Wingarden

by Elsie Lee

Chloe Wingate was sure she had never seen the great mansion of Wingarden before--but when she arrived to claim it as her legacy, she felt she had known it since the day of her birth. Chloe Wingate had never met a man like handsome, cynical Innis Rolland before--yet from the moment his mocking eyes first met hers, she felt his almost frightening power over her. When Chloe Wingate stepped through the doors of Wingarden, she was entering another world, another time--where evil rose out of the depths of the past, and as a blood-dark tidal wave of passion swept her toward her fearful fate. Elsie Lee (1912-1987) was an American author of over 35 fiction and non-fiction books. Elsie began writing in the 1940s, selling her first stories to the Ladies Home Journal. She described her writing this "I write fairy tales for grownups, principally women... I am better at characterizations than plots, and best with cats who are unanimously adored by my readers... I will not compromise on the quality of vocabulary and grammar in my books... it is a writer's responsibility to TEACH subtly through entertainment..."

Genres: Gothic, Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense

Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Elsie Lee (Elsie Lee Sheridan) (1912 - 1987)

Pseudonym/s: Elsie Cromwell, Jane Gordon, Lee Sheridan

Wiki: "I write fairy tales for grownups, principally women... I am better at characterizations than plots, and best with cats who are unanimously adored by my readers... I will not compromise on the quality of vocabulary and grammar in my books... it is a writer's responsibility to TEACH subtly through entertainment..."

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chloe Wingate finds herself on a plane from San Francisco bound for Virginia to settle the estate of her grandmother Amelia, a woman she never knew and who disowned Chloe's father prior to his death in the Korean War. Wingarden, as the plantation house was known, presented an unknowable monolith to an equally unknowable matriarch, and Chloe was all too happy to rinse her hands of the place...until Amelia's indentured servant Bessie started talking about the strange noises she would hear while cleaning the place: doors that would lock themselves, steps heard ascending staircases long inaccessible, and other mysterious sounds.

Equally intriguing is the mystery of a letter Amelia alluded to having written prior to her death: a codicil to the will which would change the future of Wingarden and its potential heirs. Assisted by the handsome and sardonic Innis Rollins, and the calm and collected Cecil Mallory, Chloe finds herself in the grip of potential romantic interest, as well as in the middle of a Southern town struggling with the Civil Rights era, whose residents have not all stopped fighting the Civil War.

The more Chloe investigates Wingarden and the more she learns of her distant grandmother, the closer she grows to the estate and the men and women who worked for Amelia. But the more she uncovers about the past, the more someone seems willing to commit any act, including arson and even murder, to see her divest herself from Wingarden and leave as quickly as possible.

* * * * *

My grandmother passed away in the summer of 2009, and my family spent several days helping my aunt and cousins sort through and clean up her house. While going through her bedroom, we uncovered Grandma's hidden stash of guilty-pleasure reading: a stack of Gothic novels from the 60s and 70s, stuffed under a nightstand, carefully hidden behind other paraphernalia. Intrigued at this look into a side of her that not even my aunt was aware of, I asked if I could take one or two of the books to read. My aunt, only too happy not to have to find a home for them, said I could have them all as far as she was concerned, so I took them and have kept them to this day. Occasionally, I pull one out and give it a try, and while most of them have been nothing special (keeping in mind that I am about as far from the intended audience for these things as it is possible to be), every so often I find an absolute gem.

Wingarden definitely falls into this category, and while it's not without its faults, it definitely rises above them as a solid and entertaining story.

As I've learned over the years, a Gothic is all about the atmosphere. They tend to be very dense prose, with plots that writhe and twist about like the bodies in an André Masson painting. At their forefront is a protagonist, always a young woman and always from out of town, who arrives at a setting with which she is wholly unfamiliar and a mystery which she appears, at least at first, unequipped to handle. These mysteries often involve real estate, long-lost relatives, and at least two eligible bachelors who vie for the young woman's attention, one or more of whom will almost invariably be out to cause her dreadful mischief, but circumstances will always conspire to prevent her (and the reader) from sussing out the who and the why.

Wingarden follows this template perfectly, but Elsie's skill with writing and characterization elevates this story well above many of the others I've read or attempted to read. Chloe Wingate is a capable protagonist, a fiery and feisty liberated woman bringing an out-of-towner's sensibilities to a portion of Virginia unaccustomed to such things, whose very presence shakes up everyone around her, and I absolutely fell in love with her myself. I was absolutely here for it.

Watching Chloe go through the house reminded me of going through my own grandmother's home, coming to grips with all the things which would need to be sorted for trash, donation, or sale. Maybe this was why I felt such a kinship with the story--my grandmother was hardly the Amelia Wingate sort, but she still possessed that stately quality of quiet strength and a desire to keep her business private from those who didn't need to know. She was the wife of a farmer, a woman who lived through the Depression, lived through the death of my grandfather, and kept on trucking for another three decades and change until a sudden heart attack took her quickly, quietly, and painlessly from this life. She died with her dog laying contentedly on her lap, and I don't know about the rest of you, but if I could choose how I go out, that's definitely my pick.

Maybe Wingarden was just one of those "right place, right time" reads, but I loved the hell out of it. There are some elements of racial tension which are just as uncomfortable to read today as they were back in the 1970s when the story was published, but otherwise this is a mystery novel which takes a meandering, but entertaining, path through the pages. I'd happy give another Elsie Lee story a shot. Thank you, Grandma, for leaving this one behind for me to discover and enjoy.

[Miki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Racist, class-ist , condescending, paternalistic, patronizing...I've run out of words that describe a 24 year old white woman comforting an older Black woman by saying "I'll be a good master" (not a direct quote but the that was the intent) in the 1970s! It's difficult to confess that back in the 70s I liked this book.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another of my favorite books by Elsie Lee, written in the 60's, so one has to remember that the language and mores of that time are reflected in the author's writing. Segregation was still going strong in the old South, and many were determined to retain the status quo, no matter the cost.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my fall-back books when I want to do a quick read of something.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I get book recs from a lot of different places and then I request the book from the library. By the time I get around to reading it, I've usually forgotten why I requested it, so every book is a delightful surprise. 🤦 This one I've had out from the library for over a year! I don't know why I finally picked it out of the stack to read, but it turned out to be a mystery set in the deep South in the 60s. The book itself is good for what it is, but it was also a look at how far we've come in civil rights since then, and how very much farther we still have to go.

[Charybdis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's 1970; Chloe Wingate is 25 and comes to Richmond, Virginia, to claim her inheritance. She never knew her grandmother, who had disowned her son for marrying a Northerner. Wingarden is a big house with 90 acres of fields, managed by an elderly black couple. Two men appear on her doorstep, both distant cousins, and Chloe isn't sure if she can trust them. Do they want the estate for themselves? Is one of them behind the unexplained noises that can be heard in the house? What's the deal with the local segregationism and what part did her grandmother play in all this?

The book starts awsome: we read more about the house than about Chloe herself. It's full of old furniture, valuable paintings and other stuff. Half the house is hidden away and can only be reached through a secret doorway in the dining room. Chloe isn't very happy about the chance to go exploring; she's a thoroughly modern girl and would rather have spent her vacation surfing in Hawaii. She needs to go through everything, however, in order to find a missing last letter with instructions from her grandmother, and a few other things. It will be no surprise that these items won't be found until the final chapter. Someone else seems to be looking for something as well, hence the noises.

So the story is quite all right. I had no idea that things still could be so bad for colored people in the South of the U.S.A. around 1970. This affected the story as well, which isn't my preferred type of suspense supplier. I'd rather have things kept within the family, so to speak.

The heroine is smart, spunky, intelligent and wise. It's great to read how other people keep on thinking she's a silly little girl that needs to be protected from the responsibility of owning, clearing out and selling such a big estate. They don't know she's a summa cum laude graduate of Stanford and the stepdaughter of the 7th wealthiest man in the U.S. Chloe doesn't let on and the reader can enjoy looking forward to seeing everyone getting their comeuppances. Unfortunately, when the men finally realize Chloe is a force to be reckoned with, they still keep her in the dark as to what's going on, which puts her in mortal danger. Stupid men! They should have told her everything and then she could have been a valuable help in their investigations.

I didn't care much for the prose. It's like Elsie Lee thinks faster than her fingers type while writing the book and doesn't realize it. The story doesn't flow right. Also she should have explained more. For instance in the beginning of the book Chloe speaks about her parents and the Halves. Many pages after that she mentions this as well in a conversation and only when the other party inquires what she means by "Halves" does she explain these are her half-brothers and half-sister. Of course, this example was a rather obvious one, but there are many others that are worse. Have you heard of Fan-Tan? Plon-Plon? Martha Mitchell?
It's used as an inside joke not only between the people in the book, but also between the author and her readers. This could be all right if the joke can be easily understood, but that isn't always the case. The following meant nothing to me: "Madame Mallory was straight out of Jane Austen - Mrs. Eltham, for choice, although of course she did not refer to a barouche-landau. She did, however, make it clear that I was a barbarian from Ultima Thule, and could not be expected to know how to go on without the guidance of Mallorys." Elsie Lee could at least have used footnotes.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a re-read for me and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Finding Elsie Lee's books is not an easy task and my library doesn't have her books. Basic story: young woman is beneficiary of her estranged grandmother's will. She encounters two distant cousins: one who wants her to do what she came to do (sell the house and land) and go; the other wants to help her sort out any papers her grandmother left. Hmm. There are burnings and suspense during the time period (Civil Rights era). Dialogue is great.

[Robin Winter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads like a standard gothic romance at the start but there's more to it with issues of race and skulduggery and family secrets that are not all on one side. A fast read that will give you no nightmares.

[Mermarie · Rating 2 out of 5]

3 stars - Will review soonish.