Avon's Satanic Gothics

Prompted by a post over at Garnet Night by Cindy I was reminded of my love and fascination with the short lived line of Satanic Gothic novels put out by Avon in the early 1970's. So thinking back on these fond collectibles I just had to get all of mine out of storage and post them here. I'm not sure exactly how many titles comprise the entire Satanic Gothic line. I know for sure I am missing at least two maybe more. There is no real research done on this line so finding anything out about them is extremely hard. From what I can piece together this was not a themed line that they had submissions for rather it was a marketing ploy where they fit in novels that they currently had that had some kind of occult flavor be in magic to demon worship to actually featuring the devil himself. I have personally only read three of them, Lord Satan and Her Demon Lover by Louisa Bronte (real name Janet Louisa Roberts and one of my favorite authors) and The Devil's Dance which didn't really leave me with any strong impressions. All of these have the very awesome rocking goat's head logo and were published either in 1972 or 1973. Why Avon? Why these years? Why even create this marketing ploy? These and other questions for now remain unanswered. Also check out Curt's run-in's with the Satanic Gothics over at Groovy Age of Horror ===> here.

Duncraig by Monica Heath

What started out as promising kind of fell through for me and instead of empathizing with the heroine I just got annoyed with her. Only a three Doom Tower rating on this one because we have a girl with as much detective power as Scooby Doo and no curiosity even when everyone around her lets hints drop left and right.

Corry Collins is an orphan living with her aunt and uncle. Her aunt will never talk of her mother and considers her a fallen woman but won't elaborate for Corry. Corry works as a clothes designer in her aunt's shop. She is suddenly approached by Creagh DeVaney the owner of a famous Irish design agency. She is immediately attracted to his good looks and can't believe it when he offers her (an unknown) a design job in Ireland in his castle's workshop. Corry takes the job and goes with him only to be thrust into a mystery. There's a curse, a sunken treasure ship, a peg-legged ghost, a crazy relative and a hostile family - not to mention an ages old castle and abbey (with relic) that is peppered with hidden chambers and dungeons.

As a side note one of the main features of this book is an ancient sanitation system in which each room had pretty much an outhouse built into it. There is a seat with a hole that was designed so waste was taken through the castles walls. In the book, this system that is no longer in use is used by the bad guy to travel from one room to another in the castle unseen. Now the question I have is do these things really exist? It just doesn't seem like a good way to dispose of waste to me - I mean wouldn't you get poo and pee all over the walls and it would just stay there and smell bad? I thought the main items used were chamber pots and outhouses? Any history buffs out there that know anything about this?

First cover is the American edition of the novel, artist unknown - the one strange thing that jumps out at me about this one is the heroine's bracelet, its an odd ornament that really stands out and is not featured in the story. Second cover is the German edition of this novel - big thanks to Andreas Decker who emailed it to me, he is a contributor at The Groovy Age of Horror. He adds that this one got a new title in its republication as Nightmare in the Castle. No clue on the second artist either.

Warlock's Woman by Jean-Anne de Pre

Jean-Anne de Pre is yet another pseudonym of the very prolific author Michael Avallone. As is the case with most of these authors, quantity not quality was the main focus and their work usually shows proof of this. Warlock's Woman is a very by the numbers Gothic novel - the plot focuses on a new heiress being driven insane by people who would like to get a hold of her money. You have more than likely read this plot before, more than likely executed better but this one still proves entertaining and is a above-average example of Avallone's body of work.

Jalna is a young companion/secretary to Francis Parkhurst - the renowned expert in the occult and ESP. She travels with him to the remote mansion called Dark Oak in upstate New York for a vacation and ghost hunting expedition. What she discovers is more terrifying than she can imagine. The place does seem to be haunted and the ghosts seem to have an unhealthy fascination with Jalna herself. She soon starts to wonder if the ghosts are real, if she is going insane or if the people in the house including her beloved boss are out to get her.

An okay Gothic for a three Doom Tower rating - very nice cover art on this one by Victor Prezio.

Favorite New Blog - Pop Sensation

I stumbled upon this recently and am now madly in love with it ===>
http://salmongutter.blogspot.com/
For those paperback fans out there you get beautiful scans of the front and back and sometimes spine (as in the latest addition). Plus I love his commentary about the books and the little snippets taken from them. Great stuff - do go and check it out.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

I love Shirley Jackson and she is in my top ten favorite authors list. It's not so much what she writes about (though her characters and plots are awesome - dark and mysterious with just the right amount of foreboding that makes you skin creep) but it is how she writes. I love how the edition I own has praise for her that includes spellbinding, item of black magic and sorcery and that is all for the style of the book not the plot. She is capable of hooking you from that first page so you just have to keep reading, you have to know what is going to happen next. She also holds the rare distinction of being a modern writer of horror that still has her works considered as classics and is taught in high school English classes. Unlike some classics that are incredibly hard to get through, her novels and short stories are entertaining. People do pick them up just to read them for fun but like truly great works of art they can be seen on so many levels. On that first level we have a merely unsettling mystery of poisoning but deeper down one can talk about the metaphors and themes of the book from agoraphobia to family, society, love and happiness. So did seek this one out and read it, if it be for just a chilling mystery novel or for all the other treasures that are buried within it.

Our story is told in a narrative by eighteen year old Mary Katherine Blackwood, more commonly called Merricat, the majority of it is told in a flash back. Merricat lives with her sister Constance who hasn't left the house in six years and her uncle Julian who is suffering from old age and dementia. Constance cares for both Merricat and Julian who is constantly writing and re-writing notes for his biography that he says he is going to write. Merricat is the only one that leaves the house, she travels to town once a week to get groceries and library books. It comes out slowly through Uncle Julian's ramblings that six years ago most of the Blackwood family including Julian himself were poisoned with arsenic in the sugar. Merricat had been sent to her room without dinner and Constance had not eaten any sugar. Both of the Blackwood parents, an aunt and a younger brother were killed in the incident. Constance was accused of murder, stood trial only to be released because of insufficient evidence. The entire town believes Constance killed her family. Merricat is somewhat obsessive/compulsive and believes in magic to protect herself and her beloved Constance. When one of these protections - a book nailed to a tree, falls down, Merricat is convinced danger is coming. Danger does come in the form of a distant cousin Charles who is clearly only after the Blackwood fortune. This is a wonderful story which manages to be creepy, compassionate and sad all at the same time. It is a great mystery and psychological thriller - highly recommended.

Also do check out the very great cover art on this one by William Teason who also did several of the Agatha Christie covers.

Why I love the Mystique Books

Most people who pass by these books at a garage sale or flea market will not even give them a second glance. Most people lump this series of novels together with the massive output and sometimes quality lacking books from Harlequin. Well they are right on one point but they are wrong about so much else. The Mystique novels were published by Harlequin between the years 1977 and 1982 but these are not normal Harlequin fare. These books are all written by French authors and were originally published in their own home country by the Librairie Jules Tallandier under the Cercle Romanesque Romans line or in English the Romantic Circle Novels. Many of these date back to the 50's and 60's. The majority are romantic suspense novels but many of them are pure Gothic.

Nowhere on a Mystique novel will you find this information except for a few small clues from the copyright but Harlequin did create a genius cover design and logo for them that points back to their French ancestry. Notice the Mystique logo is a small Eiffel Tower behind the French flag and also that the same French flag is carried around the book above the cover picture. The Mystique name itself is also a nod back to their origins. All of the cover pictures are designed by a formula which makes identifying one of these very easy. Our heroine is pictured up close and then around her in a sort of collage are main events or items from the story. I have yet to figure out who did all these covers but I have a suspicion it was at least two different artists because there does seem to be some differences in the style.

These books have been extremely fun to read and even more of a challenge to research because most of the information is in French. I've had to resort to using google.fr and utilizing translators to figure out pseudonyms of authors. You will see more of these popping up here as I have a few on the "need to read" list. For collectors, these are extremely easy to get a hold of books and they come cheap too! Since most people wrongly categorize these as just more Harlequins they end up in the quarter bin more often than not and turn up in large lots on Ebay. There are 164 books in the Mystique series and I think I almost have a complete collection.

Alternate Cover for The Tragedy of Sutterbury Manor

Cindy's tale was so popular it was republished by Crest, this time with a cover design by the great Karswell of The Horrors of It All. Visit the great writing talent - Cindy at Garnet Night. And if you haven't already, read her awesome winning entry in the Gothic writing challenge, part one here and part two here.