The deMaury Papers

by Isabelle Holland

Stated First Edition. A VG+ copy in a VG dust jacket. Soiling to the edges of the book's upper page block. The book and dust jacket both have mild rubbing to their edges. The book's inner gutters are tanned. The dust jacket's rear panel is dust soiled. It has a vertical 1" tear with a 4 1/2" diagonal crease at its upper edge.

Genres: Gothic

326 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Isabelle Christian Holland (born June 16, 1920 in Basel, Switzerland — died February 9, 2002) was an author of children and adult fiction. Her father was the American Consul in Liverpool, England during WWII. She moved to America in 1940 due to the war. She wrote Gothic novels, adult mysteries, romantic thrillers, and many books for children and young adults. She wrote over 50 books in her lifetime, and was still working at the time of her death at age 81 in New York City.

Two of her novels have been made into movies:

Bump in the Night, 1991,
The Man Without a Face, 1993

Both of these novels deal with issues or allegations of pedophilia.

Reviews

[Rachel Brown]

Completely forgot to review this when I finished it, can now barely remember it. Moderately entertaining but uninspired Gothic in which the heroine spends 90% of the book sorting papers in a spooky attic and searching for her perennially missing dog, with occasional interludes in which someone whomps her over the head, shoots at her, or ties her up.

The concluding explanation of what the hell was going on is less amusingly deranged than one might hope from Holland (author of the deliciously wacky Trelawny, in which twin brothers impersonate each other until she didn't know which was which), but did manage to bring in multiple villains, an exploding car, international intrigue, a completely pasted-on-yay romance, and surprise!secret Israeli agents valiantly uncovering an incomprehensible anti-Semitic plot. Why this was all going on at a lonely British house and involved the heroine and her dog, only Holland knew.

ETA: The book was not anti-Semitic. I meant that there was plotting going on by anti-Semitic bad guys.

[Susy]

I’m a sucker for novels (mainly mysteries) with a literature background, what I’ve seen labelled as “bibliomysteries”. This time the novel was written 30 years ago with an even earlier mentality. I found the beautiful heroine who doesn’t understand the clues the writer leaves everywhere, the older lord of the manor with roots in Heathchliff but updated, the nice persons hiding deep secrets, nothing was forgotten to make this a soft form of Gothic. Janet de Maury's assignment was to write her famous father's biography. But she had to travel to Tenton Hall in England where her father's papers were stored by the hostile husband of Janet's late cousin. She is described as a modern working girl but is in fact a throwback to the Jane Eyre time. Entertaining but not my cup of tea. I must learn to choose more wisely, last month I had the same situation with The house at Riverton. Wake up, Susy! Chicklit is not for you!

[Dorothy Bush]

A gothic suspense story. Written in 1977, the story pre-dates cell phones and internet services, although a good mystery/suspense/intrigue can be had without the fripperies of modern society. A bit of a chuckle though when they're commenting on the cost of a trans-Atlantic telephone call. Good story with a whole bunch of "who can you trust?"

[Kathy]

Wonderful suspense story. A young woman travels to an English estate to edit her father's papers for a biography. She walks into the middle of an evil plot. All turns out just fine in the end but getting there is a great adventure.