Cliffs of Dread

by Virginia Coffman

Dread House the gloomy mansion overlooking Ireland's storm-swept coast, where shipwrecks were a common occurrence and salvage was a way of life to the impoverished villagers. It was here that lovely young Moira Bannion came on a visit to her father - only to discover that handsome Stephen Dread and not Paddy Bannion was the true master of Dread House.

And from the moment of her arrival at the mansion, Moira became a helpless pawn in a terrifying game she didn't understand. Yet there was no one she could turn to for help. Not her father, who had lied to her from the start. Not Stephen, who seemed to forget he had a wife whenever Moira was near. Not Mrs. Dread, who appeared to be almost too well-informed about the shipwrecks along the coast. Some dark evil was casting its shadow over all of them, and Moira knew she must escape this place at once. But her heart betrayed her into staying until it was far, far too late...

Genres: Gothic

286 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 3, 1978

About the author

Virginia Edith Coffman aka Jeanne Duval, Diana Saunders, Victor Cross, Ann Stanfield, Virginia C. Du Vaul, Kay Cameron.

A native of San Francisco, Coffman contributed movie reviews to the Oakland Tribune from 1933-40. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1938 and was a movie and television script writer for Columbia, RKO, and other Hollywood studios in her early writing career (1944-56). She had her first success with writing novels in 1959, when Crown Publishing decided to take a chance on Moura, and the novel was showcased by Library Journal. By the 1980s, Coffman was recognized as "the author largely responsible for setting off the Gothics craze of the 1960s, "earning her the reputation of "Queen of the Gothics."1

She quit her day job in Reno and became a full-time writer in 1965. While historical romance novels seldom find their way into the literary canon, Coffman, who was both prolific and dedicated, took her writing seriously. Her research for historical fiction was meticulous. She also drew upon personal experience as a world traveler when setting some of her novels in Hawaii, Paris, and other romantic locales. Several of her historical romances and gothic mystery novels were translated into other languages, and many have been published in large print and audio editions.

She was recognized by Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in the West. She was a member of the Authors League of America and the Mystery Writers Guild of America. The Reno Gazette-Journal featured Virginia Coffman and her sister in a biographical story on April 4, 2002. In 2003, she donated a collection of her gothic mystery and historical romance novels to the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 2 out of 5]

the setting: windswept Irish coast, gloomy mansion surrounded by perilous bogs, angry villagers wrecking ships to stay alive. the plot has a fascinating lady of the manor at its heart, the beautiful 'black Rosaleen', a villager who leveled up but is still a proud defender of her people, unafraid to get her hands pretty dirty if it helps the cause. unfortunately, despite the setting and a host of potentially interesting characters, the dialogue was insipid and fascinating Rosaleen was not the heroine of this book. the author is usually skilled at creating rich atmosphere, but this time we mainly get descriptions of endless rain and mud. even worse was her hysterical heroine, fresh from boarding school and ready to act the fool. Coffman's protagonists are either bracingly sensible or mildly retarded; sadly, excitable Moira falls squarely into the second camp. I think there was a degree of Northanger Abbey-style satire going on here, but the constant hysteria and idiocy grew wearying. Moria starts off as pragmatic, instantly recognizing her true status at the mansion as being service-level, despite her steward father's various plots to set her up as a love interest to various gentry. but from that admirable recognition of reality, she descends into constant inanity, misunderstanding everything, falling in lust with the married lord of the manor, stumbling about in the rain while ineffectually trying to solve mysteries, continually threatening to flee the dread mansion but never following through. girl just leave already!

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another really good Gothic from Virginia Coffman! Set in Ireland in the 1800's it has all the traditional Gothic elements, the big house, the jagged cliffs overlooking the sea, the windswept moors. I read a lot of old Gothics so sometimes they can be a bit predictable to me but this one had me guessing all the way to the end about who was really good and who was really bad. Highly recommended for Gothic lovers!