I discovered many years ago my fondness for what is known as "New Gothic Romance" which is humorous because there's nothing new about a fiction novel from the 60s. But I love these things. Touches of paranormal, suspicious characters, romantic themes! and mysterious settings. Oo la la! The sad part is I think it's basically a dieing breed of novel at this point, having been pushed aside for it's more modern counterparts of paranormal romance. You know what I'm talking about Laurel K. Hamilton and Charlaine Harris! I can only find these things at used book stores or the bottom back shelf of libraries. It's almost like a dirty little secret. heh heh. But enough blathering, more about the reviews/overviews.
Oh Gawd, Spoilers everywhere!
Whistle for the Crows by Dorothy Eden, published in 1962. It's important to note the publishing date because that gives you a frame of reference as far as the settings for these as well as the demographics the author has in mind when writing. The 60s, are interesting to me when I consider the lifestyles of the time. Those are always the parts of history that interest me the most, cultural mindsets and the day-to-day livings.
Anyway, the story centers around a widow who tragically lost her husband and 18 month-old baby 6 months ago in a car crash. She takes a job assignment in Ireland as a secretary for a bitchy old lady who's an member of now impoverished gentry. There are, of course, the old woman's two nephews who serve as creeper love interests. Let us not forget the sick mother who can't speak who and is tended by the lame daughter with a limp. Very typical tropes necessary for the suspense. Of course there is...THE DARK SECRETs! Why does she hear babies crying? Who is this dead wife and brother? OMG Why does she stick around all these weird, creepy people with their vague ways? That, I have no answer for.
Basically the youngest brother is a jealous shithead who married a poor girl while using his oldest brother's name. When the girl came to see him in person, he ends up killing the oldest brother and then the wife goes and drowns herself but not before telling her family who are doing some sort of black mail against the old woman to make her favorite crappy nephew(who's actually her illegitimate son, shhh) look bad.
In the mean time there's plenty of town gossip flying about and awkward romance scenes where the crappy nephew takes the widow horseback riding and tries to kiss her a couple of times. While the older nephew is all broody in the corner being a dick. The dead wife's brother comes around and gets murdered and the crappy nephew kidnaps the dude's wife and kid(I don't even know why they thought this was a good idea. It was pretty weak reasoning). Anyway after a giant kerfufle and a dinner party where everyone dresses up fancy, someone makes a scene and all things come to light! The crappy nephew was actually in cahoots with the blackmailers while he let his aunt/secret mother sell off her family jewels. The old bitch disowns him and the lame sister realizes she can be pretty too. The widow finds that she's already forgotten about her husband and isn't as sad about her baby's death as she thought. She marries the brooding brother and the other one disappears into the night presumably to die (his horse comes back empty saddled)
And yeah.. That was the story. :D Skipping over a lot of stuff too. I was definitely not disappointed because it was just as sordid and creepy as I knew it would be. Behold a gothic fiction! Week characters, weird plots the whole shebang.
Face of an Angel by Dorothy Eden, published in 1961
On a nostalgic hunch, the lovely young Meg attends an art show hoping to meet the supposed husband of a girl she'd spent a day with many years ago in Italy. She instead meets some weirdos from a small town which include a smartass but cute antiques dealer, an eccentric(really creepy) artist who makes deliberately bad art, and a controlling art collector(the supposed husband). She figures she won't see these people ever again but lo' and behold she does when the art collector guy offers her a job as-you guessed it- a secretary.
80% of the heroines in this sort of novels are secretaries. The other options are child-minder and housekeeper. Very forward thinking of the 60's, as you can no doubt tell. I do commend these women on at least having jobs and being autonomous and independent enough to skip town altogether and move on a whim to new jobs. It also helps that they're not weighed down by more than their small wardrobes. It's too easy to acquire "necessary" junk that we can't live without in this day and age.
So she moves to the countryside village where these three men live and gets to work. Within the first night she meets again the shy young Italian girl she met years ago. Only now she's a mentally fragile wreck who's been facially scarred by a car accident and told to pretend that she doesn't know Meg and to go by a different name entirely. Also she's a kleptomaniac. :D
Between secretary work and vague flirting with the antique dealer she sits for painting for the creeper artist. Who's dark secret is that he's absolutely nuts and his nutty old house keeper died but he didn't move the body for 4 days until his girlfriend snooped around his house and found it. The girlfriend skipped town and the artist buried the old woman's body in the woods with the help of the art collector. They just so happen to be in cahoots.
After some sort of climactic moment which was fairly forgettable, I think Meg looked at the painting she was posing for and the creepy artist went banaynays? Meg returns to work to find that the art collector now wants her and his emotionally and physically fragile wife to fly off to Italy with him so he can pretend he found an old piece of art by a famous master in his wife's old home. And then release a press statement about how isn't it so romantic that he married the woman as well. But at this point he just wants to take them there and kill them. Police show up and arrest them because the housekeeper ratted out to the police as well as the antiques dealer. Meg loses her job and and marries the antiques dealer. Happy ENDINGS!
I have no idea why I love reading this crap.
Joust by Mercedes Lackey, published 2003
I have to admit that I am a giant fan of this woman's work. I've been reading her books for the past decade and will continue to do so for many more. I once owned all the Valdimar series at one point but sadly sold it all after I got tired of hauling around a million books. You move any sizable collection 4 times in 3 years and you start to lighten your load considerably. I'm not going to spoil this one like I did the other two. I think someone who reads my blog will actually end up reading this one as opposed to the gothic romance that no one but myself reads.
The story involves Vetch a weedy young farm boy turned serf after a war. With luck he manages to rise above his circumstances and gets a sweet gig working as a stable boy for dragon knights. Basically that's what it's about. It's actually book 1 of 3, Lackey has a thing for trilogies. Maybe I'll be able to pick the next one up at the library too. One hopes!
What I like about these books is that they're easy and quick to read. It's easy to care about the characters and cry with them. If you're a big empathetic crybaby like me, it's easy. It's like eating a sandwich as opposed to a full course meal with all the sides. You eat it whenever wherever and don't think much about it.
That, my loves, is all I have for today.
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