popularity of Barnabas Collins, even though he has not even been mentioned in the book series up to this point.

 

Read by itself, the story is a fairly well-written Gothic.  Read as a part of this series, however; well, it just feels like a repeat of the same plot with different characters.  

 

RATING:  6 new bottles of sherry out of 10 for keeping Victoria Winters alive and giving her considerably more spotlight than the TV show was doing at this time. 

Strangers at Collins House - the 3rd Paperback Library Gothic Novel based on ABC-TV's suspense drama (Dark Shadows)

This third novel in the series of Dark Shadows novels by Marilyn Ross (a/k/a W.E.D. Ross) takes the story even further away from the plots established in the television daytime drama and most firmly establishes this series as a completely alternate timeline.  While Ross maintains some elements (such as Victoria's search for her parentage, Elizabeth's self-imposed 18-year seclusion, Roger's drinking and sarcasm, and the animosity between Roger and Burke Devlin), Ross deviates in so many ways with the various cousins, uncles, and other family members that appear from book to book, as well as Victoria's romance with Ernest Collins and the lack of supporting cast (with very little mention or few appearances of Maggie Evans, Joe Haskell, and other various Collinsport denizens - even poor David and Carolyn are sent away and haven't appeared since the first book, I suppose to allow more of the focus to be on Victoria as the Gothic heroine).  It is like stepping into another parallel time, like those that appeared later in the television serial.

 

Strangers at Collins House (and I don't think I will ever get used to their constant reference to "Collins House" instead of "Collinwood" was first published in September 1967.  By this time in the TV show, Barnabas Collins had been introduced, the ghost of little Sarah had been appearing, Jason McGuire was on the scene and blackmailing Elizabeth, and Victoria was engaged to Burke Devlin.  Thus, it is surprising that the books continued to keep the focus solely on Victoria Winters, leading one to suspect that the books were actually written some time before they were published.  Not that I am complaining, as I loved the character of Victoria Winters, and I am overjoyed to be reading further adventures of the young ingenue among the dark and sometime dangers secrets surrounding the great house on Widow's Hill.  This book takes place during the same summer as the previous book, only Carolyn is now working in another town and David is at a boys' camp.  This leaves Victoria alone once again in the big house with only Elizabeth Collins Stoddard and her brother, Roger Collins, along with the gruff caretaker, Matthew Morgan.

 

In this book, Victoria believes she has finally found the answers she has been searching for with regard to her missing past when Elizabeth and Roger's uncle, Henry Collins, arrives at Collins House with his friend and confidante, Benjamin Willard, and Benjamin's son and daughter-in-law, Jack and Molly.  Before the elderly man even arrives, Elizabeth shows Victoria to the apartment in the closed off wing of the house where Henry stays whenever he visits - an apartment that has a secret room hidden away through the door in the back of a closet - a room that is quite literally a room from the Ritz Hampton hotel in New York City that was transported piece-by-piece and recreated in this closed off part of the house.  The room holds special meaning for Henry Collins, as it hearkens back to a time past, when he was young and in love with a woman - a woman who met a tragic end, and for whom Henry has been grieving every since.  In fact, he has returned to Collins House in very poor health and anticipates dying there.  And thus, the mystery and the terrors begin once again for poor Victoria Winters...

 

Ross does a bit of a repeat on this plots with this story - a family members comes to Collins House to stay ... a tragic story involving a past love ... a room in the closed off wing of the house is opened ... the "ghost" of a woman long-thought dead is seen by Victoria ... someone is stalking poor Victoria ... the climax reveals there was no ghost, and the real culprit is the one you would least expect.  It is almost as if there is a set pattern for his stories, and he just fills in the blanks with various new characters and situations.  Yet, despite the sameness of the plot, the story was still rather enjoyable.  I thoroughly enjoyed the possibility of Victoria being related to Henry Collins - Ross certainly established all of the right elements for that to have been revealed!  It would have made for a very nice twist to the television story (which was pretty much set up to reveal Victoria as Elizabeth's daughter), and it would have given Victoria's story some closure that fans never received from the TV show.  From my understanding, Ross had a definitely idea in mind for Victoria's parentage, that he would have eventually revealed had he been allowed to keep the character in the books; but, alas, once Victoria was gone from the show, Ross was told to remove her from the books.

 

The book does give some explanation about the current (for the time the book was published) Collins' family tree.  When Henry Collins is first introduced, Elizabeth informs Victoria that he is her "father's older brother and the only surviving member of all that family" (p. 9).  We know from the TV show that Jamison Collins was Elizabeth and Roger's father, and that he had one sister, Nora.  In the show, there was no brother named Henry, so this, in and of itself, sets this book series apart from the television drama.  He is referred to as the "older" brother, hinting that there were other aunts and uncles out there, which would account for Cousin Ernest, since Elizabeth plainly says Henry has no surviving members of his line of the family.  I do not recall the books ever mentioning the names of Ernest's parents, but since he bares the Collins' name, it would have to be a brother of Jamison's, other than Henry.  Thus, in this book parallel time world, Jamison Collins had at least two brothers - Henry was one, and Ernest's father was the other.  Whether there are other siblings, I suppose I will discover as I continue to read through the series.

 

This book also brings in (sort of) the famous artist Charles Dana Gibson, who is famous for his illustrations of tall, narrow waisted women who were independent and stylish.  Roger snidely refers to Victoria as a "Gibson Girl," an observation to which Uncle Henry wholeheartedly agrees (p. 24). Henry goes on to explain to Victoria that Gibson and his wife, Irene Langhorne (who was, indeed, the real-life wife of Charles Gibson).  While this book indicates Gibson and his wife met and fell in love in Bar Harbor, Maine (p. 24), there is no evidence of that being the case in the real world.

 

Another interesting tidbit in this book is the Collins' strawberry field.  Yes, you read that right.  Apparently, the Collins family has a field where they grow strawberries, located "about a mile from the estate grounds and off the road leading to the village" (p. 69).  It is here Victoria faces one of her many dangers, as Jack Willard nearly runs her over with his car, later apologizing, claiming the brakes did not work and he lost control.  Victoria, of course, has difficulty believing the man, who is known to drink quite a bit and who could, potentially, be involved in the plot to get rid of Victoria because of how close she is becoming to Henry Collins! 

 

Last, I would be remiss if I did not mention the character of Rupert Harvey, a friend of Roger Collins who comes to Collins House and stirs up quite a bit of activity.  Rupert claims to be a psychometrist, which he describes is someone who has "a natural sensitivity to objects and places" (p. 92).  He relates this ability to a form of psychic power that allows him to pick up on the history of a particular thing or past simply by touching it.  It is interesting that the term is used in the para-psychological sense for this book (which I suppose is not too surprising, considering the nature of these stories), as psychometry also refers to an actual field of study that is concerned with the psychological measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personal traits.  Honestly, until I saw this term used in this story, I had never actually heard of the word before!

 

As with the previous two books, this one also has two covers - the original, painted cover features Victoria fairly far from the great house, looking back in fear (perhaps a rendition of the scene where Jack's car is about to run her down?).  The photo cover, used in later printings, has Victoria standing with Barnabas Collins, who, once again, is not in the book series yet, so the only possible reason for having him on the cover was simply to cash in on his popularity in the television show at that time.

 

The further I get into the series, the closer I know I am getting to the last Victoria Winters story, as she is written out of the books, with her last appearance being in book six (and even that appearance is peripheral, as she does not actually appear as a character in the main story, which focuses solely on Barnabas Collins).  So, I must relish her stories while they last, no matter how formulaic they may be!

 

RATING:   8 emerald necklaces with matching earrings out of 10 for bringing Victoria (and readers!) to the brink of discovering her origins, within the confines of a terrifying tale of past love and murder!

Victoria Winters - the 2nd Paperback Library Gothic Novel based on ABC-TV's suspense drama (Dark Shadows)

I am having a thrilling time re-reading these Dark Shadows novels from the late '60s (which continued into the early '70s, well past the end of the television show).  It has been so many years since I originally read them, it is like I am reading them again for the first time.  And the author, W.E.D. Ross (writing under his most popular pseudonym, Marilyn Ross) does a pretty decent job with the characterization, capturing some of the nuances the actors instilled in the characters on TV.  I especially like the fact that these early books, like the early episodes of the TV show, focused on Victoria Winters, as she was by far my favorite character from the show.  Thankfully, Ross manages to instill her a bit more strength and awareness than she was given by the writers on the daytime soap.  It breathes a little more life into her, and definitely makes me love the character all the more!

 

Victoria Winters is the second book in the series, and the story picks up some months after the events in the first book (which depicted Victoria's arrival, her meeting the Collins' clan, her romance with Ernest Collins, and the terrifying events that led to Ernest leaving for an indefinite period of time).  Now, as summer has arrived, Carolyn and David are gone on a vacation, leaving Victoria behind to act as a personal assistant to Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.  The Collins' attorney, Will Grant, is still around (still trying to woo Victoria), and we meet his sister, Nora, with whom Victoria has developed a close friendship.  Burke Devlin makes a few quick appearances in this novel, and Matthew Morgan is his usual grumpy self.  Roger Collins continues to be the ultimate spoiled playboy.  The new characters who are introduced in this book are Paul Caine, a visiting artist who takes an instant liking to Victoria, as well as Henry Francis and his two daughters - the gorgeous Rachel Francis (who becomes entangled with Roger) and the invalid Dorothy (who is recovering from major brain surgery and is confined to a wheelchair in a near catatonic state).  It turns out Henry was an old classmate of Elizabeth's back in the day, so she welcomes the man and his daughters into her home unlike she would anyone else.  And now, with all the characters in place, the mystery unfolds...

 

 One might recall in the first book, it turned out Ernest's first wife did not really die as everyone believed, but was being kept secreted away in the dark halls of Collins House, as she had gone mad. It was revealed that she had murdered a woman Ernest had later fallen in love with - Stella Hastings, and she would have killed Victoria as well, if fate had not intervened.  Well, it seems that story was not quite over, as Victoria begins to see the face and ghostly apparition of a woman who she eventually finds out is none other than Stella Hastings!  Did the woman not die, as everyone thought?  Or was her spirit haunting the house where she had been killed?  As Victoria tries to figure this mystery out, she must also fend off a would-be killer, someone who is following in the footsteps of the silk-scarf strangler who Henry Francis tells her killed several woman back in Pennsylvania.  Did the killer follow the Francis family to Collinsport, stalking Henry's daughter?  Is Victoria simply another in a long-line of victims?  Or is there something much more sinister going on in the Collins' great house?  

 

We spend a bit more time outside of Collinwood (or Collins House, as Ross repeatedly refers to it) in this book.  Victoria and Nora head into Collinsport on several occasions, frequenting the Blue Whale, as well as Will Grant's office and the general store and post office.  Victoria and Nora also spend some time on the beach - after all, it is summer.  These interludes are nice reminders that there is an entire world within the Dark Shadows mythos, and the characters are not limited to the great house. It is also nice to see that Burke Devlin continues to make his brief appearances.  This book has a first printing date of March 1967, and by that point in the television show, viewers were treated to the final revelations regarding the mystery surrounding Mr. Devlin and his animosity towards Roger Collins.  Fans were also in the middle of the story where BIll Malloy is murdered and the phoenix, Laura Collins (David's mother and Roger's ex-wife!) shows up to claim her son.  While there are passing references in the books to Roger's ex-wife, there are no details given, and from what I can recall, the books never actually address who she is or her supernatural essence.

 

Ross once again gives strong hints at the supernatural, with the ghostly appearances of Stella Hastings, but as with your standard Gothic tale from this period, the haunting is explained away with real-world circumstances (in this instance, a look-alike who is mistaken for Stella).  Each of the continuing characters (Elizabeth, Roger, Will) are still exhibiting odd quirks and mood shifts that hint at secrets being withheld from poor Victoria, leading one to understand that Ross was likely hedging his bets, keeping their actions mysterious, yet not direct, so that if anything major was revealed on the television show, he could incorporate it into his stories.  I do like that he keeps Victoria true to form, in that she is not a Nancy Drew-type mystery solver, but rather, someone who seems to fall into these situations and is forced to go along for the ride until they resolve themselves.  I laughed at one line in the book, where Victoria was overwhelmed, and she realizes "[s]he had reached the stage where things when on around her and she simply sat in a kind of daze and allowed them to happen" (p. 100).  Many fans would say that is a pretty accurate description of how Victoria was always written on the TV show.  Thankfully, Ross does give her a bit more fortitude, so that even as she is forced into these situations, she has the mental acuity to reason things out.

 

As with the first book, this novel featured two different covers.  The first, which appeared on the early printings, was a painted cover (above), showing Victoria, in her overcoat, running away from Collins House.  This scene is taken from early promotional photos for the show, which shows Alexandra Moltke in that same position (also above).  For later printings, Paperback Library reprinted the book using a still photo from the television show, once again with Alexandra Moltke as Victoria and Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins.  As Barnabas did not make his first appearance on the show until April 18, 1967, a month after this book was initially released, and considering his character does not appear in the story at all, I find is somewhat misleading that the later printings used such a photo.  No doubt, Paperback was simply cashing in on Barnabas' popularity (since, by the time these books were reprinted, Barnabas had gained his success on the show, and the books were featuring Barnabas as their principal character).  Still, there were plenty of images of Victoria with other characters that do appear in the stories, which the publisher could have used.  Unless, of course, it was a mandate from Dan Curtis Productions, in which case, they would not have had much of a choice in the matter.

 

 This second book definitely takes the story of Victoria Winters further away from the direction she was written in the television show, and as such, it makes for some great reading.  These are new and unique stories, a "parallel time" of sorts, and it is a shame Ross was forced to write Victoria Winters out when she left the show.  This forum would have been the perfect place to reveal Victoria's true parentage, the one mystery that never got solved on any version of the television show (although, for the 1990's remake, that question was answered in Innovation Comics' Dark Shadows' comic book series, which picked up where the TV show ended and ultimately revealed Victoria really was Elizabeth's daughter...)

 

Only 30 books left to read in the ongoing saga of the Collins family!

 

RATING:  10 tiny silver earrings shaped like a leaf out of 10 for great Gothic suspense and ghoulish ghostly scares, with some well-written misdirects to keep the twist ending (somewhat) a surprise!

Dark Shadows - the 1st Paperback Library Gothic Novel based on ABC-TV's suspense drama

It has been so many years since I first read these Dark Shadows series of novels based on the television soap opera from the 1960s and '70s, that I decided it was time to go back and re-read them.  While I remember them being different from the show itself, I did not recall just how different.  The series was published by Paperback Library, with this first book being released in December 1966, nearly six months after the premier of the television show in June 1966.  The series continued for 32 books, not including the novelization of the House of Dark Shadows film, as well as the Barnabas Collins in a Funny Vein, Dark Shadows Cookbook, Book of Vampires and Werewolves and Jonathan Frid Photo Album.  The last five books in the series were published after the TV show went off the air.  While my favorite character, Victoria Winters, features heavily in the early books, when she was written out of the show, the book series followed suit (and, sadly, neither the television show, nor the book series, resolved the mystery surrounding Victoria's true parentage!).

 

Dark Shadows is the aptly titled first book in the series and provides readers with a very different version of Victoria Winters' arrival in Collinsport, Maine and her introduction to the Collins family.  The backstory remains the same - Victoria was raised in a foundling home, money was sent for years from Bangor from a mysterious, unnamed benefactor, and Victoria is offered a position at Collinwood (referred to as Collins House in the book) as governess for the young David Collins.  There is even a scene where Victoria meets Maggie Evans briefly, although in the book, Maggie is not quite as negative about the Collins family. Here, the story deviates, as Victoria takes a taxi up to Collinwood, but on the way, the taxi has a flat tire (in the show, Victoria is unable to get a taxi, because she is told the only taxi in town has a flat).  Along comes the Collins' family attorney, Will Grant, who helps get the tire fixed, and Victoria is soon brought to Collinwood, where the first person she encounters is an entirely new character, never mentioned in the television show!

 

Ernest Collins is Elizabeth and Roger's cousin (there is no definite explanation of how they are related; however, since he bears the name Collins, it can only be assumed his father and Roger and Elizabeth's father are brothers - unless the "cousin" is merely a casual reference, and they are actually more distantly related), and he surprises Victoria when he grabs her unexpectedly, only, as it turns out, to save her from stepping onto the rotting wood covering an old well.  Ernest is a concert violinist who has returned to live at the Collins' house after suffering some devastating losses - the death of his first wife, as well as the death of a young woman with whom he was becoming close in Collinsport.  Victoria has sympathy for him, but she soon learns Ernest has some dark secrets, and it's quite possible the death of the young woman was not an accident!  Is he mad, having had an emotional break after his wife died, or is there something else going on?

 

While Victoria tries to sort out her feelings for and thoughts about Ernest Collins, she must also deal with the secrets of the rest of the family.  She is warned that David is a "monster" and very difficult to handle, but she soon learns that his problem stems from his anger at being taken away from his mother.  When she broaches the issue with Roger and Elizabeth, she is told it is not her concern and to stay out of it.  As far as Roger is concerned, Victoria experiences his alcohol-induced womanizing first hand and must forcefully assert herself to him in order to avoid his advances.  With regard to Elizabeth, the woman is stern and secretive, clearly hiding something she had hidden in the basement of the great house (which,, I'm guessing, was taken from the whole mystery in the television show surrounding the disappearance of Paul Stoddard that left Elizabeth a recluse for eighteen years), and she is so quick to write off the mysterious happenings in the house, even going so far as to blame young David, even when Victoria knows the boy is innocent!  It seems Carolyn is the only "normal" person in the family, but even she has her moments, leaving Victoria to wonder.

 

The story throws in a number of nearly supernatural moments, when Victoria hears horrific scratching noises, sees moving shadows, and is frightened by a horrific mask in her room.  It all culminates in a dark, stormy night when the terrifying secret that has been haunting the house makes its presence known, and Victoria faces a life-and-death situation as everything (well, related to this story, anyhow) comes to light and a specter of the past comes back to seek revenge!  The author, W.E.D. Ross writing under the pseudonym of Marilyn Ross, does a fantastic job of building the suspense throughout the story, but as with most of his Gothic tales, the climax always happens a little too quickly, wrapping up usually in a few pages in the final chapter.  William Edward Daniel Ross (1912-1995) was known for the plethora of Gothic novels he wrote under various pseudonyms - Marilyn Ross, Clarissa Ross, Dana Ross, Leslie Ames, and others.  The Dark Shadows series was the longest series of Gothics that he wrote.

 

The book is thoroughly enjoyable in spite of (or maybe because of?) its deviation from the plotlines in the television show; yet, there are some glaring errors in the book that really stand out.  For instance, Elizabeth's daughter, Carolyn, is referred to as "Caroline" (p. 11), with even Carolyn referring to her name with that spelling (p. 34).  In addition, Victoria is told to stay away from the east wing, as it is closed off and in disrepair (p. 73); but, in the TV show, it as the west wing that was closed off and alleged to be haunted.  What I found even more surprising, however, is when Carolyn convinces Victoria to join her at The Blue Whale, Joe Haskell sits down at the table with them, placing three beers on the table - which they all drink (p. 88)!  Carolyn is only seventeen, and Victoria not much older - so Joe was basically serving alcohol to underage girls (as the drinking age in Maine at that time was 21 years old).  Some things did stay true to the show (at least, at that time), such as Elizabeth's reference to Jeremiah Collins as her great-grandfather (p. 23), which matches what she says in the second episode of the television show.  There is also a reference to Isaac Collins as being the one who founded Collinsport (p. 26), although the book indicates he arrived prior to the Mayflower, which is inaccurate - the Mayflower landed in 1620, and Isaac Collins did not arrive until 1690.

 

The book has two covers.  The first is a painted scene featuring Victoria Winters holding tight to her overcoat, with the wind blowing, while behind her is the stately house of Collinwood, the moon shining overheard.  The bare tree branches around Victoria give the scene a sense of loneliness and foreboding.  Later printings of the book featured a photo still from the television show, oddly enough showing Victoria (as portrayed by Alexendra Moltke) standing next to Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), who is not even in the book - in fact, at the time the book was first published, his character did not even exist!  Most likely, Paperback Library was simply trying to cash in on Barnabas' popularity in the later years, so covers were re-issued with his image on them to increase sales.

 

A good start to an alternate timeline for the series (and let's face it, the television show did plenty of altering its timelines - with trips to the past and the future, and even trips to parallel time!).

 

RATING:  10 bent steering rods out of 10 for offering fans of the television show some different takes on the same characters they had come to love! 

Harlequin Gothic Romance Series No. 32012 - Castle Malice

"The bizarre incidents kept mounting until she had no choice but to unmask the source of evil" (cover blurb)

 

This 12th novel in the Harlequin Gothic Romance series is the second and final volume written by Marilyn Ross (W.E.D. Ross).  While his last novel was set in the 19th Century, this book is set in the present.  Further, both the story and the cover art are a strong reminder just how much these Gothic tales are like reading grown-up Nancy Drew mysteries - dark, foreboding mansions, hidden passages, repeated attacks on the protagonist, and long-kept secrets that must be uncovered before the heroine can find her happily-ever-after.  Thankfully, Ross knows how to write a strong protagonist that does not easily fall under the spell of the men around her and who can think for herself (although, let's face it, she ultimately winds up in a desperate and dangerous situation by the end that reveals the true villain of the story!), which makes for great stories.

 

Castle Malice is the tale of another young heiress who inherits a fortune from a distant relative and must travel to Europe to claim her bequest.   As with so many Gothic tales that have come before, that distant relative died under mysterious circumstances, the house our protagonist is to inherit comes with dark secrets, and someone is determined to get the heroine out of the way in order to take the property for themselves!  In this case, Trudy Stone, a young woman from New York, travels all the way to a small village on the Italian Riveria after receiving a letter from her aunt's attorney informing her that her Aunt Julia passed away, and Trudy is her only heir.  But she arrives by train to the lonely station (gee, sounds very much like poor Victoria Winters from Ross' other series of novels) to be met not by the attorney as she expected, but by Dr. Carl Redman, who whisks her away to the home of his employer, Benson Steiburn, and his lovely daughter, Sylvia - whose grand castle (known as "Castle Malice" by the townspeople because of its horrid past) is located right next to the villa Trudy is to inherit.  She soon meets their other neighbor, aging actress Lena Morel and the young reporter who is penning her biography, Tom Clarendon, as well as Adrian Romitelli, a con man who everyone says was taking advantage of Trudy's aunt.  With all of these characters, the stage is set for a deadly mystery to be played out...

 

As always, Ross manages to build up the suspense as Trudy finds some very strange things are happening at Castle Malice.  First, she awakens to find the likeness of her dead aunt's face on the pillow next to her; then, she comes face to face with ghostly masked swordsman that supposedly haunts the castle; next, she is locked in an underground tunnel that connects the castle to her aunt's villa; later, she is nearly killed as she chased down the stairs of the villa and chocked by the swordsman; and at a town festival, she finds herself trapped in an alley, facing certain death at the hands of a cloaked madman.  All of these "foibles," so to speak, could easily be seen in a Nancy Drew mystery novel, just perhaps with the threat-level lessened a bit.  But, like Nancy, Trudy fights back and refuses to be intimidated by the masked man.  She does not believe in ghosts, and she knows that a living, breathing human is behind all of her attacks.  In fact, she realizes whoever is after her is likely the same person that killed her aunt, anxious to get their hands on her inheritance - you see, her aunt did not outright bequeath Trudy her great fortune; rather, she merely gave it to her while she lives, and upon Trudy's death, it passes to another.  The only problem is, that "other" heir is unknown, as it is sealed in a second Will that cannot be opened until Trudy's death.  Which leaves everyone wondering - who inherits after Trudy?

 

It's a great mystery, and readers will likely go back and forth (like Trudy does in the story) trying to figure out who is the one with enough reason to get rid of our poor protagonist.  Is it Mr. Steiburn, who wants to tear down the villa and build a museum to house all of his art treasures?  Is it Adrian, who willingly admits he was Julia's friend and confidante solely for the money she gave him?  Is it Carl, who shows Trudy attention, while at the same time seems to have a love affair going on with the very married Sylvia?  Is it Lena, who claims to have been Julia's best friend, yet was completely left out of the deceased woman's Will?  Or is it Tom, who has no money of his own and who everyone believes has latched onto the aging actress solely to get the money from writing her story?  All of them have motives, all of them have means, and all of them seem to have opportunity with each incident - until Trudy learns that one of them did NOT have opportunity, and perhaps she has been trusting the wrong people.  And when that one person turns up dead of a supposed suicide, Trudy realizes she is next!

 

Unfortunately, like his last book, Ross builds up the story, gets you completely involved in the characters and plot, and then, instead of a very dramatic revelation at the end and a page-turning final battle, Ross wraps up the story in just four short pages, with very little climax at all.  It is somewhat disappointing that the endings to his stories feel so rushed, when the rest of his work is so engaging.

 

I would be remiss if I did not point out Ross' obvious Easter Egg to his most popular series.  I think in pretty much every book he wrote, Ross manages to weave in the phrase "dark shadows" (which fans easily identify as his most recognizable works, based on the 1960s television show), and he does not fail with this one.  In this case, it is in Trudy's dreams, as she has a sleep "filled with gliding phantoms and abrupt appearances of the masked swordsman from out of dark shadows" (p.166). 

 

The cover artist is not identified, but the scene is taken from pages 54-55, where Trudy is exploring the underground tunnel and gets trapped within the dark maze after someone locks her in there.  The artist manages to capture Trudy's fear nicely, and even accurately depicts her wearing the "light blue cotton-knit dress that was flattering to her blond good looks" (p. 54).  The scene could also easily be translated over to a Nancy Drew book (The Hidden Staircase, perhaps, or Old Attic, or even Blackwood Hall).  In fact, comparing this with Rudy Nappi's art on The Clue of the Dancing Puppet (published in 1962), Trudy here seems to be a mirror version of Nancy from that cover!

 

This is the first Harlequin Gothic to list the author's other works in the series in the front, just opposite the title page (identifying book 11, Shadows Over Briarcliff as other "Books by Marilyn Ross" in the line of Harlequin Gothic Romance titles.  The book also has a dedication by Ross to his "good friends Dot and Bill Swangren."  Research reveals a rather unexpected Nancy Drew connection, as Dorothy "Dot" Swangren was, at one point, a secretary at Wellesley College - which, coincidentally enough, is the very same college from which Harriet Stratemeyer Adams graduated back in 1914!  And fans of Nancy Drew are well aware of the Stratemeyer connection to that series, which reminds us that this truly is a very small world, after all!

 

RATING:  8 battered red clown hats out of 10 for a great mystery filled with plenty of twists, proving Ross is a master at Gothic suspense.

Harlequin Gothic Romance Series No. 32011 - Shadows Over Briarcliff

"Her visit vividly brought back the unhappy past - and with it an unknown evil presence..." (cover blurb)

 

I finally reached the first entry into this series by Marilyn Ross (a/k/a W.E.D. Ross, best known for his series of Dark Shadows novels based on the successful television show of the '60s and '70s, as well as his countless other Gothic novels written under various pseudonyms).  Ross wrote a number of series (the Dark Shadows tie-in novels, the Fog Island series, the Dark Harbor series, and others), but he also wrote a few books in various other Gothic series, such as the Birthstone Gothics for Beagle Books, as well as the Gothic Romance line for Harlequin.  This is the first of only two books that Ross wrote for the Harlequin line, and while he captures the Gothic feel of the story perfectly, the ending was somewhat of a disappointment.

 

Shadows Over Briarcliff (I suppose he had to sneak the work "Shadows" in there somehow, eh?) is set in 1884 and features a rather dark mystery surrounding the death of the main character's sister. Jessica Rice's sister, Ann, married well when she wed Stephen Briar.  But something was amiss, and when Jessica leaves London to visit her sister at the somewhat isolated Briarcliff manor, she can sense her sister is worried about something.  Before she can uncover the truth, there is a horrific carriage accident, and Jessica awaks to learn that her sister plunged into the ocean, her body never recovered and presumed to have been washed out with the tide.  Jessica returns home, ultimately leaving her unscrupulous guardians and moving in with a friend's family who help her regain the wealth her guardians had been stealing.  A note soon arrives from her brother-in-law, asking her to come back to Briarcliff, as he was still grieving Ann's death.  Jessica decides to make the trip, but she soon discovers there is evil awaiting her at Briarcliff!

 

In true Gothic fashion, Ross weaves a tale of intrigue, secrets, and possible ghosts that will leave you guessing at the truth.  Is Stephen's stepmother conspiring to regain control of Briarcliff taken from her when Stephen's father died?  Is the neighbor's daughter plotting to marry the grieving widower in the hopes of becoming the new mistress of Briarcliff?  Is Stephen, himself, looking to remove anything and anyone that might reveal the truth about his indiscretions?  Is Adrian Swift, the son of Stephen's stepmother and a flippant gambler, causing problems as a way of getting even with Stephen?  Or is it something far more sinister and far more supernatural - has Ann's spirit returned to the world of the living to stop Jessica from becoming involved with her former husband?   Plenty of questions, plenty of motives, and plenty of suspects ... but so few answers ...

 

The story follows poor Jessica as she must not only cope with her sister's death and Stephen's grief, as well as her own growing attraction to her sister's husband - but she must also face the various attempts to scare, injure, and even kill her.  Plus, there are the mysterious appearances of a ghostly woman in a shawl, wearing the same perfume that Ann wore.  Is her sister's spirit really come back from the grave, or is someone simply trying to make Jessica think that so she will leave Briarcliff and never look back.  

 

There can be no doubt that Ross knows how to build suspense and tension (he certainly had plenty of practice!).  Unfortunately, he spends so long building up the mystery that when the resolution comes, it is a bit of a let down.  For 200 pages of great Gothic storytelling, Ross resolves the mystery, has Jessica face off against her adversary, and gives her a happily-ever-after all within the last four pages of the book!  I don't recall ever seeing a story wrapped up in such a short amount of pages before - I would have preferred to see a more dramatic confrontation, with lots of dramatic fighting and scares before the truth is revealed and the villain ultimately vanquished.  I think this is the first Harlequin Gothic that did not give me full satisfaction with the read, which is surprising, since Ross is one of my favorite authors.

 

The cover art, depicting the scene where Jessica awaits to not only smell the scent of her dead sister's perfume, but also finds one of her sister's handkerchiefs on the floor (p. 99), was pained by Len Goldberg (a/k/a Leonard M. Goldberg), who also provided the cover art for two prior Harlequin Gothics:  Castle at Jade Cove and The Blue House. A superb artist, Goldberg is an expert at capturing terrified expressions on the faces of his women, and it's almost a shame he did not provide the covers for all the books in this series!

 

The next book in the series is also by Ross, so we will see what that holds in store...

 

RATING:  8 large carriages careening off the side of a cliff out of 10 for a psychologically thrilling tale of ghosts, mystery, suspense, and moments of terror!