House of Secrets

by Caroline Farr

HAUNTED LEGACY
Lovely, raven-haired Leonie Glendenning had come home to Inverness, the great stone house from which she had been banished. She had come to face the ordeal of hearing her beloved father's will read.

Now, after many lonely years, suddenly Leonie was heiress to a fortune and mistress of the mist-shrouded mansion where her cold, beautiful mother and her hateful "Uncle" Sean still lived. Almost at once she was aware of the terrible secret that motivated evil in the lives of everyone at Inverness.

What were the mysterious circumstances surrounding a strange woman and her father's sudden death? And what was the danger that lurked behind her growing attraction to the darkly handsome Peter Montego...?

Genres: Gothic

190 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Caroline Farr is the pseudonym of Richard Wilkes-Hunter (1906 - 1991), a prolific Australian writer.

Under this name, he wrote a number of Gothic romance novels. He used over a dozen pseudonyms and wrote war stories, romances, spy novels, westerns and pornography.

Sometimes this name is incorrectly attributed to Allan Geoffrey Yates.

Other pseudonyms:
Diana Douglas
Todd Conrad
Alex Crane
Bradley Ross
Shauna Marlowe

Reviews

[Sarah Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5, rounded up for the good beginning & wacky wtflolz of the final 3 pages. But overall this was blah. There was too much backstory clogging up the present; almost everything had already happened back in the 1950s, so by the present (early 70s) there was little left for the characters to do, other than explain to Leonie what they did or didn't know about the 50s events. Zzzz. And brief wacky scene aside, the ending was pretty lackluster. (I did like the sea lions, though, so there's that.)

Definitely not Farr's best effort. For such a short book it took forever to read--I didn't care enough to pick it up except when there wasn't anything more entertaining on tv. 🙄 It felt like Farr would rather have been writing a gothic about the earlier events than Leonie's boring, twee, & naïve narration. Everything WAS about them--Leonie was hardly involved in her (supposed) story. So...why bother with this idiot's perspective at all? Why not just set the story twenty years prior? Nonsensical framing is nonsense.

Anyway. I finished it, so that must count for something. Also, sea lions. 💙

[Adrian Griffiths · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very formulaic. "Lovely, raven-haired" Leonie goes to the reading of her father's will and discovers she has inherited everything. Her mother and "Uncle Sean" are furious and make it clear they think the money should be theirs. This pretty clearly marks them out as the villains of the story, so there's no mystery about that, except for some unravelling of past events that don't really change what's happening now, and something about somebody being, or not being Russian, or becoming Russian by marriage. I can't remember, because I got bored.

What a shame, as the book looks like the real deal with a great title and cover illustration... but the story is unremarkable.

[greybraham3000 · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book was fairly confusing during a lot of parts. The buildup towards the end was cool but it almost seemed like it was unfinished?? I didn't expect much and I was not surprised when I didn't get anything.