Dark Harbor Haunting

Dark Harbor #4

by Clarissa Ross, W.E.D. Ross (AKA)

STAGE SET FOR EVIL

Lovely raven-haired Madeleine Renais gave up on her dazzling stage career when handsome Raymond Copeland asked for her hand. But when she came to live in the old family mansion, Raymond's family treated her with inexplicable hostility and hatred. And then, one terror-filled night, a malevolent hooded figure placed its icy fingers around her throat...and Madeline awoke in a charity hospital, a victim of amnesia!

But her memory soon returned - and with it, a relentless determination to discover the truth. Disguised, she returned to the Copeland estate as a companion to elderly Grandmother Copeland. Though none of the family recognized her, someone - or something - had discovered her true identity...and with a series of tragic, near-fatal accidents came the realization that Madeline must play her part as though her very life depended on it, for she faced the severest critic of all: death!

Genres: Gothic

222 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1975

About the author

William Edward Daniel Ross, W. E. Daniel "Dan" Ross (born 1912) is a bestselling Canadian novelist from Saint John, New Brunswick who wrote over 300 books in a variety of genres and under a variety of mostly female pseudonyms such as Laura Frances Brooks, Lydia Colby, Rose Dana, Jan Daniels, Ross Olin, Diane Randall, Clarissa Ross, Leslie Ames, Ruth Dorset, Ann Gilmer, Jane Rossiter, Dan Ross, Dana Ross, Marilyn Ross, Dan Roberts, and W.E.D. Ross. As Marilyn Ross he wrote popular Gothic fiction including a series of novels about the vampire Barnabas Collins based on the American TV series Dark Shadows (1966-71).

Reviews

[Sarah Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really a 4-star, even compared to higher-quality pulps, but (as with everything by Dan Ross or VC Andrews) the Special Needs Rating Scale dictates rounding up when a book doesn’t totally suck. Some authors are only gonna get so good, & you have to reward them relative to their oeuvre. :D Such is the case here.

If you’ve experienced other Ross, you can tell he really did try with this particular effort—there’s an actual story with some unexpected twists, & the dialogue isn’t completely ludicrous. As with EVIL OF DARK HARBOR, this is framed by the tale-within-a-tale, & the modern bit is deliberately vague, i.e. a 20-page setup to reintroduce Dark Harbor native Captain Miller & his penchant for storytelling. The real plot is set in the 1890s, complete with an actress heroine (that perennial Ross fave) & the Scooby Doo family she’s marrying into. Let’s give credit where it’s due; my suspicions swerved twice at the midway point, but neither was correct. And Nero the Dalmatian didn’t die, so props for that. ;)

4 stars within the Ross pantheon, but more like 3/3.5 in comparison to better pulps.