House of Deadly Calmby Mona Farnsworth
Rating: ★½
Publication Date: January 1, 1971
Genre: gothic romance
Pages: 219
ReRead?: No
Project: 2024 read my hoard, Project 365
Nice old Mrs. Roderick…She wouldn't hurt a soul. That's what Checkers Paget thought the day she arrived in Stillson. Poor Checkers…how was she to know.
So bad it’s good, or just bad? Just bad.
When I was a teen in the mid 1970’s, my mom read a lot of gothic romance – Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, Mary Stewart and others – so I would grab them off of her shelves and read them, too. I remember going to my local used book store and buying mass market paperback gothics by the dozen, along with traditional Harlequins, for about a quarter a piece. I would leave with a whole stack of books for the weekend. There is a lot of nostalgia for me wrapped up in sitting down with a paperback gothic romance.
So, about 5 years ago, I was at my UBS and someone had dropped off a whole box of old gothic romances, and I grabbed them. They cost me a bit more than a quarter each, but it was worth it. I’ve been making my way through them ever since.
The quality varies from pretty good to really terrible. This one was closer to the really terrible end of the spectrum. It was deeply silly, with a main character named Charlotte, who went by Checkers, which is just an indefensible literary choice. The plot is not great, and the romance has nothing to do with the gothic elements of the story.
Not one that I will reread.
Checkers? Really? That is… horrifying. It’s also the name of a large chain grocery type store in S. Africa that stocks all sorts of other things besides food. There is no way I could read that novel with a straight face.
It pulled me out of the story every time I read it.
Nixon had a dog named Checkers, and he gave a defiant speech in 1952 that is colloquially called “the Checkers speech.” Therefore, the name Checkers is linked in my mind (and, likely, in the mind of every American in the 1970’s, when this book was published) with a cocker spaniel.
This is not a good linkage for the so-called heroine of a romance novel.
This is exactly the type of thing I was reading in the 60s, when I was a teen. But not this author, and it sounds like it’s a good thing. But Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney. That brings me back!
I recently reread Bride of Pendorric by Victoria Holt for a Halloween reading game that I play every year. It was not the best Holt (I think that Mistress of Mellyn wins that particular sweepstakes, although I also quite like The Shivering Sands), nonetheless, it was miles better than this one!
I know that she was uneven, but it’s been too long for me to pick a favorite. Whitney was even more uneven, especially later in her career. I also liked Jane Aiken Hodge, but again, uneven.
Open Road Media has reissued pretty much all of the old Whitneys for the kindle and she was definitely uneven. She published into her 80’s, which is amazing, though. I think that Window on the Square was one of her best.
I’ve only read one by Jane Aiken Hodge – Watch the Wall, My Darling – which was also reissued for kindle and which I thought was pretty good!
I will also say, though, that Mary Stewart is in a class by herself. Her books are so much better than her contemporaries (in my opinion) that she hardly belongs with them. And I love her Merlin trilogy, especially the first one, The Crystal Cave.
I totally agree about Mary Stewart. She wrote a couple of slighter books when she was pretty old, but otherwise, both her romantic suspense and Merlin books are wonderful. I still reread them periodically.
And by the way, what the heck is that woman on the cover doing with her dress?
Reasonable question, no idea.