If the Reaper Ride

by Elizabeth Norman

The world held its breath
Her heart filled with dread. There was no place left on earth for her to go.

From the moment Suzanne came to Warton Hall she dared not imagine what tortuous fate awaited her in the dark embrace of the twisted men and passions that swirled around her on the rose-strewn heaths...or in the arms of the hypnotic Colonel Mark Lawson.

All she knew was the terror in her heart. And that she would need every last bit of courage to survive the approach of doom...

Genres: Gothic, Gothic Romance, Thriller, Historical

376 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Joy Norstrom]

My child picked up this book for me as a gift. She discovered a used copy in a Little Library in our community and wrapped it up for Christmas--all by herself :).

The book is practically the same age as me. It has red edged pages and quite a romantic cover for such a suspenseful murder mystery.

Not wanting to disappoint my daughter, I made a practice of reading it in the living room where she could see me enjoying her gift. I wasn't sure it would be my thing--a heck of a lot of flower references and heavy on setting description.

However, I must say it kept me guessing to the very end. A friend or foe mystery/coming-of-age set in Victorian England.

[BRNTerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suzanne is seventeen. A physical descripion wasn't given but based on the cover, we can see what she looks like. Not long after arriving at her mother, Lillian, and stepfather, Fitz, Lord Trevenbury's, home, someone's out to killer her. We don't find out why until almost 300 pages in. I didn't guess who it was but shouldn't have been surprised, looking back on it.

Suzanne has no relationship with her mother at all and has only met her a couple times. She's been in boarding shool her whole life. Unless I'm misunderstanding what Lillian said/implied on the last page, she's a very evil woman.

Her stepfather, Fitz, is a bald 4 1/2 foot tall dwarf with a deformed, baby-sized left arm and tiny hand with only three fingers. One of those arms moves uncontrollaby often. He can be seen on the back cover of the novel along with the butler, Apsley. Fitz is a raving, controling lunatic.

The timespan is only a few months, if that. The mystery was interesting and suspenseful but the book was very slow. It should have been at least 30 pages shorter, mostly due to uninteresting, pointless dialogue during dinners/get-togethers dragging out the story. There were too many characters, most of which had nothing to do with the plotline. The cover leads you to believe there's a romance in here but there's not despite there being a marriage proposal right at the end. I don't know why that was even put into the story and seemed out of place. Mark Lawson's character is almost pointless.

[Deandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Initially, I thought this was going to be another pure girl meets prince charming, but thankfully, it wasn't. What a story! I found it amusing how Elizabeth chose the physical form of the characters, something that nowadays would probably be frowned upon or outright illegal. Personally I enjoyed the first person narrative, because it left a lot of the truth stored and mysterious. I did NOT foresee the full story at first which means it is a genuine page turner. Set in the olden days, I recommend this book.

[Alea Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time favorite books. I cannot even tell you how many times I have read it.