Haversham Legacy

by Daoma Winston

The saga of a powerful, passionate family whose riches concealed a mesh of corruption, bloodshed and madness, this is also the story of Miranda Jervis, who left her mother's seedy boarding house to claim a share in the dazzling Haversham inheritance - and began the stormiest era in all that family's troubled history...

Genres: Gothic, Fiction

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Daoma Winston was a prolific writer of Gothic romance and horror/thriller novels. All of her novels have a strong occult theme and usually feature ghosts, witches, demons or magic.
(Not "Golden Tramp.")

Reviews

[Sarah Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zzzz. 😴 I’ve read worse, but this was rather tepid—there are better family sagas AND better Daoma Winstons. The problem is lengthy stretches of dullness populated by a mostly unlikable cast; I liked cheery Ian, airhead Stacy (that sweet, horny bimbo 🤭), & poor miserable Caroline, but the rest—including blandly beautiful Miranda & droopy sad sack Reed—were either unremarkable in their villainy or mediocre in their blah unpleasantness. I also found most of the business maneuvering to be a snore, though the setting (D.C. just after Lincoln’s death & the end of the War, with all its inherent power shifts) should’ve been an interesting backdrop. I suspect the problem is DW trying to blend two different genres—gothic tension + familial melodrama—that rarely mix well. She’s good at the former, but the latter just didn’t hit.**

3 stars for the good bits, but this is a Daoma that probably won’t stay in my collection.


**Not totally surprising. Historical sagas aren’t easy to begin with, but the gulf between cheesy ‘70s pulps & epic romance is vast; very few authors mastered both formats.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the ending I was expecting. Really good read. Descriptions of places and characters take you right into the story. Must read more by this author.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book.

A compelling story with complex and intriguing characters.