Godin #01 - Thirty Days Hath September

Under the pseudonym Owen John, Welsh author (and accountant!) Leonard Owen-John (1918-1995) wrote seven espionage paperbacks featuring a Russian-born MI6 operative named Haggai Godin. The first novel in the series was Thirty Days Hath September from 1966 and - fair warning - it’s hard as hell to find.

The premise of this novel is amazing. It opens on September 1 with a man named David Lyman waking up in a windowless concrete room containing nothing but a bed, a jug of water, a ream of blank paper and several pencils. His direction? Write a daily diary.

You see, David is a British national on loan to the U.S. Air Force as a missile researcher, and his captors are Chinese. The action of the novel is interspersed with David’s diary entries revealing his evolving state of mind and the reasons for this unusual kidnapping. His questioning by his Chinese captor is unorthodox, but it’s made clear that the captors demands must be met by October 1st.

The slow-burn interrogation scenes and the geopolitical revelations in this 175-page novel are next-level excellent. The background explaining the kidnappers rationale is so smart, and the reader becomes smarter while reading it.

Eventually, the U.S. Air Force grows concerned with David’s disappearance and engages the CIA to rescue the captive scientist. Because David is a Brit, the CIA loops MI6 into the mix to find and rescue him.

The ostensible hero of the series is MI6’s Haggai Godin, but he doesn’t make an appearance until well-over halfway through the novel — raising questions about whether this book was truly written with an eye towards a series character. In any case, he is a badass hero, enigmatic and brimming with competence. When we first meet him 100 pages into the 175-page paperback, it’s obvious why the author chose to bring him back for six further installments. But be aware he’s not the protagonist of this novel in any way.

As the September 30 deadline approaches, the tension increases and the action scenes showcase Godin’s particular set of skills. The climax is an action set piece consistent with the best men’s adventure novels of the era and provide a welcome counterpoint to the more cerebral tone of the hostage manipulation comprising most of the book. The ending also solidifies my position that this was written as a one-off stand-alone novel.

Most espionage paperbacks are either stupid and easy to follow (The Baroness, Killmaster) or smart and overly-complex (John LeCarre, Robert Ludlum). The cool thing about Thirty Days Hath September is that it’s smart as hell, yet easy to follow. It’s also one of the best spy novels I’ve ever read. The fact that it hasn’t been reprinted in 58 years is a crime against literature. This one is a true lost masterpiece. Highest recommendation. 

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Raven #02 - A Time of Ghosts

British publisher Corgi took advantage of the 1970s sword-and-sorcery fascination by publishing five books starring a female warrior named Raven. I reviewed the series debut, Swordmistres of Chaos, and wanted to check back into the series to continue the blade slingin' fun. A Time of Ghosts, the series second installment, originally published in 1978 by Corgi and later reprinted by Ace in 1987 with a painted cover by Luis Royo. 

As the book begins, Raven, the nearly transparent magician Argor, and her sorcerer colleague Spellbinder are sparring with a young blonde-haired swordsman named Silver. He has joined the trio for their next great adventure. Soon, Spellbinder senses a dark force at work in the land, something that will bring Raven closer to her destiny of being the Chaos-Bringer. Argor, who can travel in and out of dimensions, advises the group that Lifebane has created a rift in the world with a bold political move.

In the series debut, Raven met the Viking-esque Lifebane and the two had a romantic fling while doing battle with a fierce opponent named Donwayne. When that book ended, readers could sense that Lifebane was “one of the good guys”. However, according to Argor, Lifebane has sailed into a nearby land and captured that King's daughter. To what end? The group needs to find Lifebane and discover why he is creating political turbulence to that part of the world. 

The first adventure has Raven and the group liberating a slave train where they pick up two more characters to join them in the fight. There is a small backstory on these characters and the history they share with Silver. That small story-arc comes to fruition as the book finalizes. But, the journey digs deeper into the relationships. After the slave train is freed, the band split up with different missions that will ultimately help solve the crisis. 

My review may seem a little disjointed but there is a lot that happens over the course of this 200-page narrative. I felt like just this book alone could have spilled into several books to compile one epic adventure. But, authors Angus Wells and Robert Holdstock (collectively listed as Richard Kirk on the cover) don't waste a single page. There is nautical adventure as the group fight slave raiders and an underwater behemoth to compose most of the book's first half. 

The novel's second half mostly consists of the group climbing a mountain range in The Lost Mountains and The Frozen Peaks (just the names beg reading!). The book's finale is a frosty affair as the group settle down to fight the main villain, a recurring character from the series debut, in an ice-fortress. 

This was one of the best books I've read all year. The epic adventure, compelling characters, rotating settings and atmosphere, and the general idea that the protagonist is on a much grander through-story is really an addictive flavoring sprinkled over this classic sword-and-sorcery tale. I'm going to have to do some searching for the next installments. Stay tuned! 

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Doomsday, 1999

According to The Herald, a newspaper in Scotland, Paul MacTyre (1924-1999) was a pseudonym for Professor Robin James Adam. He joined St Andrews University in 1948 and taught there for four decades. His passion for teaching earned him accolades from his students and peers. He authored a total of three books in his lifetime, Midge (1962), Fish on a Hook (1963), and Bar Sinister (1964). My experience with the author is his debut Midge, which was published by Ace in 1963 as Doomsday, 1999 (F-201). The cover was painted by popular science-fiction artist Ed Valigursky.

The first thing you need to know is that Doomsday, 1999 isn't some sort of science-fiction novel that features life on other planets, aliens, or robots. In actuality, it is a gritty military thriller with some technical nuances. If you told me the book was written yesterday and the title was really "Doomsday, 2099" I wouldn't even question it. The author basically constructed this post-apocalyptic styled novel as military-fiction, popularized by the WW2 books that were in abundance in the mid 20th century.

The book is set in a time-period that is decades after oblivion on Earth. Unlike a lot of the post-apocalypse titles made famous in the 1980s, this story doesn't have roving gangs of nomads, mutants, or bikers. There's no Mad Max stuff because all of that is in the past here. Earth has cycled through the nuclear war, the traveling gangs, and wars for leftover Beanee Weenee. Instead, what's left is a makeshift army called Guards. The  great armies are dead: British, Russian, American, Chinese. The Guards are in charge of large camps that house civilians. The civilians work as slaves getting water and tending to the Guards. They also help create a special drug. More on that in a bit.

The main character is a guy named Angus who serves as a hunter for the Guards. The hunters live in the wilderness in a team of four and are responsible for killing deer for the Guards. In turn, the hunters pretty much live on their own and are supplied just enough food and ammunition to keep on hunting. But, ammunition is almost gone and humanity is on the cusp of extinction because of the aforementioned drug. 

The Guards can keep supplies longer by making a special drug that makes the population (what little is left) sterile. They secretly feed the drug to the population and literally just count off the dead each day. Eventually, everyone will die out and Earth becomes the next Mars. However, Angus and the hunters find a Chinese jet that has crashed in the forest. They see the Guards immediately get to the jet and kill all of the passengers except a female named Major Liu. She explains that the makeshift Chinese army still has all of the same problems as the Guards, but they run things a little more gently. Angus discreetly frees Liu and the two begin to understand that they can escape all of this nonsense, kill the Guards, and free mankind. That's a loose summary of what the narrative unfolds. 

As I mentioned earlier, Doomsday, 1999 (silly title as well as the original of Midge) is a high-tech military thriller. It involves some coordinating and planning to infiltrate military outposts, a run 'n gun sequence of firefights in the forest (there's snow everywhere which is my favorite element), and a prison-break chain of events. Needless to say there is a lot of action and intrigue. 

However, there's a weird element that never really made much sense to me. There are midges (tiny little flying insects) that have mutated and have the ability to bite and burn their prey. Because of the midges, most of humanity is either attacked or killed by these burning swarms of bugs. But, the midges don't hurt Liu or Angus, which is explained because they are “nice”. There is also a telepathic connection between Liu and Angus which didn't really make much sense either. These two elements don't detract from the story, but probably do enhance it if the reader figures out what any of that really means. 

The end result is that Doomsday, 1999 is a pretty good military-fiction novel if you treat it that way. While it is doomsday for mankind, the author focuses on action to propel the narrative. Angus and Liu are very likable characters and their final mission to destroy a reactor was exhilarating. Recommended.

Buy a copy of this book HERE  

Dagar the Invincible - Archives Vol. #1

Western Publishing Company, a Wisconsin company, made a huge splash in the world of home entertainment in the early 20th century. The company was one of the first manufacturers of paper puzzles and tabletop games. Their enterprise eventually expanded into book publishing, initially developing the line of Little Golden Books. By the middle of the century they had partnered with Walt Disney Productions, Warner Brothers, MGM, and even the estate of the popular author Edgar Rice Burroughs. 

From 1938 through 1961 the company published comics under a partnership with Dell. But, in 1962 Western Publishing began their own comic book company, Gold Key Comics. The marketing strategy was to license just about anything they could get their hands on. From Planet of the Apes to Star Trek nothing was out of bounds in the world of Gold Key Comics. Back then the chances were pretty high that if you watched it on television, Gold Key had an accompanying comic book to go with it. But, the company also published their own original titles as well like Doctor Solar, Magnus Robot Fighter, and Space Family Robinson. While I've read my share of Gold Key comics back in the day, a few titles escaped me, like Dagar the Invicible.

In the 1970s, the sword-and-sorcery genre was at an all-time high with the reprint publications of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian stories in paperback. Beginning in 1966, readers were able to finally read the original Conan stories in affordable paperbacks by Lancer. These books had amazing artwork and featured original published stories, but also many incomplete stories that were discovered as drafts and completed by authors Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp. The books sold well and by the end of the decade countless imitators appeared – some good, some not so good. Along with paperbacks, the comic book industry quickly got involved with sword-and-sorcery. The early 1970s saw the publication of Marvel's Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan. 

Gold Key marched out their sword-and-sorcery comic, Dagar the Invincible in October 1972 with the blurb “Tales of Sword and Sorcery”. The entire series was visually created by artist Jesse Santos and written by Donald F. Glut. It ran a total of 19 issues with two issues reprinting the debut (#19 published under the Whitman brand). You can still get these issues fairly cheap online or you can purchase two hardcover collections from Dark Horse that compile the entire series. Very cool. This review is on the first hardcover collection, simply titled Dagar the Invincible Archives Volume #1. This compiles issues #1-9.

Jesse Santos broke into comics in his home country of The Philippines in 1946. He drew Halakhak Kommiks' “Kidlat” before moving to the U.S. to work on comics like The Microbots and Brothers of the Spear. Along with Dagar the Invincible, Santos would later draw Gold Key's The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor and Tragg and the Sky Gods. He turned down an offer to work for Marvel on the Conan the Barbarian comic. 

Donald F. Glut began his writing career by working with Warren Publishing and their black and white magazines Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella as well as the Skywald Publication Psycho. Along with writing Dagar the Invincible, Glut teamed with Santos on The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor, and Tragg and the Sky Gods. He would later move on to writing for Marvel books like Captain America, Savage Sword of Conan, and Thor as well as the DC Comics titles House of Mystery and House of Secrets. 

The first issue is a true origin story, “The Sword of Dagar”, explaining how Dagar became the heroic fantasy warrior. The era is explained vaguely as a “time when Gods and Demons walked the Earth as men and certain men possessed the best and worst qualities of both”. From what I gather, this particular world is a combination of prehistoric elements and the Middle Ages militant kingdoms complete with rival leadership and classes. Glut specifies it is the twilight years between the end of the stone age and the beginning of Babylon. 

In the opening pages of the first issue, Dagar is battling a saber-tooth tiger while reflecting on his life and heritage. In a flashback sequence, readers see young Dagar admiring his grandfather's battle helmet. In an onslaught of brutality a swarm of invaders ride into town and slay every Tulgoian except Dagar and his grandfather. Thus, a sworn oath is made that Dagar will train under his grandfather's tutelage and become INVINCIBLE! After a few years of training, the grandfather dies and Dagar is shown wearing an animal skin and holding a sword. He plans to find the one named Scorpio that led the assault on his people. He also states repeatedly that he will take on a life of fighting for money. I didn't quite grasp the significance of this. 

In this issue's second part, “Castle of the Skull”, an old man asks Dagar to journey to a cursed castle and rescue his daughter. The narrative really picks up the action and gets Dagar into dark hallways slaying skeletons with a magical mace. There is a little trick ending that recalls some of the surprises found in the horror comics of the time (hint: the young beautiful woman is really an old hag). 

The second issue, “The Beast Within”, Dagar takes on a job finding a beautiful woman's missing brother. But, little does he realize that the missing man is actually a werewolf who disappears during a full moon to keep from killing his loved ones. When Dagar teams up the werewolf they hunt down Scorpio to another monolithic castle (there are a lot of those). The finale comes when both are forced to fight an enormous lizard. This story reminded me so much of the Conan stories, complete with the cavernous castle and behemoth reptile. 

The third issue features one of my favorite covers of the series. Let's face it, every cover in this series is simply awe-inspiring, but the use of the red castle, the cliff, the vampire bat creature set against a moody backdrop of purple just invokes so much color and imagery into this sword-and-sorcery affair. The story in this one is called “Wrath of the Vampires” and has a demonic beginning. Dagar rides up on a ghoulish scene as a woman is being sacrificed on an altar. But, instead of saving her he rides off and says to himself he only fights for money. Either that is totally badass or just plain despicable...I can't decide which. Dagar gets an explanation from a guy that the girl has been sacrificed on Blood Mountain to a race of vampires that prey upon the community. On the quest to find and free the girl he gets himself imprisoned by a sadistic creature called King Desmos. Dagar breaks free and teams up with some hideous monsters that have been abused by Desmos to fight their way through the savage hordes. At the end, Dagar and his new lover, Graylin, ride off into the sunset.

In “Vengeance-Sweet Vengeance”, issue five's story, the Dagar and Scorpio confrontation is promised to deliver the goods. In the beginning, Dagar is following a map he obtained that supposedly leads to Scorpio. Fortunately (or unfortunately), he stumbles upon some sort of floating wormhole that immediately jets him into Scorpio's coveted stronghold. As being the only guy in the building half nude wearing animal skins, Dagar is immediately recognized and forced into captivity. The only logical use for him is to deposit him in the gladiator games to fight lions and stuff. After fighting free of the arena, Dagar goes into an underground tunnel and teams up with an old man who gives him advice on how to fight Scorpio. There's some drugged out colors and designs swirling all over this issue with a stinging final boss fight of Dagar fighting a gigantic scorpion. The end proves this through story has reached its conclusion and Scorpio has been vanquished. Revenge complete.

Issue six is a real turning point for the series and sees more narration in third-person instead of Dagar speaking to himself to narrate the story for readers. I was waiting for this type of storytelling to emerge. It makes the comic a bit more modern. I hate when the heroes of the golden age would say things to themselves like, “I must pick up this sword and go down that hallway to fight the beast”. Instead, the narrator does that much better by telling us the story and then allowing the art and dialogue to supplement it. 

In this story, “Another World...Another Time”, Dagar journeys back to his lover Graylin but instead hears her cries from another world. It seems Graylin went off searching for Dagar and accidentally went into an “oracle cave”. Dagar finds the cave and journeys through it to discover a savage prehistoric playground of dinosaurs and volcanoes. Basically, this is Donald Glut conjuring his Edgar Rice Burroughs' styled comic Tragg and the Sky Gods into a Dagar book. One of the cave-men from Tragg, a guy named Jarn, teams up with Dagar in this issue to rescue Graylin from an evil sorcerer named Zerg. There is a bunch of dinosaur fighting and weird hypnotic stuff before the end that sees Dagar and Graylin once again on horseback riding off into another adventure in their own time. 

The sixth issue is broken down into two separate stories with the first being “Treasure of Nai-Po-Gah”. This story is right out of Conan with the two hunting for treasure in a seemingly abandoned city. When Dagar removes a jewel from a large statue they hear a man calling for help. In interviewing the man, who seems to be trapped in a well, Dagar has a moment of clarity – he only fights for money! But Graylin insists he help the man. Dagar should have stuck with his code here because once the man is free he turns into a giant demon named Zu-Borr that creates a ton of chaos for the two lovers. That story ends and a new one begins titled “Demon of the Temple”, a short narrative that features Graylin and Dagar fighting a monster and a mad mage. 

The series seventh issue puts Dagar on the high seas in "Two Swords Against Zora-Zal". The hero is out fishing on the shore when a band of pirates net him and force him into a galley slave ship. While brutally rowing for days and days Dagar strikes up a friendship with a fellow slave named Durak. When the ship anchors on the Island of Queen Zora-Zal, Dagar and Durak are put to work building a giant tower. After an escape attempt an evil sorcerer throws Dagar into a deep well to fight another monster (recurring theme here). Dagar wins and then leads Durak to overthrow their captors and free the island. At the end Durak says farewell to Dagar and steers the galley ship off to adventure. 

In the following issue, Dagar returns back to the city only to find that his beloved Graylin has been drug off with other women to a smoking crater on Mount Bargoll. This story, "The Red Ruby of Garloth", shows a little more compassion from Dagar. Since he only fights for money, he wants to rescue Graylin only. However, a young girl gives Dagar her only possession, a necklace, to help find her mother. Dagar refuses the necklace and is shown dropping the other coins he was paid into the dirt. He tracks Graylin to the mountain and finds it riddled with the undead! A zombie named Kagra is using a magical gem to resurrect dead people. However, the deal requires a sacrifice - one live one for one dead one. Dagar puts an end to the transactions and with Graylin's help they destroy the place. 

"The Night of the Serpent" closes out this volume, the lead story in issue nine. Dagar and Graylin watch as a large sloth is fatally poisoned by a coiling giant serpent. The two are headed to the city of Yang-Dorr where 

Dagar hopes to place his sword for hire, but they get distracted in the swamps. It is here that the tribe of nomadic black warriors known as Zargani use their spears and battleaxes to hunt and survive. The tribe's chieftain, Torgus, and his wife Renya are out walking when Renya drinks from the same river that the injured giant serpent retreated to. Renya gets poisoned and Torgus is desperate for a cure. Readers are treated to a flashback sequence explaining how Nar-Kal, a sorcerer, obtained the Magical Eye of the God Org-Ra. It is explained that Nar-Kal is actually in control of the giant serpent and each time the snake kills then Nar-Kal becomes more powerful. Torgus needs to stop Nar-Kal so his beloved wife can heal. There is a brief fight between Dagar and Torgus before the two realize they are better as allies fighting Nar-Kal. The story ends with with both Dagar and Graylin enjoying time with the Zargani couple.

At nine meaty issues, sword-and-sorcery fans will find plenty to like about Dagar and his adventures through this savage land. Obviously there is a huge nod to Conan, but I never felt like the writing and art was at that level - no matter who was writing or drawing Conan over at Marvel. This is more of a third-tier type of series that is still wildly enjoyable and reeks of nostalgic pleasure. The art is good, the writing is okay. It just isn't something that is mandatory or suggested unless you really love this genre, era, and brand. Gold Key has a cult following cemented by titles like Dagar. For me, I got enough out of it to want to read more...just give me a few months. This collection has so much material and it's a little bit of a chore to get through it all. But, if you like this genre then by all means you need to at least sample Dagar the Invincible. 

The Other Woman

The Other Woman by Charles Burgess was a Beacon Books title from 1960 that has found new life as a reprint from Black Gat Books. It’s a femme fatale crime novel masquerading as a sleazy sex book. The identity and bio of the author remains a vexing mystery with no help from the internet.

The novel itself is pretty solid. Our narrator is Florida real estate agent Neil Cowan who has a buyer for 40 acres on the lake that would be perfect for a new housing development. The buyer is John Royal, a wealthy town patriarch married to Emmaline, his voluptuous and much-younger bride.

Of course, Neil is completely taken by Emmaline. Who wouldn’t be? She’s elegant, smart and sexy. She’s also got the vibe of a woman looking for trouble. Neil is happily married himself, but this is a 1960 sleaze-crime novel, so the rules are different.

It takes no time at all before Neil and Emmaline commence a hot and heavy affair and even less time before she’s suggesting to Neil that murdering her husband will allow them to be together with all his money.

A sizable percentage of books from this era all have the same setup, but The Other Woman takes an abrupt left turn and becomes an honest-to-goodness murder mystery with Neil at the helm of the whodunnit. There are twists and turns and frame-ups and red-herrings and everything you like from a vintage crime thriller.

Burgess was a solid writer and he ties up the plot with a logical and compelling solution. There are hundreds of books from this era about a wrongfully-accused man solving a crime to clear his own name, yet The Other Woman is as good as they come. It’s literary comfort food and an easy recommendation.

About the Author:

The identity of the author Charles Burgess remains a mystery. Here’s what we know:

Novels:

Backfire (Australia, Phantom, 1959)

The Other Woman (Beacon, 1960)

Short Fiction:

“I’d Die for You” (Manhunt, Oct 1958) 

True Crime: as by Charles L. Burgess:

"Never Kill a Cop!" (Complete Detective Cases, Jan 1947)

"Case of the Buck-Happy Brunette" (Revealing Detective Cases, Aug 1949)

"A Killer with Women" (Underworld Detective, Dec 1951)

"Laughing Stranger from Dalton, Georgia" (Official Detective Stories, Feb 1956)

"Fat Man Blues" (True Crime, May 1956)

Paperback Warrior engaged Florida’s most prestigious private investigative firm to locate the author and his heirs. While there were many solid leads, our gumshoe was unable to definitively solve the case. More on this story as it develops. 

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Shakedown for Murder

Ed Lacy, real name Leonard S. Zinberg, experienced success with his diverse 1957 private-eye novel, Room to Swing. The book introduced the first creditable African-American PI, New Yorker Touie Moore. For his achievement, Lacy was awarded the Edgar for Best Novel and heaps of respect and accolades from his contemporaries. The following year, Lacy was productive as ever with three new crime-fiction novels, Breathe No More, My Lady, Shakedown for Murder, and Be Careful How You Live (aka Dead End). Stark House Press published two of these novels, Breathe No More, My Lady and Shakedown for Murder as a twofer edition with an introduction by Cullen Gallagher. I chose to read Shakedown... first.

Lacy welcomes readers with a two-page death-dealing scene in which a Dr. Edward Barnes is murdered while making a house call to an apparent friend or longtime colleague. As Barnes collapses by the heavy Buick, the reader is bewildered on what led to this sudden fatal attack and the events that transpired previously. By providing this initial shock, Lacy braces readers for a rip-roar ride through a small town of suspects, agendas, love affairs, and an unlikely hero.

In the opening chapters, single fifty-something Matt Lund arrives for a one-week vacation in a New York coastal town called End Harbor. He's there to visit his adult son Dan, who is married to Bessie and they have a young son named Andy. Matt brings his fat cat with him as well, the only semblance that he has any local relationships other than the jailbirds he babysits as a cop working in a prison back in the city. In first-person perspective, Matt explains that he really would rather be at home snoozing his vacation away instead of being grandpa. But, he's a good sport about it and tries to inject some life and fun into his trip. But, things go off the rails when the local hick cop discovers the corpse of Dr. Barnes.

Lund is a humorous likable guy that displays an ineptitude for modern efficiencies and behavior while still maintaining a veneer of an experienced lawman. On a supermarket run, Lund impresses his grandson by pointing out to the local cop that Barnes didn't accidentally die. He cites specific evidence on the Buick that suggests foul play. The cop doesn't appreciate Lund, who in reality has never worked any investigation beyond petty theft, and tells him to butt out. When Bessie's good friend, a wacky old guy that drives a taxi with reckless abandonment, is jailed for the Barnes murder, Lund is forced into the investigation. 

Lacy always has a thing or two to say about racism in his books and often provides subtext surrounding social issues of the time. Lund's pairing with a Native American woman introduces the town's history of bigotry and hatred towards her ethnicity. The author also adds some insight on getting older and walking the balance beam of working and staying active to retiring and accepting the advancement of years. 

As a crime-fiction novel, Lacy adds in the traditional genre tropes – gumshoe investigation, interviews, weeding out suspects, and discovering possible motives for the murder. If you enjoy mid 20th century crime-fiction, few will write it better than Ed Lacy. Get Shakedown for Murder HERE

Dark Shadows #02 - Victoria Winters

I’ve been making my way through the literary work of William Ross, evident with seven of the author’s novels reviewed right here on the blog. Ross used a myriad of pseudonyms throughout his career to become the most popular and prolific scribe of gothic paperbacks through the 1960s and 1970s. His body of work also contains 33 paperbacks that serve as television tie-ins to the supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows. I read and reviewed the first installment, Dark Shadows, and wanted to revisit the series in hopes of a better experience. I plunged into the foggy seaside village of Collinsport for the series second installment, Victoria Winters (1967).

As I mentioned in my Dark Shadows review, these stories have their own continuity and feature ideas and characters that don’t appear in the television show. For example, Collins House features Roger Collins, a middle-aged man who doesn’t appear in the television show. In the first novel, young Victoria Winters takes a job at Collins House as a governess to Elizabeth’s nephew David. In Victoria Winters, Victoria has a few weeks off from work due to David and his cousin being away from Collins House on holiday. This sets up the book’s premise for Victoria to be tormented again by ghosts and human foes.

Elizabeth agrees to allow a businessman named Henry and his two daughters a temporary residence at Collins House. Henry’s daughter Dorothy is recuperating from a brain surgery and will need her older sister Rachel and the quiet salty air of Maine’s coast to rehabilitate.

Victoria soon begins seeing a mysterious woman in Collins House that resembles a dead woman named Stella Hastings. How can she be alive after plunging from a cliff to her death? To complicate things more, Vicki sees a figure lurking around Roger Collins’ boat. There’s also a mysterious man named Paul Caine who professes to be an artist, yet knows nothing about art. Like most of Ross’s novels, and the novel before this one, Victoria is attacked numerous times and the list of suspects ranges from the groundskeeper to Henry himself. When attacks aren’t happening, the author sprinkles in Victoria’s nightmares to pad out the pages (a common trait with Ross).

Victoria Winters is actually a pretty good crime-fiction mystery. If you take away the fact that this is a Dark Shadows novel, and strictly read it as a stand-alone mystery, then I think you’ll be more appreciative of the slow formula. There is a great deal of dialogue, like Dark Shadows, but the development is quick, and the overall mystery is compelling. The suspect list is a diverse one and I must admit that the abandoned wing of Collins House is creepy even without vampires and werewolves stalking the corridors. If you enjoy Ross’s gothics, or just like a confined mystery, then Victoria Winters is a fine choice. Recommended. 

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