Greygallows

by Barbara Michaels

Lucy Cartwright placed her life and future into the hands of the dashing Baron Clare, despite the rumors of his dark, unsavory past. Trusting his kind words and gentle manner, she agreed to be his wife and followed the enigmatic lord to Greygallows, his sprawling country estate. But mystery, deception, betrayal, and danger surround the magnificent manorâ a ghostly secret charges the atmosphere and terror reigns in its shadowed hallways. Lucy entered Greygallows willingly . . . and now she may never leave.

Genres: Mystery, Gothic, Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, Gothic Romance, Historical

279 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Barbara Michaels was a pen name of Barbara Mertz. She also wrote as Elizabeth Peters, as well as under her own name.

She was born in Canton, Illinois and has written over fifty books including some in Egyptology. Dr. Mertz also holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Egyptology.

Reviews

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barbara Michaels delivers everything you could want in a Gothic mystery - a young, innocent heroine; a creepy estate, remote from all civilization; ghost stories and ghostly appearances; a nefarious murder plot; several folks who are not what they seem; and a dashing hero who comes to the rescue (even if he winds up needing a lot of help from friends to pull it off). This was a classic example of the Gothic formula, excellently executed. I knew to look for those deceitful people and yet, even though I was suspicious, I was not completely certain until the big reveal at the end, and I was left unsure about the villain for quite some time as well. All in all, an excellent read - just what you want from a good Gothic!

[Sarah Mac · Rating 2 out of 5]

An aggressively boring & relentlessly tepid romantic suspense. Combine those flaws with how I hated literally every person except the solicitor Mr Beam & the stableboy Tom (both of whom had about 5 speaking lines), & presto! A lackluster 2-star experience. I doubt I’ll bother with Barbara Michaels again—yes, she has a legion of devoted fans, but I find her prose dry, her characters annoying, & her tone pretentious. It appears she’s just not for me. :/

[Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this not having read or even heard of Barbra Michaels (AKA Elizabeth Peters, I believe?), but I left pleasantly surprised. I feel like this novel was quite atmospheric, in that it was full of windy moors, damp marshes, and sinister corridors in a never ending castle. The characters were pretty standard for a Gothic romance: Lucy was the naive young bride with family issues, Clare is the stony mysterious new husband with gobs of money and secrets to match, and Johnathan is the working class sweet crusader who values Lucy beyond her money. I think some reviews claim that this novel is quite slow, but I think the slowness was more of a creeping dread. Nothing happened for a few chapters beyond a bit of gas lighting, lulling the reader into a mistaken state of comfort. This is a trademark of the Gothic novel; it's not anything particularly gruesome, but rather that the horror lies in the mundane world Lucy thought she could trust. I felt so sorry for her when after plying her with gossip and dressing her in the finest gowns, Lady Russel showed her colors to reveal the penny pinching guardian she really was; poor Lucy would have suffered whether she married or chose to stay. The lack of star is due to the weird patchwork of novels this felt like at times: Lucy's beginnings in the orphanage felt like Jane Eyre, Lady Russel wanting to align herself with the richest family at the party was Mrs. Bennett from Pride and Prejudice, Lucy's marriage to a rich mysterious man with servants who felt like enemies appeared as copy/pasted Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca, and last but not least Jonathan's attempt to rally Lucy's social consciousness on worker conditions was eerily reminiscent of Thornwood in North and South. I enjoyed getting lost in the descriptions, and it had the perfect balance of mental menace and tangible terror to get you in the mood to visit Greygallows at your own risk.

[C. (Comment, don't blank click reviews). · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite portraying the 1860s, too much about this story; attitudes, behaviour, and plot logistic, were constructed hollowly. It was no mystery or paranormal foray but a commentary on ill treatment. There was no triumph in intelligent awareness of unjust politics, while those affected could not surmount it. All interactions were uncomfortable, with a suddenly fortuitous conclusion. I enjoyed none of this novel. Pertinent information was rattled off as an epilogue, leaving no victory of progress or discovery for the protagonist within the story.

Exemplifying the weak and asinine logistics would spoil details. I can merely shoot the one who got me to read this, by labelling this “paranormal”! Rory, dear! I believed this was an accurate categorization because she read it. One must not call anything a ghost story if there are no spirits! I intend for my birthday month to be a treat of spirit stories; what I love to read. This is from my birth year and I hoped it would be excellent. Onto stories which do pamper me!

Barbara Mertz has some duds but although this one is profoundly- and well-written; the lack of mysterious and spirit contents deem it the novel I like least of her repertoire. You take 117 pages to get to Greygallows manor and other than a bit of eerie atmosphere, this does not have the flavour that goes with the Barbara Michaels pseudonym. It dwells on lack of respect and gumption, traits that turn me off. I appreciate that Barbara chose a different time period and place than usual, England. I admire the capacity for variety: in her case not being about Egypt or archaeologists. However the behaviour of personages, the frustration of constantly unfair circumstances, and inability to enjoy the genre and contents matter. One loses nothing by bypassing this novel.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly different.

So well written. I was surprised by the era of this book and didn't think I would like it. I did like it very much. Twists and turns and a surprise ending. Suspenseful to the last page.

[Missy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book in the coolest little tea shop in Ruidoso NM. If you're ever in Ruidoso, check out Atticus. It's AWESOME! Anyway, it looked good...I was expecting something a little bit more supernatural and romantic, but it was a fun, satisfying read. The heroine grows up, finds her power, etc... That was cool. It was a little vauge and hard to understand--I had a hard time figuring out where the author was going with the story at times--but it's all explained in the end.

[S.A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a classic Gothic tale with a damsel in distress, a wicked husband, and the lovelorn suitor trying to assist said damsel.

Guess what? It was written back in 1973 and repackaged. About half way through the book I kept thinking, "I think I read this before!" Bet I did when I was 13!

Still, a quick, light read. After slogging through the wretched Prince of Nothing series, I needed a mental breath mint.

[Lisa Greer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a one day novel. :) And no, I didn't read all day. hehehe. The plot is intriguing, and I like the focus and information on the conditions of England in the 19th century. Sewers, garbage, and filth: not what you read about in Jane Austen's works of the time. Some things never change with regard to lords and peasants ;).

[Elizabeth Nesbit-comer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barbara Michaels will you please come back to writing gothics :) This was a wonderful read. Creepy setting with a big old mansion, reclusive brooding husband who never visits her bed, classic ghost mystery with the white lady only seen by females, and even some nice political refrences to the realities of being poor and having to work in a coal mine.

[Esther_a · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mediocre Gothic suspense. Yawn.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spooky english manor and a story filled with deceit and mystery-lots of fun!

[Lin S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very scary and did not enjoy the cast of characters very much.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young heiress who's family died in an accident when she was young is being raised at a school to develop into a proper lady until she is of age to be married. She knows no one outside of school except an aunt that doesn't seem to care for her and the lawyer handing her funds. She knew there was enough money for things but she didn't know she was exactly wealthy because no one informed of anything. Women had no control over their property and the lawyer handled her funds until it could be transferred to her husband. After her schooling was complete her aunt came to pick her up to get her prepared for meeting suitors. She soon found her aunt was a hateful woman who did not care about her at all. She also found the Lawyer, who always seemed nice, really didn't care either. Her aunt was setting her up to marry a man she'd been warned about by a old school friend. She was told about about a family curse where all the wives died in childbirth, including his own mother. She was afraid of him but she had no choice but to go and soon found herself in a creepy mansion called Greygallows with no one to talk to but the servants and a few other people. There she was told of dark legends and the White Lady, a ghost which is only seen by the women who soon die. Her husband becomes violent at times and she has no way out, no one or no where to run to.

[Catherine Philhower · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barbara Michaels penned the perfect thriller with "Greygallows." What a classic, with a plucky heroine, a remote, dark "lord of the house" and, yes, a rural mansion. *sigh* -- such a wonderful summer escape novel!
Think the quintessential Gothic tale! Lucy Cartwright, our heroine, has of course heard the rumors circulating about Baron Clare and his family. Stories involving untimely deaths and the ghost who wanders the grounds of Greygallows abound, but lured by Clare's (temporary!) charms, she marries him anyway. What follows is a horror of deception, isolation, and terror. What happened to the seemingly gentle man she married?
I'll never tell!
If you;re looking for a classic Goth read along the lines of "Rebecca" here's the ticket! Enjoy!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.)

Though this novel was a little slow to start, I found myself enjoying it, once it picked up speed.  For connoisseurs of the genre, Greygallows is a decently engaging read-- an excellent "light" Gothic mystery-thriller.  That's not to say that it's flawless-- nor a favorite-- but it serves its purpose (providing mental escape from the real, modern world) to satisfaction.

Specifics:
--  I know that some readers love this sort of thing, but I don't particularly enjoy a focus on "social justice" in my casual, escapist reading.  It's especially annoying in historical novels, where authors give their precious heroes and heroines all the modern, enlightened attitudes, while making sure that the villain falls squarely on the "wrong side of history".  I can't stomach much of that sort of thing.  In some cases, it spoils the flavor of the whole book.  Fortunately, there was enough "other stuff" to balance the depressing history lesson aspects of this novel.

--  I think this is the second historical work of Barbara Michaels' that I've read.  The first was Black Rainbow.  By comparison to that, this is a veritable masterpiece!  Seriously, though, if you have a choice between the two of them, take Greygallows.

--  There were certain things that made me laugh-- like Lucy's pathetic little "romance" with her faux Italian music teacher-- and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to find them funny or not... But a laugh's a laugh, whether you're laughing with the author or at her.  (g)

--  I was surprised that Lucy couldn't even understand the speech of some of the less educated villagers.  Would that really have been an issue?  ...I guess there are some people whose English I'd have a hard time understanding, unless they spoke slowly-- but it still feels like such a difficult accent/dialect within one's own country would be a rarity.  Of course, this is in many ways a different world; much of the old regional uniqueness of language and speech has been flattened out and homogenized by easy travel and mass audio-visual media.

--  The reference to Brontë (for surely it was she to whom Miss Fleetwood referred) was mildly amusing-- especially her condemnation of "that unwomanly creature", considering what we later learn about Miss Fleetwood herself--namely, that she gave way to her personal passions and went along with Clare's plan to commit bigamy by marrying a sickly woman just for her money, in the hopes that she would die quickly and leave him her fortune. By comparison, Jane Eyre is an absolute saint! I find I don't have much sympathy for Miss Fleetwood.

--  As is so often the case when reading this author's books, I find myself noticing a certain "reverse double standard" when it comes to... I guess you'd call it gender stereotypes.  On the one hand, she's very sensitive to women being undervalued or restricted by men and society in general.  (Overly sensitive, some might say.  It's one thing to recognize it when it's there, another to be so obsessed that you see it everywhere-- even in places where it may not really exist-- and feel compelled to comment on it each and every time.)

But on the other hand, she makes (usually humorless) jokes at the expense of male characters, if they're not "traditionally masculine" enough-- or sometimes even if they're too "macho"/male.  In this novel, there are at least a few references (toward the end) to a (villainous, of course) character's "womanish shrieks" and "screaming" in the face of danger.  In the same scene, the heroine's noises of distress are described as "cries", while the hero gives way to more manly "shouts".

...Am I nit-picking?  Maybe, but this irks me.  It's not that I like the idea of a man giving a "womanish shriek"-- far from it; I prefer men to sound and act like men, to be completely honest, traditionalist that I am--  but I find this type of thing strange from an author who likes her female leads to be strong-minded and defiant of gender stereotypes.

--  I had strong suspicions of the plot-twist villain-- (who was just too angelic to be true and was "given away" by Mrs. Andrews' tales of how he could always talk his way out of any trouble as a child)-- but other aspects of the novel kept me guessing and interested until the end.

--  For a while, I wondered if it would turn out that Clare had a romantic attachment not to Miss Fleetwood but to her brother.  I couldn't really believe this author would choose that angle in a 1970s Gothic romance/mystery-- and it would possibly make Clare's two most "physical" encounters with Lucy a little difficult to explain-- but I really, really wondered. That would've been a major twist, at least.

--  Speaking of romance, this was lacking in that department.  Lucy has a flirtation-- is wooed-- is wed-- and then falls in love with her soulmate.  And somehow she manages to do so with a minimum of vicarious thrills for the reader.  Oh well!  (It's been so long since I read a truly romantic novel.  Most of these are so skimpy in flutters and thrills!)

[Sunni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not one of Mrs. Michael's best works, but it was OK. I enjoyed it, but found it was a slow read at parts. Other parts were interesting, but I didn't have any trouble putting it down or being distracted from my reading easily. The ending was very climactic, but after the slow pace set in the previous pages it just made the ending feel rushed.

[Amaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good gothic read. Touches some important social issues of the day like child labor, pollution, ect - which is still relevant in some parts of the world, even today. Makes “Victorian” marriage look like a nightmare - which it probably was for most women at that time - no matter if you were rich or poor. Stay single! Or find yourself a Jonathan.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun Gothic romantic suspense, with a naive but intrepid heroine, a dark, brooding mysterious lord of the manor, a vibrant, idealistic young solicitor, and a scheming, hard-as-nails elderly aunt, among other stock characters that Michaels brings alive in this Regency-era novel. Michaels and Mary Stewart will always be my go-to authors for this kind of book; perfect for a beach read.

[Keara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read many of Barbara Michaels books years ago and loved them. I'm doing a slow re-read through her bibliography to see if my views on them have changed. So far I've really been enjoying them. This is the rare exception. I did not the main character. The book was all over the placed. The only reason I finished it was I was on plane with nothing better to do.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s December! The end of the year when I always pick a nostalgic gothic romantic mystery to read. This year, I went with Greygallows by Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters. Wondering if Hallmark Mysteries has ever tried to license books like this? Thinking they should. Love it for what it is - simply swarmy storytelling!

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kinda boring

Now I remember why I stopped reading cranked out gothic and Harliquen (sp?) novels 50 years ago - they are all so formulaic you know the ending before you get 20 pages into the book. I wanted a break from the last two books I read so went for something lightweight. Wasn't worth it.

[Mary Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overwrought romance

This is one of Michael’s lesser efforts. It is a Gothic with little of the atmosphere that can make that genre enjoyable. If this had been my introduction to Michael’s writing, I probably would not have read any of her other books.

[Lilienknochen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Greygallows has every gothic romance trope/cliché you can think of (though no one's locked in the attic); the heroine faints THREE times before we're even half way through this very short book. This was a wild ride and I loved it. Pure gothic trash fun.

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

started off well, but there was more focus on issues of the Victorian times like poverty and child labour etc... Oddly enough, it was a light read in spite of its being a gothic novel. skimmed it after reading half the book. It was also difficult to feel the romance in it, so I'm dissappointed.

[BRANDON · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, Michaels delivered an exemplar of the gothic romance (as I've come to know it anyway). I half expected Clare to be a misunderstood lover like the Master of Blacktower. I was pleasantly surprised to find him to be another creature altogether.

[Sie Sumayod · Rating 4 out of 5]

the twist, oh my!

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable Gothic novel

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

a good gothic story.

[Marcia Whoolery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfathomable

I liked the writing. I liked the plot. I did not like that literally all the information that explained the behaviour of the villain was dumped on me at the end.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Typically, I like Barbara Michaels, but this one is very slow with almost no payoff. Little action, little suspense, and mostly, Michaels is just typing words here. Skip it