The Lock

by Janet Lovesmith, Joseph Lombardero (Illustrator)

The lock was huge, rusted, ungainly. It guarded the tomb that lay behind the old house-the tomb of the ill-fated Gantry clan. Lyn Courtney, who had come to work at Gantry Hill, became fascinated, haunted by that lock. Her fears, her hopes, her fantasies centered around it.

Could it explain the puzzling behavior of good-looking Christopher Gantry? The mystery of beautiful, volatile Lila? The invisible creature that even now was stalking young Lyn? She must find out-if it wasn't already too late...

Genres: Gothic

319 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Meen · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was a girl I LOVED to stay at my Mamaw's house b/c she had HUNDREDS of grown-up paperback books that she would let me read. Even then I loved to be scared, and Mamaw's gothics were my favorites! Mamaw was also my favorite, which is why I carry these old things around. These battered paperbacks are totally worthless, falling apart even, but just looking at the melodramatic scenes on the covers (slim white woman, flowing dark hair, staring aghast over her shoulder, fleeing along the foggy moors in a freaking dressing gown!) brings back a little of the joy of being curled up ALL DAY on the daybed in Mamaw's livingroom, filled with fear from the story, but totally safe (rare for me then) in my body there with Mamaw.

[Shannon Howse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall an okay novel. However the author doesn't always have her facts straightened out, which might be normal for the timeframe in which it was written. There is a scene in the novel when she sits down to read a journal. Before getting into bed it mentions that she takes a bath.... after she's done reading the novel, in the same scene, she again takes a bath ... not a SECOND bath....it does not indicate that she is taking two baths, one before and one after, it doesn't seem as though this were intentional but something I picked up on along the way. It's also pertinent that when she's travelling back to the manor with the police officers, that cops wouldn't just leave someone somewhere with a man who USED to be a doctor but not anymore, especially since she drove to the cop station herself, unless they had power of attorney or some sort of paper work to make that deduction for someone whom they hardly knew. It doesn't ring as a good enough excuse to leave a girl there, especially after seein track marks on her arms. Again,this MAY be pertinent to the timeframe, but I doubt it... it just doesn't seem as though a solid read-through at the end was made, or any attempt to look for plot holes.

I WILL say that the story had little in the way of events in the beginning and still pulled off a wonderfully interesting build up to the main crescendo. 3 stars