The Lute and the Glove

The Lute and the Glove by Katherine Wigmore Eyre
published by Ace Books
Copyright 1955

"Fine psychological
thriller ...
one of the best."
-SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER

"THE LUTE AND THE GLOVE is an
entertaining novel which holds the reader
in bone-thrilling suspense to the end as it
probes the strange affinity of a red-haired
American heroine for the Tudor mansion
of her ancestors.

"The past is not dead for Anne Carey
at the centuries-old estate she visits after
her father's death. Although summer
blooms outside, she alone sees a winter's
rain on non-existent window panes and
a clandestine meeting of lovers, one of
them her double.

"How Anne learns the identity of these
two, and how she escapes from them, pro-
vide unusual suspense."
- WASHINGTON POST TIMES-HERALD

Wow, this book cover holds a total of 4 reviews. The San Francisco Examiner with its "one of the best" and with The San Francisco Chronicle says it belongs on the "bone-chiller shelf". So what is this "provides unusual suspense" crap from the Washington Post? Did the reviewer even bother to read it? It sounds like a book report you write when you didn't even manage to rent the movie.

"George Orwell's Animal Farm provides an important lesson through barnyard antics."

Just seems like the reviewer is just not committed to the project. If you've got the ego to feel you can judge for others you really need to own it. Go for "You call that a suspense?" or "She actually being a man was obvious from the first." If you're not going to read it, be bold! Have some balls.

Darkwater

Darkwater by Dorothy Eden
published by Fawcett Crest Books
Copyright 1963

My Dear Family -

If ever you have doubts
as to what is happening, if
every you are uneasy, will
you tell me, or send a
message to me or my aunt?
If this injunction seems
like nonsense to you now,
it may not always be nonsense...

Adam

Fanny knew then that Adam felt as she did
about the strange events at Darkwater. Even
before the sudden death of the old Chinese
amah, she had sensed a chill of menace in the
atmosphere. Now there was real peril in the
mists and fogs that beshrouded the ancient
English estate. There was danger ... especially
for Fanny - ravishing, lovely young Fanny -
who was too curious and headstrong for her
own good ...

"A gem of its species." - Boston Globe

"Dorothy Eden ... knows how to build
Gothic romance as solidly as a Gothic
tower." - Chicago Tribune

Nature plays a delicate balancing act. The spiders is to a mosquito what wolves are to deer. Everything needs to be kept in check. In this case Fanny is not just lovely, she is ravishing, so it is only fair to the rest of us that she also be "too curious and headstrong for her own good".

In my case, to make up for my own breathtaking cuteness, I am a poor proofreader and grocery stores make me cry.

I had a lot of fun with Dark Shadows October but to be completely honest, I am thrilled to be back to my cover theme. Though I am on a hunt for some weird Thanksgiving or Christmas themed "woman running" cover. We'll see.

Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Dark Shadows the Salem Branch

Dark Shadows the Salem Branch by Lara Parker
published by Harper Collins Publishing
Copyright 2006

As the original Dark Shadows story line
ended, Barnabas Collins had escaped
the curse of the witch Angelique and found
his way back to humanity after two hundred
years as a ravenous vampire. Now actress
Lara Parker, Angelique herself, reveals the
next dark twist in the sage of love and cruelty.

The roots of the Collins family's power and wealth go deep ...

Barnabas Collins is ready to embark on a new life and marriage
with his savior, the virtuous Dr. Julia Hoffman. But when
Antoinette, a beautiful sixties flower child with a shocking resem-
blance to the immortal witch Angelique, rebuilds the Old House,
his past returns to haunt him. Discovering a grisly corpse in the
basement - where his own casket once lay - Barnabas realizes
another vampire has invaded his domain.

Did Antoinette summon the vampire, or is she as innocent as she
is beautiful? And what of her daughter, Jacqueline, confined for
delusions of witchcraft to the local sanitarium?

Back to the corrupt witch trials of old Salem itself ...

Barnabas's fight to protect his family from this new threat will
take him back through time to an evil moment in America's his-
tory. Two hundred years ago, Jacqueline's previous incarnation
was tried and condemned to hang as a witch in Salem.
Desperate, she spilled the blood of her newborn babe to cure her
greedy and corrupt judges - including a Collins. How powerful is
her malevolent curse, and how much of her fate and her witch-
craft does present-day Jacqueline remember?

After a wait of thirty years, the next chapter in the Dark Shadows saga finally unfolds with the full measure of eroticism, spellbind- ing suspense, and gripping storytelling that made the original television series a timeless hit.

This cover is really cool. I think we have a men running from houses cover here. The witch, looming over a sinister house and our poor tormented hero in the foreground. Ah, Photoshop is SO fun.

Best thing about this book ? Lara Parker signed it. Go me!

Barnabas Colins and the Mysterious Ghost - Book 13

Barnabas Collins and the Mysterious Ghost Marilyn (Dan) Ross
published by Harper Collins Publishing
Copyright 1970

Collinwood is plagued with a series of men
acing events when a ballet troupe arrives
there to perform for the summer tourists.
One girl in particular, the beautiful Diana
Samson, who Barnabas has come to love, (of course he has)
is repeatedly attached by a mysterious, in
visible presence.

When the star of the ballet is murdered,
everyone is suspect - including Diana and
Barnabas. (of course he is) And when several graves are
found opened, the old legend of the invisible
ghost of Collinwood is revived.

As the attaches on Diana continue, Barna-
bas must find a way to stop them before she
is murdered. But will he have to fight a hu-
man enemy - or a supernatural force with
powers greater than his own?



BARNABAS COLLINS AND THE MYS-
TERIOUS GHOST is the thirteenth in a
series of thrilling novels based on ABC-TV's
popular suspense drama, DARK SHADOWS.

Apparently Collinwood is like the Motel 6 of Collinsport. Everyone comes to stay. Despite all the mysterious attacks by wolves , deaths by misadventure and flat- out, poor hospitality, they all flock to visit.

That must be one hell of a brochure.