The Master of Blacktower (1966)


Image result for Highlands

After her beloved father's death, Damaris Gordon defies convention and courts scandal when she accepts a post as an antiquarian secretary to a distant relative rather than marry her cousin. Gavin Campbell, Master of Blacktower, is scarred, brooding, and brusque. And his isolated Scottish manor house isn't exactly inviting. The longer Damaris resides there, the more she questions the confused story about his wife's death...and the more she feels drawn to the Master himself...

Listening: When a Man Loves a Woman

Spoilers Below


 Welcome to the ride, and buckle up. This is where we start and the weird and wonderful ride that is MPM's bibliography. And this is a truly weird place to start. At least for a fan of her work.

This is the first book published under her name. It is also the book most divorced from what will become her hallmark style. It's a traditional gothic...in fact, it feels like it borrows heavily from Jane Eyre. A young, independent, impoverished woman. A dark, piratical alpha man. An isolated house. A scorned dependent. A dim elderly housekeeper. A secret pertaining to a first marriage. It all feels very similar.

Alas, Master lacks the indomitable style of Jane Eyre--the flow is awkward, the love affair tepid in development, the narrative build-up tortuously slow, and there are several plot holes wide enough to drive a truck through. Damaris is a flat character, although I do appreciate the effort to make her unique by sending her out into the world as an 'antiquarian secretary', as opposed to the usual, long-suffering governess. However improbable that might be.

In fact, the general history of the work is improbable. Despite being ostensibly set in 1859, the manners and language aren't exactly Victorian. It's an inconsistent world that has been created here, with a basic misunderstanding about Victorian inheritance and gender (Gavin actually uses the phrase 'fiery feminist' at one point, and I could hear my eyes rolling). Why on earth is Damaris unable to inherit her father's fortune? Particularly when later on, Gavin's daughter Annabelle is hailed as his great heiress? Entail could certainly be an issue, but it was more likely to be a problem for a Scottish peer than an antiquarian scholar with a London townhouse. (By Crocodile, MPM has a much better grasp of British inheritance practices).

As for the villain...well. Mary's character was inconsistent in the extreme, and her end nigh impossible to believe. A woman that egotistic, that materialistic and self-centered, manipulative and independent, killing herself because her latest in a long string of lovers has died? Somehow, it just doesn't work.

The saving graces are 1) MPM will spend much of her later career lampooning books like this and laughing at herself as a writer for creating them, and 2) she gets much, much better at the period writing in later books.

Favorite line: "His control slipped for moment; the result was a livid glare. 'God save you from friends then, if you have no enemies,' he said violently."

Rating: *

Notes:
*Look for the first of the many strong-willed, intelligent companion-cats of MPM's works in Toby--library mouser and guard.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Dead Sea Cipher (1970)

Image
Listening: Let It Be When Dinah van der Lyn agrees to take a trip through Palestine and Israel in the place of her wheelchair-bound, Biblical scholar father, she thinks it's just a nice prelude to her first operatic role in Germany. But then a scream rends the night at her hotel, and she seems to be the only to have heard it. And when a smooth-talking spy and a fierce archaeologist start dogging her footsteps, it becomes obvious she's become part of something much bigger than a mere tourist trip through the Holy Land. International espionage sweeps her forward on an irresistible tide of romance and adventure to the wadis of the Dead Sea.
Read more

Walker in the Shadows (1979)

Image
                                                            Listening: I Was Made for Lovin' You Recently widowed Pat Robbins and her teenage son Mark are intrigued by the neighbors who move in to the house next door--a twin to their own beloved mid-nineteenth century American Gothic. Their relationship starts roughly when Mark's interest in lovely young Kathy is repulsed by her stern father. But when something ghostly takes a malevolent interest in Kathy, the families draw together to try and unravel whatever grudge the two old houses have been brooding over for centuries...
Read more

The Wizard's Daughter (1980)

Image
  Daydream Believer Left penniless by her father's death, Marianna Ransom must make her own way in life. Beautiful and kind, but hopelessly naive, her attempts at independence lead to disaster. At her lowest ebb, the Dowager Duchess of Devenbrook steps in. Wealthy, beautiful and kind, the Dowager claims Marianne is actually the long-lost daughter of the famed, murdered spiritualist David Holmes, whom she loved as a son. But the privileges suddenly showered on Marianne come at a cost--she is expected to present the spirit of her purported father to the grieving woman. As if that were not bad enough, ghostly visitations do seem to grace her attempts. As the anniversary of the man's death approaches, something dangerous seems to stalk the halls of Marianne's new home...and it seems to be stalking the woman she has come to love as a mother...
Read more