The Savage Spirits of Seahedge Manor

by Dianne Price

Seahedge...the dark, massive house on an island off the rocky coast of Oregon looked like a ghost ship floundering in the fog. A century before, Seahedge had been built directly on sacred Indian ancestral burial grounds - in utter disregard of the natives' customs. And when the wind howled in the night, it seemed as if those very souls were shrieking at the house that desecrated their final resting place.

Fulfilling the terms of her father's will, chestnut-haired Drew Chase moved in with her uncle's family at Seahedge. But fate had cruelly tricked her, for the Indian cemetery and the churning sea relentlessly reminded Drew of her father's death...by drowning.

Each night as the waves pounded the rocky shore, Drew relived the horror of her father's death. and she wondered what she had to fear the most: the wretched specters who moaned their dirges in the wind, or her unwelcoming relatives in the suspicious household of Seahedge Manor.

Genres: Gothic

462 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1982

About the author

Dianne Price fell in love with writing at the age of five. Her father was a barnstorming pilot with a bi-plane and she was bitten early by the dreaded “flying bug.” She attended the University of California, Santa Barbara and met and married the man God had prepared for her—an aeronautical engineer. After their five children were in school, she burned the midnight oil and wrote three novels, all published by Zebra Press. When her husband died only three years after he retired, she visited the Outer Hebrides Isles of Scotland, where her husband’s clan (MacDonalds) and her own clan (Galbraiths) originated. Many yearly trips, gallons of tea, too little sleep, and a burst of insight birthed her Thistle Series.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Dianne, born in August 1933, lived joyfully despite dealing with terminal cancer and died in August 2013, a mere week before the release date for the first book of this series, Broken Wings. Everyone involved with the production of this book and the next five has been blessed beyond measure to have known Dianne and be a part of giving readers a chance to meet Rob and Maggie and visit the beautiful, fictional isle of Innisbraw.

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

A heroine named "Drew" leaves to live in a mansion on the coast of Oregon which, coincidentally is on an "Indian burial ground." The master of Seahedge is her cousin, Kit. Unbearably slow, as if Price was given a mandatory word-count. Tons of padding with no real substance. The chapters are FAR too long, ridiculously long, with a near 500 page book only containing 17. Very little action, a dumb heroine and an obvious villain. Price isn't exactly a "bad" writer, as her style is lovely, but there is just far too little action for my liking. Endless pages of pointless discriptions with little character development and very little to engage the reader. Aside from the beautiful cover-art, this one should remain forgotten.

SPOILERS:

Kit seduces Drew in an attempt to get her father's fortune. His failed attempt to poison her result in the destruction of the castle. Drew falls in love with a half-native named Duncan. END I just saved you 500 pages.

[MV · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars. Heroine is just too stupid for my liking. The villain was obvious early on so the book ended up dragging for hundreds of pages. I skimmed ahead the last 100 because I couldn't take it anymore. I added half a star because the ending got kind of loony in a fun way for a brief moment.