Monica Heath: Return to Clerycastle

Return to Clerycastle is the other Gothic in the Heath Signet Double Gothic I read.

This novel was published first in 1970 and is set on the Oregon coast. I am really digging that setting lately and had not seen it used in any other novels I can think of until recently.

Courtney, a young actress, has been hired as a pretend bride for Kirby McClery. She accompanies him back to the Oregon replica of the Ireland ancestral home of Clerycastle. Once there, she discovers a dangerous red haired wraith and chilling secrets. Could Kirby be a killer? What are the secrets of Clerycastle?

Plot: 4/5 [I really enjoyed the pace of this novel, and it had some interesting plot turns.]

Characterization: 4/5 [Kirby McClery is delicious, and I felt like Courtney was a well rounded heroine.]

Atmosphere/spooky elements: 3/5 [I really liked the beach scenes. Heath is an outdoor writer. I mean she is best with describing the outdoors in any given novel. That is why this one shines. Clerycasle is weaker due to such an interior setting. I think Heath has trouble pulling those off from the three novels I have read by her now. She is a genius, though, on a beach, in a graveyard, or in the family crypt. ;)]

Literary elements: 3/5 [Not really. There is a little Shakespeare, but this one is pretty light.]

Romance: 4/5 [I like the hero of this novel and the crackling relationship he has with Courtney.]

Rating: 3.5+ stars

** I recommend this one. If you can only get your hands on one of the Clerycastle series, I think this one is your best bet. I am a big fan of Monica Heath's work.

Monica Heath: Clerycastle

This novel, published in 1969, is one of Heath's earlier works. I have it in a Signet Double Gothic edition which is pretty neat. This novel is pretty different in quality and sophistication from Calderwood, a later novel I reviewed on this blog. It is obvious that Heath wrote many novels and got better at it over time.  I guess that is the case with most authors if they continue to learn their craft.

In the novel, Starla Shea has come to Ireland to research a biography about her uncle. She is quickly intercepted by the handsome but mysterious Lord McClery who implores her to go with him to Clerycastle and write the family's history. Though he is strangely obsessed with her and insists she is an O'Shea and his wolf ring scares her as do the legends of a woman  killed by a wolf, she goes with him after a scare in a graveyard. From there, mysteries unfold. Is there a wolf prowling the grounds of Clerycastle? Who is Starla's mother? Was she really an O'Shea? And are the intentions of Chavner and his younger twin, Conal McClery, honorable?

Characters: 3/5[ The characters are one dimensional, for the most part. Lord Chavner McClery seemed the most vibrant (and I love that name and Conal McClery as well).]

Plot: 3/5 [I knew pretty early on what was going to happen more or less. That is interesting because Calderwood was the opposite: the ending shocked me. I will say that Heath obviously has a thing for twins. :)]

Atmosphere/spooky elements: 3/5 [The wolf thing really worked in the early stages of the novel. Heath can also write a graveyard scene like no other author I know of. Mood and atmosphere were lacking, though, once Starla got to Clerycastle. The novel lacked description of the room she was in (I like to know where the heroine is sleeping!), and that bugged me immediately.]

Literary elements: 2/5 Nah. [This one is pretty fluffy all around.]

Romance: 3/5 [Yeah, I added an element for gothic romance novels; I thought this might be helpful for those of you who choose what to read based on the romance in the book (or more for the romance or equally for romance and gothic elements). This one has some spark in it but it's not that romantic, in my opinion.]

Rating: 2.5+ stars   **.5+

I recommend this one if you like double gothics or wolves. Otherwise, it's pretty weak, but I look forward to reading Return to Clerycastle next.

My daughter is holding the double gothic. Sorry for the blur; I continue to be cheap and not buy another camera phone. ;)

Monica Heath: Calderwood

I started this one yesterday morning, and it was pretty suspenseful. I ended up finishing it between waiting in the car line for my daughter and having some spare reading time tonight. This is my first Gothic Romance by Monica Heath; it was published in 1975 (the Signet edition I'm reading from). The original cover is all green mossy background with a dark haired girl with a blue dress on in front of the house.

Camilla Carlyle's father has died, leaving her on her own. She finds a letter from Aunt Marilyn at Calderwood, the old ancestral home of her mother. Camilla remembers leaving there in haste after her mother's death when she was six, but the rest of her history is foggy. She wonders why her father grew to dislike her mother so as the years passed.

Camilla decides to go home to Calderwood to find out what she can about her mother and her own history. Her arrival at the estate or near it is rife with bad turns, and a ghost appears as a face and a voice in her ear over the bayou. Whom can Camilla trust? Her Aunt Marilyn or Deedee, her spiteful cousin? Can she even trust Kris Kincade-- a man working on the neighboring Dazincourt Hall-- and to whom she is attracted? What about Jules, the man others say is her true father?

Characterization: 4/5 [I could easily picture Camilla being played by a young Liz Taylor (while her mother is played by an older Liz Taylor for the flashbacks and supernatural bits). I think Alan Tudyk would make a good Kris; I have liked him ever since he starred in Firefly. Jules Dazincourt put me in mind of Vincent Price with his "dark" looks. The characters were drawn well. The one issue I had was with the words "dark" and "darkly" used in redundant phrases three times in two pages when it wasn't necessary and many other times thereafter: "darkly hideous," and "darkly malicious" (20), "darkly skeptical," "dark-clad," "dark stare," "dark brows," (39) and so on. I decided to catalog them all for a giggle after finding so many on page 39 alone, so I did for about ten more pages. I mean, black, shadowed, onyx, obsidian and all manner of words could be used as synonyms, right? These repetitions would make for a killer drinking game. The words were repeated so often as to be distracting, obviously.]

Plot: 4/5 [The plot sucked me right in; there is plenty of action and some twists and inventive happenings in the genre as well. The end was a shocker, and that is always a pleasant surprise.]

Atmosphere/spooky elements: 5/5 [A ghost appears early, and the Louisiana setting is creepy in its own right. Heath really gets it right (at least from the time I've spent in that area near New Orleans or driving through the LaFourche Parish area in the bayous). I also like the way Heath uses two ancestral homes in the novel; that device is reminiscent of Wuthering Heights to a mild degree. The ancestral mansion also has a "death couch" that is shiver worthy and the first mention of such in a Gothic Novel I've read. In fact, this novel is chock full of Gothic Elements of all kinds. The setting of the spring house on the property as an area where mischief occurs is creative, and this novel landed a few new elements of Gothic Novels on the Epic List. Most have been done before, so that makes this novel special. If you like moldy graves, crypts, bayous, evil rings, death masks, creepy dolls, and so on, this is your book. It is probably the most Gothic of the Gothic Novels I have reviewed thus far on the blog.]

Literary? 4/5 [Yes, Keats' Lamia is quoted and references to other literature and works are sprinkled throughout the novel.]

Romance? Yes... and I didn't know who Camilla was going to end up with until right at the end. That's always the sign of a good Gothic Romance.


Rating: 4 + stars ****+

I recommend this one; it is inventive and suspenseful and most definitely Gothic. I highly enjoyed it! I'll be hunting out more by Monica Heath; I have a double gothic by her as well-- the Clerycastle ones.

Calderwood (Ulverscroft Large Print)