Thunder Heights & Baton Sinister

Thunder Heightsl by Phyllis A. Whitney
published by Ace Books
Copyright 1960

"THUNDER HEIGHTS IS A SUSPENSE
AND LOVE STORY APPEALING TO THOSE
WHO LOVE BRONTE, DU MAURIER
AND MARY STEWART" - Library Journal

Years ago Camilla King's mother died under
mysterious circumstances at Thunder Heights,
a gloomy, menacing old Gothic mansion
along the banks of the Hudson River.

Camilla's father, now dead, had always
forbidden her to set foot within Thunder
Heights' forbidding walls, but when her ailing
grandfather now summoned her, Camilla
went eagerly, hoping to find a home and a
family again.

What she found in this nest of bitter rivalries,
enduring hates and constant
dangers was that the same fate
that had befallen her mother
was being readied for her!

Its dark mood, brooking
atmosphere and realistic
backgrounds make
THUNDER HEIGHTS
"A romantic tale in
the turn Gothic
tradition." - Booklist.

I was already pretty impressed with this novel when I realized that the Ft. Wayne News - Sentinel compared it to "Rebecca" but when the back also promised "bitter rivalries" and "enduring hates" I was SOLD! Any one who has read this blog for any amount of time should know that the only thing better would be to boast "evil" and "the occult". This book is well deserving of my "Empty Promise" award. I promise I will read this one and get back to you regarding all of its splendor.

Okay, I love cover illustrations from the 50's, 60's and 70's. for any genre, but especially Gothic romance and the more racy men's novels. So when I ran into this graphic little cover, I had to scoop it up.

This back cover promises that Baton Sinister is going to duel and wench his way through "the glittering pomp of Renaissance Genoa". With this cover I believe it!

Some how it seems dirtier in red.

Whistle for the Crows

Whistle for the Crows by Dorothy Eden
published by Ace Books
Copyright 1962

The job had seemed a godsend to Cath-
leen Lamb, alone, friendless, and in need of
a home. It has been fascinating at first,
tracing the O'Riordan family tree. But the
past, she soon discovered, was intricately
and diabolically woven into the present, and
its strong, slender threads were even now
involving her with

• The tyrannical spinster who controlled lives and purse-strings
• The younger heir who might - but did he? - kill to get what he wanted
• The girl who married the wrong man
• The baby who was born to the wrong woman
• The brother who weren't bothers
• The two drownings - and the accidents that weren't accidents

In the gloomy castle on the edge of a moor,
a spirited girl pokes among the moldering
bones of a family skeleton and stirs up the
dust of malice and murder.

You know that is exactly the kind of Craigslist job ad that inevitably turns out to be too good to be true. It will assuredly end with something like "Please send topless photo and measurements to help selection process." Damn! Burned again.

Okay, so this is driving me crazy. We have a signature but I just can't make it out. I would also swear on the Necronomicon that I have another book with a cover illustrated by this same artist but I can not locate it. I have scanned the books I have already posted and I even sorted through the books waiting in the wings but no luck. If you know who it is, put me out of my misery, please let me know.

The Silent Place

The Silent Place by Rachel Cosgrove Payes
Cover Art by George Gross
published by: Ace Books
Copyright 1969

There was just one more year to wait
before Rome Barclay would be officially a
widower and free to remarry. Though
his wife Suzanne had drowned six years
before, her body had never been recovered.
His secretary, Paulette, was waiting out
the time with eagerness. But then so
was lovely Fiona, his little girl's governess.

But then Suzanne came back to Cliffhouse,
not remembering her past, her identity a
mystery to herself but to no one else. Everyone
in the isolated coastal estate had a reason
for wishing her gone again - permanently.

But whose reason was the most desperate?

And how many women would have to die
in the Silent Place before Cliffhouse could
be at peace again?

Hooray! We have a signed cover here. George Gross was born in 1909 Brooklyn to Jewish immigrant parents from Szeged, Hungary. Art ran in the family. His father attended Pratt and became a successful artist in the fashion industry, running his own art studio - Fashion Paper.

After graduating high school, George also attended Pratt, graduating in 1931 even while working within his father's studio. Later he moved on to Fiction House where he soon became a top illustrator, painting hundreds of pulp covers for Action Stories, Detective Book Magazine, North West Romances and many more.

After barely missing serving WW2 due to a life long vision impairment in his right eye. he began to sell freelance illustration to paperback books for publishers such as Dell, Bantam and Ace Books.

His work can be seen on hundreds of fiction book covers and men's magazines. If you are interested in learning more about George Gross take a look at the "Guide to the Wild American Pulp Artist" listed in my Artist Resource Links.

Below are just a few examples of his other illustrations.

Chateau Chaumand

Chateau Chaumand by Andrea Delmonico
published by: Ace Books
Copyright 1968

Chateau Chaumand

An ominous storm was brewing the night Geraldine (Really? Geraldine?)
arrived at Chateau Chaumand as bride of Charles Chau-
mand. After a whirlwind courtship Charles had swept
her away with him to his gracious but intimidating home,
a vast resort on a lake in Wisconsin.

Vaguely apprehensive before meeting his family,
Geraldine too soon became aware of real, definite fear.
Someone at the chateau resented her sudden marriage
to Charles. Was it the Indian girl, Fawn, who had loved
Charles? Or her husband's handsome cousin, Matt, who
rivaled Charles for mastery over the estate ... and cov-
eted Charles' new bride?

Whoever it was, Geraldine was certain the "acci-
dents" pursuing her was the intentional acts of a
murderer ...

You might be asking yourself why I would shell out cash for a book with such a large tear in the cover. Well there are, in fact, three reasons:

Firstly, it is a "EASY TO READ - LARGE TYPE" and one never knows when a dreadful tragedy might strike that would leave you with a Vincent Price "Fall of the House of Usher" sensitivity to light. A sensitivity that would force me to read only by the barest amount of candle light, therefore making large type books quite useful.

Secondly, my husband and I once drove 10 hours to attend a Halloween Party in Wisconsin were we happened upon a very cheap haunted house that had actually stolen nearly all of dialogue from Disney World's Haunted Mansion and used it in ways that made no sense.

And thirdly, and most importantly, the publisher actually thought this book was so packed with sexual tension that it was wagering we readers would need a smoke somewhere between pages 64 and 65.

Newport, your "Alive with pleasure" ad is dated and oh so cheesy but Kent, as always you are a class act.

The Family at Tammerton

The Family at Tammerton by Margaret Erskine
published by Ace Books
Copyright 1965

THE FAMILY AT
TAMMERTON

"MRS. CRANE IS DEAD. DO NOT SEND NURSE."

At best the telegram was a cruel joke; at
worst a cryptic message warning Louise
Morton to stay away from her new job at
Tammerton Hall.

When Inspector Finch was called to the
sinister old mansion to investigate a
murder, he was not surprised, for he re-
membered the telegram Louise had shown
him on the train to Tammerton, Finch had
an instinct for spotting the first trail shoots of
an evil growth. Now instinct plus
experience were telling him that LOUISE
MORTON WAS NEXT ON THE KILLER'S LIST!

I have no doubt this is a wedding dress. Which tells me that somewhere between the best and the worst cases scenario of that telegram is that the family at Tammerton got wind that their new nurse was off her nut.

Now I'm no stranger to confrontation but even I hate having to fire an employee. So, if it were me, and I found out that my new hire was some sort of Miss Havisham crazy, I might also try and "head her off at the pass" as they say.

The Pretty Ones

The Pretty Ones by Dorothy Eden
published by Ace Books
Copyright 1957

The
Pretty Ones

SHADOWS BEHIND SHADOWS; WHEELS
WITHIN WHEELS. THIS WAS
COURTLANDS, EMMA'S NEW HOME... (what
on earth are they talking about?)

It seemed that nothing would ever
upset the joys of marriage for Emma and
her husband Barnaby, even though she
knew little about the man she had met
and married in a matter of weeks. (so what
exactly are you basing this eternal optimism on?)

Then the unpleasant rumors started
-that Barnaby's first wife disappeared
under sinister circumstances; that no one
really knew what happened to the two
pretty young governesses who simply
ran off without cause or explanation.

Emma trusted Barnaby; there were
no questions she could or would ask him.
But when a pathetic, lonely grave turned
up in the field, her loyalty to her brood-
ing, secretive husband gave way to cold,
hard fear ...

Okay, I knew my husband (Aaron Bias - See Silver Age Gold) pretty well when we got married. In fact, I could, with all confidence say I trusted him completely. (Oh to be 21 and naive again) but I would have to say, I would not have had any hesitation is suspecting that he was responsible for a mass grave in my backyard even without all the suspicious circumstances surrounding this guy.

I mean really. Mysterious disappearances, brooding, secretiveness? Emma, that ugly shirt isn't going to save you from having your neck broken.

Good-Bye Julie Scott

Good-Bye, Julie Scott by Alice Abbott

published by Ace Books
Copyright 1975

Julie Scott had never known her
grandfather, but nonetheless he had
left her a sizeable fortune. However,
her grandfather's house was a dilapi-
dated ruin, and his servants, the
Moons, kept her a virtual prisoner.
Then Brian Campbell, her grandfather's
lawyer, claimed her inheritance was
valueless and suggested she leave
Rosemont at once.

Frightened and bewildered, Julie
turned to friends from her past - only
to find that they were an evil part of
the sinister present ...

GOOD-BYE, JULIE SCOTT

Back in the good old days when the Surgeon General had ONLY found cigarettes to be dangerous to our health in some general sort of way, there was a place called Newport, a place (sandwiched between pages 64 and 65) that was Alive with pleasure! And in that now mythical place there lived Ontonio J. Gabriele who had no reservation about letting the world know he was the one responsible for the mediocre illustration gracing the cover of Good-Bye, Julie Scott. Good for you Ontonio!

The Deadly Travellers

The Deadly Travellers by Dorothy Eden

published by Ace Books
Copyright 1959

The Deadly Travellers

Pretty, vivacious, and alone in the
world, Kate Tempest always enjoyed an
unexpected adventure. When she was
hired to escort a small Italian girl from
Rome to London, she was delighted. But
little Francesca, speaking not a word
of English, mysteriously vanished into
thin air (what exactly were here child escorting credentials?)
on the Paris Express, and
no one would admit to seeing her board
the train...

Treated as a victim of hallucination,
Kate tried to find the child on her own.
Her probing led her to two attractive
men, both of whom offer their help
and their love.

By the time Kate discovered that one
of them meant to kill her, she was
caught in a terrifying web of deception
and betrayal, unable to tell which was
the friend (i'd say the one who didn't want to kill her)
and which was the enemy (the one that wanted to
kill her would be a good start)...

"No one can suggest an eerie atmosphere and the
sinister trifle better than
Dorothy Eden." - MANCHESTER GUARDIAN

I really think this a great cover. Once again, I can't help but wonder why there is so rarely information on cover artists. This book also has one inside illustration. Something I have not run into very often but which I wish there were more of.

Death Is a Red Rose

Death is a Red Rose by Dorothy Eden
cover art by Walter Popp

published by Ace Books
copyright 1956

MISTAKEN IDENTITY
AND EVIL DESIRES

When Cressida Barclay rented the vacant flat in the de-
credpid mansion, she unwittingly become more than just a
tenant of the ecentric Arabia Bolton. The strange old
widow believed her new roomer to be her long-dead
daughter, also named Cressida.

Too soon, it became apparent that someone else was con-
fusing the new girl with her dead namesake. The first
Cressida had died under mysterious circumstances-was
the killer in the house now, anxious to kill again in fear
that the phoenix had risen from her own ashes?

Weakened by terror and by her growing feelings for
Jeremy Winter-a boarder who could be foe as easily as
friend-Cressida lets herself get trapped in a corner cre-
ated by another girl; a corner from which there is no
escape except death...

I was pretty excited when I realized that the cover art on this book actually held a signature. I was ever more excited when I realized the artist was Walter Popp. Born in 1920, Popp spent the 1940 doing comic book art and moved on to book cover and pulp magazines in the 1950's and 60's. Often racy in nature, his art can be seen on covers of Amazing Tales, Fantastic Adventures and True Detective just to name a few.

Fire On the Cliffs

Fire On the Cliffs by Chris Waynar

published by Ace Books
Copyright 1975

During the past fifteen
years, the world's finest
Gothic writers have appeared in
Ace editions. Ace's list has
included such prestigious names as
SUSAN HOWATCH, GEORGETTE
HEYER, DOROTHY EDEN, JANE
BLACKMORE, MARGARET ERSKINE,
RONA RANDALL, and many, many others
-a policy Ace is dedicated to maintaining.

Equally important is Ace's commitment
to discover and develop lesser-known
authors. The Editorial Department, after
a sincere and careful selection, decides
which books will bear the Ace symbol.

This symbol distinguishes an elite
collection of Gothic novels. It
identifies for the reader those books
that meet the unique Ace standard
of excellence and optimum
readability.

And what a high standard I am sure it is! I don't know about you but I like my book to have optimum readability.

A Visit After Dark

A Visit After Dark by Daoma Winston

published by Ace Books
Copyright 1975

Her Name
Her Face
Her Husband

Recovered from a breakdown, Mary Tanner Layton
was returning eagerly to her marriage that had scarcely
begun. The confusion was gone; she and Peter would
pick up the pieces...

But Peter was living with his wife-a woman who looked
like Mary. A woman who was Mary Tanner Layton!
And only the terrified girl barely hanging on to her
sanity said she was not.

Who was this woman with her face and her name? Why
was Peter making her life a nightmare from which
nobody would let her wake up-a nightmare he'd go to
any lengths to make permanent?

Assignment: You'll notice that the whole breakdown thing seems to be a bit of a trend in goth romance books. Apparently the "weaker" sex has less of a grasp on their own identities. So please put on a good pair of shoes and start running. You may not have a good grasp on your sanity but you can at least be a decent athlete.

Castle Cloud

Castle Cloud ( originally titled The Laird and The Lady) by Joan Grant

published by Ace Books
Copyright 1949

"A sleek, well-groomed novel, moving fast
all the time ... well written and enter-
taining."

CASTLE CLOUD-
Mysterious, Shadowy, and Evil...

Traveling alone to France from her native
America, Marylda meets and falls in love with
Rowan Cairdrie, handsome young laird of an-
cient Castle Cloud. After their whirlwind court-
ship and marriage, Rowan takes his bride to his
ancestral home on the lonely Scottish highlands.

Isolated in the ghost-ridden castle with her
husband's enigmatic grandmother, MaryIda,
driven by forces she cannot explain, (my bet is boredom) finds herself
prying into an ancient family mystery shrouded
in a suffocating atmosphere of evil.

Suddenly aware of how little she really knows
about her husband, MaryIda discovers that she
holds the key to a Pandora's box brimming over
with hate, greed, and murder - as the ghosts of a
violent past clutch at her with icy fingers.

CASTLE CLOUD - a distinguished novel of
Gothic Romance and Suspense, now published
by ACE BOOKS for the first time in America.

The art for this cover is signed by Allan Kass. There is a fabulous group on Facebook dedicated to his work where you can view a vast number of his cover illustration. Click here to see their gallery of nearly 600 Kass covers.

the Beckoning

the Beckoning by Virginia Coffman

published by ACE Books
Copyright 1965

Hatred and Peril
were her nearest neighbors,
beckoning with false
smiles from the turbulent sea on
one side and the treacherous
bogs on the other...

Beautiful, widowed Anne Wicklow though she was fortunate to find employment in the ancient, isolated castle high on an Irish cliff.

Once inside the gloomy castle, Anne discovered that evil walks beside her in the drafty halls-for someone in that strange household was determined to destroy her charge lovely young Maurie, who stood between a murderer and a fortune.

By protecting the girl, Anne put herself in mortal danger. To save her own life she had to uncover a ghastly secret-even if it meant betraying the man she loved.

Assignment: Okay, there is no need to live in such a bad neighborhood. Please go out and do real estate research. School systems aren't the only thing to worry about.