When the Witch Is Dead

by Mary Linn Roby

When Corinne reappeared in her life, Margaret knew that she was standing on the brink of catastrophe because of her former friend's witchcraft connections. Then death strikes and Margaret's daughter becomes a defenseless pawn of Corinne's diabolical will. As chilling and mounting terror stalks her, Margaret turns to a handsome stranger. But can he counter the Satanic trap, which await her in his macabre tale of love and evil?

Genres: Gothic

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1972

About the author

aka Elisabeth Welles, Georgina Grey, Mary Wilson, Pamela D'Arcy, Pauline Pryor, Valerie Bradstreet.

Mary is the author of fifty-two Gothic, romances, regencies, and mystery novels. Mary also teaches English literature, creative writing, and rhetoric. Her husband is an English professor, a biographer, editor, and mystery writer.

Mary loves tennis, reading, and traveling, and her special editing interests lie in the field of fiction and memoirs. She enhances the creative talents of clients by giving their manuscripts a sympathetic reading, an in-depth critique, and meticulous editing.

Reviews

[Adrian Griffiths · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an odd novel. A woman named Margaret is suddenly visited by a shadowy figure from her past, named Corinne, who once had a mysterious hold over her. Corinne immediately disrupts Margaret's life all over again, especially when she starts to entrance Margaret's troubled daughter.

It's a really odd plot for a Gothic romance. The visitor Corinne's "evil power" is never made clear, but, for example Corinne will say "You're the same as me, you just won't admit it", as she reaches out to stroke Margaret's face, or Margaret's daughter will say to her mother: "You don't understand me, I want to be with Corinne" as she goes to Corinne's bedroom at night wearing just a bathrobe...it's written as though coded to suggest that Corrine's sinister secret is that she is actually a lesbian, with the revelations of clairvoyance, witchcraft and covens of naked women being just an allegory for homophobia. I wasn't intentionally looking for that sub-text, but the book really seems to be trying very hard to bring it out.

Apart from this murky plot device, the story has very little going for it. The is no romance and no spooky mansion, and after a lot of histrionics and a couple of murders, it just ends with no twist and no explanation. I don't really know what the author was going for.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author knows that she's not writing literature, and hits you right out of the gate with plot. But man, this book did not have a good editor. The main character reveals Rob what happened to his fiance two times, and he had vastly different reactions each time, (but definitely, both times, he was surprised).

The thing is that usually these books have a twist. I was expecting the killer would end up being Rob, or maaaaaaaybe her daughter. But the twist was there was no twist. The evil cult-leader witch character was the bad guy the whole time.