Tuesday, July 20, 2010

This Strange Adventure

This Strange Adventure
published by Dell Books
Copyright 1971

Wedded to Terror

Young and beautiful Missie Colfax was
willing to keep her bargain with Wesley
Dexter when she married this worldly
older man and came to live in his magnifi-
cent mansion. She would do anything to
escape the poverty and want of her youth -
even be a wife to a man she barely knew.

Missie could not suspect the twisted
torment behind the icy arrogance of her
bridegroom ... nor realize until too late the
horror that awaited her in the hands of a
man bent on making her the victim of
a strange and terrible vengeance ...

MARY ROBERTS
RINEHART

whose bestseller novels have thrilled
millions the world over, has in This Strange
Adventure created a truly haunting story
of romance and danger.

Hate to break it to you Missie, but I'm not hearing anything all that out of the norm here. I mean aren't Wedded and Terror synonymous with one another?

Every wife must play her part in her husband's strange and terrible vengeance, it's in the job description. Sure, you marry yourself an older man he's bound to have more baggage, but that is the price you pay for that sweet situation. Remember, a lot of ladies would put up with a lot of shit to have themselves digs like that.

And if your husband isn't caressing you with the hands of a man bent on vengeance, you're just not doing your job right.

Friday, July 2, 2010

The Haunted

The Haunted
published by Prestige Books
Copyright 1972

HOUSE
OF
LIES

Something was terribly wrong. Jennifer Stone's
brother, in Vietnam, hadn't heard from his wife
Marcy for six months, and Jennifer had to find out
why. But she had hardly arrived at the
Barnsted farm, where Marcy was staying, when
Uncle Horace Barnsted tried to drive her away.
Even Aunt Elna Barnsted, who welcomed Jennifer's
presence, hardly seemed trustworthy, and handsome
young Lyman Parks, friendly enough at first
suddenly turned hostile. As for Marcy, she had
changed shockingly - a mental breakdown had
turned the once - beautiful girl into a frightened
child, incapable of speaking her secret.
There were explanations, of course - Elna had
explanations for everything - but somehow they
just didn't ring true. Jennifer had never before
known such an atmosphere of falsehood and deceit,
of lives with secrets desperately concealed. And
slowly in dawned on her that the Barnsteds no
longer wanted her to leave the farm. In fact, if they
had their way, she would never leave.
Not alive, that is ...

Looks to me like Jennifer Stone is just trying to get Lyme disease. We can only hope that Lyman Parks, as well as being both young and handsome also has an ample supply of matches.

I think maybe Jennifer is just being a little too suspicious. I'm two generations removed from hill-folks and farmers and I'd like to know one person who has ever visited the family farm who DIDN'T feel that being asked to string beans wasn't just an attempt to run them off.

And their is ALWAYS a simpleton. Always. Marcy is just theirs. Doug is ours. Or, as my Grandmother has called him for all the years I can remember, Poor Dumb Doug.