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The Devil's Gate
GAMBLE IN TERROR
Lovely Gamble Keagan lived up to her unusual name when she wed Chay McCain. She dared accept the sudden proposal of this handsome, brooding man she barely knew. She risked coming as his bride to the forbidding mansion of McCain's Castle, looming lonely over the bottomless chasm called the Devil's Gate.
Gamble had heard of the curse that had savagely struck down every McCain bride. She had learned of the evil spell cast by the lodestone that Chay hung about her neck. She even had glimpsed the hellishly inhuman horror that stalked the Castle at night. But Gamble was willing to stake her happiness and very life that love would protect her...
...until horror by horror she discovered how monstrously wrong she was...
Lovely Gamble Keagan lived up to her unusual name when she wed Chay McCain. She dared accept the sudden proposal of this handsome, brooding man she barely knew. She risked coming as his bride to the forbidding mansion of McCain's Castle, looming lonely over the bottomless chasm called the Devil's Gate.
Gamble had heard of the curse that had savagely struck down every McCain bride. She had learned of the evil spell cast by the lodestone that Chay hung about her neck. She even had glimpsed the hellishly inhuman horror that stalked the Castle at night. But Gamble was willing to stake her happiness and very life that love would protect her...
...until horror by horror she discovered how monstrously wrong she was...
- GenresGothic
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
26 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 19, 2024
Story was ok; writing was ok (even if a bit overwritten with uber-wordy similes). But the hero was a huge douche—rude, secretive, uncommunicative, entitled, arrogant, bossy—while the heroine was dumber than a sack of hair. 🤓
Seriously, guys. I’ve consumed many pulp gothic bonbons in my lifetime. I’ve long since grown accustomed to the pitfalls of the genre, & am always ready to grade characters + plot on a generous curve due to inherent flaws. So please believe me when I say this chick is one of the 3 dumbest pulpy heroines I’ve ever read. She is SO INCREDIBLY STUPID. (She’s also a doormat, which makes her stupidity even more intolerable.) But I shit you not—Gamble makes the nameless narrator of Rebecca look like Wonder Woman. She makes Zoolander look like a Mensa candidate. She makes Bella Swann look like a functional, capable adult. I can scarcely convey the depths of her idiocy—I can only surmise that in place of an ordinary human brain Gamble possessed a deep, dark hole filled with used tissues & empty KFC buckets.
Anyhoo. 😶
As a gothic, it was mediocre, but was still better than most of the Queen Size line, so I’ll give it 3 stars. Alas, it’s nowhere near the lolzy, campy excellence of HOUSE OF TRAGEDY. Booooo. 😢
Seriously, guys. I’ve consumed many pulp gothic bonbons in my lifetime. I’ve long since grown accustomed to the pitfalls of the genre, & am always ready to grade characters + plot on a generous curve due to inherent flaws. So please believe me when I say this chick is one of the 3 dumbest pulpy heroines I’ve ever read. She is SO INCREDIBLY STUPID. (She’s also a doormat, which makes her stupidity even more intolerable.) But I shit you not—Gamble makes the nameless narrator of Rebecca look like Wonder Woman. She makes Zoolander look like a Mensa candidate. She makes Bella Swann look like a functional, capable adult. I can scarcely convey the depths of her idiocy—I can only surmise that in place of an ordinary human brain Gamble possessed a deep, dark hole filled with used tissues & empty KFC buckets.
Anyhoo. 😶
As a gothic, it was mediocre, but was still better than most of the Queen Size line, so I’ll give it 3 stars. Alas, it’s nowhere near the lolzy, campy excellence of HOUSE OF TRAGEDY. Booooo. 😢
March 28, 2020
Oooh a good classic retro 70’s era (not historic a setting...although I guess the 70s is getting a bit behind us now lol) gothic...with all the usual good things: buried family secrets, a family curse, a could-be-or-could-not-be Actually haunted house (complete with a sealed off wing), inconsistent characters, a vixenish and viperish rival for the love of the man who may or may not be the bad guy, a couple more lurkers on the threshold (aka weird family members), and a ghost with the likeness of a past family member.
Setting was also unusual: an old nevada mining boom town getting a seventies face lift...the description of the town and its surrounding hillsides covered with old Victorians reminded me a lot of this town in the middle of nowhere northern nevada that I go through on my yearly road-trips from Seattle to Las Vegas...a town that’s always piqued my interest when I go through (especially with its abandoned huge grand old hotel).
Entertaining and at times genuinely creepy (in a haunted house kind of way) pulp gothic...
Definitely in the upper echelon of the Queen Sized Gothics which seem to be really hit or miss (often either retitled/remarketed books from genuinely talented authors or ghost written mush that even the ghost writers had to admit they hacked up from the bottom of their respective barrels). This one was retro spooky fun.
Setting was also unusual: an old nevada mining boom town getting a seventies face lift...the description of the town and its surrounding hillsides covered with old Victorians reminded me a lot of this town in the middle of nowhere northern nevada that I go through on my yearly road-trips from Seattle to Las Vegas...a town that’s always piqued my interest when I go through (especially with its abandoned huge grand old hotel).
Entertaining and at times genuinely creepy (in a haunted house kind of way) pulp gothic...
Definitely in the upper echelon of the Queen Sized Gothics which seem to be really hit or miss (often either retitled/remarketed books from genuinely talented authors or ghost written mush that even the ghost writers had to admit they hacked up from the bottom of their respective barrels). This one was retro spooky fun.
October 27, 2024
A young woman named Gamble (really?) arrives in a remote town and quickly gets involved with a handsome but mysterious man named Chav (really again?) who own a big mansion. After what seems like a mere couple of days they marry and Gamble has to endure noises in the night, deadly "accidents" and various insults coming from the rest of Chav's odd family. And is there a crazy relative hidden somewhere in the house? Pretty much your standard "Jane Eyre" retread.
As a heroine, Gamble is spineless and most of her hardships could have been easily dealt with if she showed any kind of fighting spirit. But the biggest letdown is the almost laughably flimsy climax, in which the story is completely wrapped up in a mere 3 pages. The unsatisfactory ending also includes no resolution of the hostility waged on Gamble by her spiteful cousin Jade. So, apparently, that had nothing to do with anything? This is a painfully common way of wrapping up in these pulp gothics, and it just shows that authors of stuff like are mostly interested in filling pages rather than writing endings.
As a heroine, Gamble is spineless and most of her hardships could have been easily dealt with if she showed any kind of fighting spirit. But the biggest letdown is the almost laughably flimsy climax, in which the story is completely wrapped up in a mere 3 pages. The unsatisfactory ending also includes no resolution of the hostility waged on Gamble by her spiteful cousin Jade. So, apparently, that had nothing to do with anything? This is a painfully common way of wrapping up in these pulp gothics, and it just shows that authors of stuff like are mostly interested in filling pages rather than writing endings.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews