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.

The Tuscany Madonna

The Tuscany Madonna by Miriam Canfield
published by Magnum Books
Copyright 1965

a strange proposal

Strangely impelled by her
father, lovely, spirited
Denise de Bonneville accepts
the wealthy stranger
Brian Cowle's unorthodox
proposal of a 'Marriage
Blanc' - a union in name
only - to save the family's
ancestral chateau Les
Cedres, which houses the
priceless painting of
the Madonna by Raphael.
By authority of the family
will, the rare painting
can not be removed from
the estate.

Reluctantly, Denise returns
to the sullen and isolated
chateau which she feared
in her childhood. Now as
a bride - surrounded by
strangers and without the
protection of her beloved
parents - Denise senses
that Les Cedres is more
ominous and filled with
unexplicable (this is not my typo) danger.

When her withdrawn
husband locks himself
and the painting in his
private chambers, Denise
knows she must fight the
enigmatic forces which
engulf her ... She knows
she must unbolt to door
to survive.

Okay, this one just sounds good. It maybe because it has a little bit of "Night of Dark Shadows" going on with it.

The cover art has an odd finish to is but I like it. It also looks to be signed "Avalon".

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.