House at Hawk's End

by Claudette Nicole

JEAN STARED IN FEAR AT THE OLD WOMAN

But her young voice was steady. “When I arrived you said I was here because I had to come. Why did you say that?” Amantha’s gaze was coldly penetrating. “Because you are possessed!”

Sophisticated, beautiful, impetuous Jean Burroughs had fled the chaos of the city seeking sanctuary at the House at Hawk’s End. She needed to be alone. And what was more natural than to retreat to the peace and silence of the old family place high on a lonely tip of the Nova Scotia coast.

But from the moment of her arrival, Jean was swiftly aware that her dream of peace was becoming a nightmare of shadows and violence. For some strange reason the townspeople hated her. They shunned her efforts of friendliness. They wanted her to leave. But Jean was stubborn … and proud. Then, when the accidents began, when fiery visions appeared on the sea and the sound of death padded after her in the night, Jean knew something weird and evil had broken loose. But why had it chosen her?

Genres: Gothic

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Also wrote books under the name Pamela Windsor. Real name was JOHN MESSMAN.

Reviews

[Carrie Dalby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suspenseful read, even if a bit predictable in some aspects. Love these Gothics from the 1970s. Picked up this copy at a used bookstore in their "pulp fiction" section even though some pages were already loose. (After this read, many more are.)
The most annoying thing was the main character being referred to as "the girl" in the narrative. She's a woman, though a young woman, but still not a girl.
Closing dialog is awesome--especially considering my personal writing projects. ;)

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed my first Gothic Romance. Nicole's word choice was a wonderful welcome to the simplistic sentence structure of today's books. But, I suppose, that's just the time.
As they say, they are-a changin'.
There were a few things I disliked about her style. Too often the person (s) she would be interacting with would leave but she would forget to tell us.

[Heather Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It was fast paced, and suspenseful. I figured out the ending but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book. I also didn’t like the man the heroine ended up with at the end of the book. Ferris seemed a helluva lot more interesting than Ted. Ted was somebody definitely suited for the friend zone.