The Fortune Hunters - A Bantam Gothic Novel

This is a couple of "firsts" for me when it comes to reading Gothic novels.  It is my first Bantam Gothic Novel that I've read, and it is also the first Gothic I've read by author Joan Aiken (1904 - 2004).  Unlike many Gothic authors, Aiken is actually the author's real name.  An English author, Aiken wrote more than 100 books in a variety of genres, although many were children's books and Gothic thrillers.  According to Elsa Radcliffe's annotated bibliography of Gothic novels, Aiken enjoyed writing, and that she admitted "[t]hinking back over my children's books and my adult thrillers ... I honestly can't recall difference in the writing process ..." (cited from Contemporary Authors, Vol. 9-10, p. 14).  In that aspect, I have to wonder if that is why I have grown to love these Gothic novels so much - to a certain degree, they follow a number of the same patterns as children's mysteries (well, the mysteries of yester-year, at least...).

 

The Fortune Hunters was originally published by Doubleday in 1965, and this Bantam Gothic Novel edition was published a year later in 1966. Set in a small fictional town of Crowbridge, along the coast of England, the story centers around young Annette Sheldon, the editor of the Eyewitness magazine who has purchased a small bungalow in the tiny village, so that she can get away from it all and recover from a debilitating illness that has left her completely drained.  Not to mention, the time away will give her time to come to terms with her father's death, as well as her recent windfall of winning 500,000 pounds (which would equate to over 12,000,000 pounds in today's value!).  While she comes to Crowbridge with high hopes, her ideal getaway turns into a nightmare of unseen terrors, as the front cover blurb cries out!

 

The story is a bit convoluted in the beginning, with a lot of disjointed information being throw at the reader without much explanation (but, give it time, as Aiken eventually gets around to explaining everything by the end).  One of the big questions is this windfall that Annette "wins."  At first, I thought it might be the inheritance from her deceased father, but she keeps referring to "winning" the money - and eventually, it is revealed that is is from a football pool (p. 51).  I have to say, that's quite a huge sum of money to win from a simple football pool, but who's to say how big they get over in England?  Another unexplained happening involves Annette suddenly forgetting things that have just happened.  The book opens with Annette driving to Crowbridge during a dark and rainy night, when she picks up an elderly woman with her wheelchair bound ward - and unexpectedly, the bundled up ward reaches out and begins to choke Annette!  After dropping them off, when she reaches her cottage, she has no memory of the woman or being choked!  A few more instances of sudden amnesia occur throughout the story before it is finally revealed that she has been suffering these blackouts since her illness.  (As one might expect, poor Annette has a blackout near the end of the book, which makes her, and I'm supposing the reader is expected to as well, believe that she has killed someone during the time she cannot remember!)

 

Aiken introduces a number of quirky characters.  Joanna is the self-absorbed false friend who is the editor of a sister magazine, and who has taken over duties of editing Annette's magazine while she is recuperating.  It is pretty clear from the beginning that she is not looking out for her friend's best interests.  Philip is Annette's ex-fiance, who turns out to now be engaged to Joanna for reasons Annette cannot fathom.  Crispin James is the famous artist who has only recently moved back to Crowbridge, and who happens to be Joanna's cousin - giving Annette (a budding artist herself) the opportunity to meet the man.  Noel Hanaker is the archaeologist from New Zealand who is excavating some old ruins in the area, and who is also vying with Crispin for Annette's attention.  Mrs. Kundry is the elderly next door neighbor who is a bit of a recluse, who knew the previous owner of Annette's home (the previous owner being Joanna's deceased aunt) and seems very nervous and withdrawn most of the time.  Mrs. Fairhall is the housekeeper that came with Annette's new home, and she seems overly fussy about making sure Annette gets her complete and necessary rest so that her health with improve.  With so many differing characters, it is hard at the beginning to see where the story is going to go.

 

Eventually, the Gothic elements start to creep in, as we get more dark storms, shadowy figures in Annette's back yard garden, a collapsing chunk of a castle wall, a misty bog that holds unseen dangers, and a sinister plot to steal Annette's fortune - a plot that leads to multiple deaths and a house set on fire with Annette still inside!  The further one gets into the story, the more the pieces of the puzzle start to fit together, and the reader is left to wonder how Annette herself cannot see what is going on about her. 

 

The cover art (which I was beginning to wonder if the scene even existed within the story!) actually does appear eventually, when Noel takes Annette to visit the ruins of Poyns Castle (pp. 51-53) and a thick mist settles over the grounds, leaving it difficult for them to see anything.  When the pup Noel gave Annette disappears, the two separate to search for him.  As with many Gothic covers, there is no signature to identify the artist, and no credit given within the book.  I do love the cover art, even though you can't see Annette's face at all, as she is looking back at the opened door to the castle.  We do not get the typical "light in the upper floor window," but instead, a crumbling castle that seems so lonely and desolate in the green mist, with that front door half-opened, as if beckoning you to come in to whatever horrors wait inside!

 

One thing I thought rather humorous was Noel and Annette's discussion of a "violent pink comic called 'Spiffer' which, it seemed, had circulated in New Zealand too" (p. 61).  The two reminisce about characters they read about, such as Plato and Tato, the Galloping Greeks; Whizzbank Wilkins, the Wacky Wizard; boys who drove a tracker down Mount Vesuvius; and the prehistoric animals that appeared in so many of the stories.  Britian used to boast a number of weekly or monthly magazines aimed at boys and girls (such as The Boys' Owne Paper, Schoolgirl, Hotspur, Girls' Friend, and numerous others) - but I found no reference to a real comic called "Spiffer" - which is a shame, as I would love to have found some with stories about that crazy named characters Aiken has them reference in this discussion.

 

While the book gets off to a rather peculiar and awkward start, it does build momentum, and as it raced to the conclusion, I admit I got caught up in what was going to happen and could not put it down until I finished the story!  Thus, I would have to say it was worth the read.

 

RATING:  8 bodies found in a pear tree out of 10 for stretching the Gothic tropes beyond dark, foreboding mansions and giving our heroine dangers to face from pretty much all directions! 

Pleasures of Peyton Place - the third Peyton Place novel by Roger Fuller

It was definitely time to take a return trip to Grace Metalious' fictional town of Peyton Place.  After two books written by the creator of the series, and then two books written by Roger Fuller, who continued the stories of the citizens of Peyton Place, it feels like the small New England town has been fleshed out, and the expanding cast in this sequel series creates a true soap opera realm for Fuller to play in.  First, we had Jay and Eileen's tragic story (Again Peyton Place), and then we read about the difficulty the Welles' family faced because of their sinful past (Carnival in Peyton Place).  Now, readers are introduced to yet another family who has moved to Peyton Place - a family with some twisted morals who are about to come face-to-face with the consequences of their actions ... or in one person's case, inaction.

Pleasures of Peyton Place brings famed artist Joe Fiske and his family to the small community.  Fuller takes his time to thoroughly introduce the readers to each member of the Fiske family and give readers some insight as to why each character is the way he or she is.  Gus and Berte are the twins, the youngest children.  The two are opposites, with Berte describing herself as the "Gorilla Girl" (p. 40) because she was tall and had inherited her father's bone structure.  Gus, on the other hands, was "short and slight, with such delicate features, small hands and feet and long lashes..." (p. 41).  Yet, Fuller makes sure to let readers know that Berte is still feminine and attracts boys, while Gus never had anything "swishy" about him (p. 41).  I suppose Fuller did not want any of his readers to think Berte or Gus was anything but heterosexual.  Tom is the first born, a wild child who seems to only act out of rebellion, having been tossed out of one school after another because of the trouble he causes.  Then there's Scotty Fiske, Joe's beautiful wife.  She is the perfect artist's wife, who will do anything to make sure her husband's genius is catered to, even if that is at the cost of her children and her own marriage!  Of course, there's Joe Fiske himself - a self-made man, who rose up from nothing to make a name for himself with art that never fails to sell at unbelievably high prices.  He can do no wrong, so he has no guilt when it comes to sleeping around with women that he meets, believing it is just something that geniuses do.  After all, he justifies, they are just dalliances that never last, and his true love is only for his wife. Until he comes to Peyton Place...

Now, Fuller does not focus solely on the newcomers.  He also introduces readers to Harvey Peddrick, the bank manager at Citizens National Bank.  Harvey is a hardworking man who is dedicated to his job and his wife, Edith.  Edith is his second wife, who he met while on a business trip in Tampa, Florida a few years before.  His first wife had died, and so he and his son, Robert, had been on their own - until that fateful day when Edith joined Harvey on a bench looking out over the beach in Florida.  Although somewhat younger than Harvey, Edith is satisfied with her marriage.  She is not in love with him, but she loves him and loves how he cares for her and gives her a steady, secure life.  There is nothing exciting about their hum-drum existence.  Until the day her car slides into a ditch in front of the Fiske's new home ... and Joe Fiske happens to be on hand, ready to assist ...

It doesn't take a genius to figure out where this story is headed.  Joe, who normally does not paint women, suddenly finds himself inspired by Edith.  Edith is not really interested in posing, but her husband is thrilled at the idea of a famous painter using his wife as a muse.  Thus, the two are thrown together, and as one can expect, they begin a torrid love affair.  The only problem is, they actually fall in love, leaving them in a quandry as to her husband and his wife and family.  Well, circumstances conspire to bring their affair to the light of the citizens of Peyton Place (after all, it is a small town, and everyone talks!), and before you know it, all parties involved must face the truth and figure out what to do about it.  Along the way, Fuller provides side stories involving Berte's attempts to fit in at the high school and Gus's battle for a spot of the school baseball team. We also read about Tom's efforts to bed the local ladies and find a spot that will satisfy his rebellious desires - booze, sex, and drugs.  And find a place, he does, just outside the county line...

This book is definitely more focused on the standard romantic entangles of the characters than the previous two books by Fuller, but there is still some tragedy that strikes.  One of the characters does not make it out alive, and love definitely does not conquer all in this story.  Fuller provides readers with a bit of a moral reckoning for both Joe and Edith by the end of the book, as a gentle reminder to readers that "love" is not always what it seems, and one should be careful about looking outside of marriage for it.  Lust is easily mistaken for love in the heat of the moment, and in this story, Joe and Edith find out the hard way exactly what that costs.

This book was published back in 1968, and back then, many of the mass-market paperback novels came with ad inserts, often for cigarettes, but also for other books or magazines.  In this instance, however, there was an ad insert promoting the "Famous Writers School" out of Westport, Connecticut.  "Do you have writing talent?" the insert asks.  "Find out by taking this Aptitude Test created by 12 famous authors," the ad boastfully promotes.  Supposedly the test was crafted by authors such as Faith Baldwin, Rod Serling, Max Shulman, and others. Readers could fill out the card, detach it, and mail it in for a free aptitude test that they could take without any obligation.  Heck, even the card had pre-paid postage on it.  So what did these readers have to lose?  There is even a small blurb that tells you "Why writing can be a godsend for woman."  Because, apparently, a writing career can provide women with "money, recognition, and freedom to work when and where you choose."  I find it interesting that they focus their blurb on women, presumably because the publisher assumed only women would be reading novels about Peyton Place.  I wonder how many men saw this and were turned off by the fact that ad was geared towards women and not just readers in general.  

In any event, this third Peyton Place novel in the sequel series provides a standard soap opera tale, and Fuller shied away from the explicitness of his previous novels.  Sure, there are some steamy scenes, but they are toned down considerably, and readers only get the opening kisses and the after glow to read about. Even the tragic death of one of the characters occurs completely "off-screen," and the readers, along with the Fiskes and Peddricks find out about it after-the-fact.  And before you get too concerned, some of the regulars of Peyton Place do make appearances in the book - Michael Rossi and his wife, Connie; Dr. Swain; and the good ol' Sheriff, who is always looking to stamp down on those no-good teenagers that are bound to cause trouble at some point.  Oh, and I musn't forget the Coolie Smith, who is Joe Fiske's right-hand man, who takes care of everything for him - his schedule, his family, his house.  In fact, Coolie is the glue that holds the Fiske family together and takes care of all of the problems that arise. 

RATING:  7 damaged blocks and drive shafts out of 10 for showing how the pleasures of this life can ultimately lead to nothing but pain and heartache!