BOOK BUYS
Death Lives in the Mansion by Douglas Locke
The dead join forces against the living—Helen Peters stands alone in a world falling apart...
Death Lives in the Mansion by Douglas Locke
The dead join forces against the living—Helen Peters stands alone in a world falling apart...
I have no idea who Douglas Locke is though I'm assuming he is an American writer who has, in fact, written two other novels, The Drawstring and The House of Two Wives. I picked up this 256-page 1967-novel from a secondhand bookstore. It appears to be a thriller set in an old, seemingly haunted, mansion and revolving around Helen Peters and her patient Lyman Harpur who is being murdered before her eyes. Can she save him from his killer whose identity she can only guess? I haven't read the paperback yet though the blurb on the back cover suggests a gripping suspense drama in the big house that echoes with weird voices during the night.
Here's what it says...
"Someone—or something—wanted Lyman Harpur to die...die in agony! Helen Peters watched her patient in his trance and knew that his soul was suffering the torments of the damned...and the medical doctors could do nothing to save him! Their science belonged to the lost world. Yet Helen knew that Lyman Harpur was being murdered vefore her very eyes...and the would-be killer was his wife! But which wife? Was it beautiful Phoebe, current mistress of the mansion in the French quarter of New Orleans—beautiful and vindictive Phoebe? Or was it Celeste, the first Mrs. Harpur—Celeste, who was dead!"
What do you think? Have you heard of this author or read this book?
Here's what it says...
"Someone—or something—wanted Lyman Harpur to die...die in agony! Helen Peters watched her patient in his trance and knew that his soul was suffering the torments of the damned...and the medical doctors could do nothing to save him! Their science belonged to the lost world. Yet Helen knew that Lyman Harpur was being murdered vefore her very eyes...and the would-be killer was his wife! But which wife? Was it beautiful Phoebe, current mistress of the mansion in the French quarter of New Orleans—beautiful and vindictive Phoebe? Or was it Celeste, the first Mrs. Harpur—Celeste, who was dead!"
What do you think? Have you heard of this author or read this book?
No, I haven't heard of book or author. Sounds like a gothic.
ReplyDeleteCharles, I thought it was Gothic too—the cover and description suggests it is. I hope to review it as soon as I read it.
DeleteYes, it's packaged, at least, to appeal to the supermarket gothic market. The name on the book is probably a pseudonym, as a result.
ReplyDeleteTodd, you could right. Douglas Locke sounds like a pseudonym, especially since there is practically nothing about this writer on the internet. I've had a couple of similar experiences in the recent past and in both cases the writers fit in the "AKA" bracket.
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