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Shadow Play
In a household constructed of lies and deceits, of glamorous fantasies from filmdom's greatest movies, lovely Christine Glenville is drawn into a nightmare world where evil dreams become the only reality!
Max Deveraux, fabulously wealthy film magnate, is totally obsessed with Hollywood's celluloid past. Even the façade of his California mansion is an exact replica of Manderley in the film Rebecca; each room is a re-creation of a room from a favorite movie.
And who are the people living in this cinematic fantasia? Are they really what they seem, or are they pawns in a movie mirage created by the great man? In a bizarre series of shocking events, Christine discovers the incredible truth!
"Eerily amusing and chillingly perverse. . . . Film buffs will have a grand time." --Rex Reed
Max Deveraux, fabulously wealthy film magnate, is totally obsessed with Hollywood's celluloid past. Even the façade of his California mansion is an exact replica of Manderley in the film Rebecca; each room is a re-creation of a room from a favorite movie.
And who are the people living in this cinematic fantasia? Are they really what they seem, or are they pawns in a movie mirage created by the great man? In a bizarre series of shocking events, Christine discovers the incredible truth!
"Eerily amusing and chillingly perverse. . . . Film buffs will have a grand time." --Rex Reed
- GenresHorror
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
50 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 27, 2020
Gothic Extraordinaire!
OMG - This book! It’s literally like finding a treasure chest buried in the backyard. So much fun, so well-written, appeals to everything I love about fiction. It should be a movie but never will be because Hollywood is stupid. At the very least it should still be in print!
Publishers!!! Track down Marvin Werlin and bring this back immediately!
Okay, I will try to curb my enthusiasm and continue. Without giving too much away, the premise is like a love letter addressed to gothic enthusiasts: a damsel is assigned to help a famous movie producer pen his memoirs. When she arrives, she finds the producer’s mansion is a glorious ode to old movies, with a facade carefully crafted to look like Manderley and every room arranged in the likeness of iconic set design.
Surprise, surprise, there’s more than meets the eye when our heroine encounters an array of beautiful, mysterious characters who populate the house. There’s the enigmatic niece, a hunky (nude) art model, a boyish vagabond, and a muscular giant who quickly sweeps her off her feet. Not to mention Max Deveraux, the larger-than-life master of the house and his equally theatrical wife.
Published toward the end of the gothic lit fad (1976) Shadow Play playfully pushes the boundaries established by earlier works. Sex gets an extra sentence or two, for example, and the overall lusty atmosphere pulsating throughout the mansion is slightly more explicit than I’ve read before. Still mostly innuendo, but very clever innuendo so it comes across juicier.
With every page the suspense mounts and the tongue-in-cheek dangers become more real. It’s probably the only mystery I’ve ever read where I kept guessing all the way until the very last word.
Most pulp/gothic novels from this era are out-of-print, and many deservingly so. Publishers churned them out as fast as possible to cash-in on the fad. Unfortunately this means the gems have been forgotten with the garbage. I did my best Google stalking and couldn’t find anything on Marlin Werlin except that he did publish some other books with his brother, Mark Werlin. If that’s even their real names.
As a writer it breaks my heart when superb books fade away. I know how much work must’ve gone into a carefully constructed mystery like this. I wish it was easier to reprint books, too. But often copyright holding uncertainty makes republishing difficult even if someone wanted to. In this case the used book market won’t be able to keep Shadow Play alive either. It doesn’t appear many copies remain in existence, or at least not many are out there for sale.
If you are able to snag a copy, don’t let it collect dust on your shelf! Read it ASAP and then send me a message so we can giggle and gossip about how much fun it is!
OMG - This book! It’s literally like finding a treasure chest buried in the backyard. So much fun, so well-written, appeals to everything I love about fiction. It should be a movie but never will be because Hollywood is stupid. At the very least it should still be in print!
Publishers!!! Track down Marvin Werlin and bring this back immediately!
Okay, I will try to curb my enthusiasm and continue. Without giving too much away, the premise is like a love letter addressed to gothic enthusiasts: a damsel is assigned to help a famous movie producer pen his memoirs. When she arrives, she finds the producer’s mansion is a glorious ode to old movies, with a facade carefully crafted to look like Manderley and every room arranged in the likeness of iconic set design.
Surprise, surprise, there’s more than meets the eye when our heroine encounters an array of beautiful, mysterious characters who populate the house. There’s the enigmatic niece, a hunky (nude) art model, a boyish vagabond, and a muscular giant who quickly sweeps her off her feet. Not to mention Max Deveraux, the larger-than-life master of the house and his equally theatrical wife.
Published toward the end of the gothic lit fad (1976) Shadow Play playfully pushes the boundaries established by earlier works. Sex gets an extra sentence or two, for example, and the overall lusty atmosphere pulsating throughout the mansion is slightly more explicit than I’ve read before. Still mostly innuendo, but very clever innuendo so it comes across juicier.
With every page the suspense mounts and the tongue-in-cheek dangers become more real. It’s probably the only mystery I’ve ever read where I kept guessing all the way until the very last word.
Most pulp/gothic novels from this era are out-of-print, and many deservingly so. Publishers churned them out as fast as possible to cash-in on the fad. Unfortunately this means the gems have been forgotten with the garbage. I did my best Google stalking and couldn’t find anything on Marlin Werlin except that he did publish some other books with his brother, Mark Werlin. If that’s even their real names.
As a writer it breaks my heart when superb books fade away. I know how much work must’ve gone into a carefully constructed mystery like this. I wish it was easier to reprint books, too. But often copyright holding uncertainty makes republishing difficult even if someone wanted to. In this case the used book market won’t be able to keep Shadow Play alive either. It doesn’t appear many copies remain in existence, or at least not many are out there for sale.
If you are able to snag a copy, don’t let it collect dust on your shelf! Read it ASAP and then send me a message so we can giggle and gossip about how much fun it is!
April 8, 2020
“Eerily amusing and chillingly perverse... Film buffs will have a grand time.” This is a blurb on the back of my paperback edition by legendary film critic, Red Reed. I agree, somewhat, unless the ellipsis expresses how campy and melodramatic this book is, and then I agree unreservedly.
A young secretary, after a personal tragedy, leaves her life in Hollywood to take a job at a mysterious mansion filled with film buffs. There’s tons of that gothic atmosphere and even more tons of film references. Mostly Rebecca and Jane Eyre. What is going on with these whackos? Is she in danger? What happened to the previous governess—whoops, I mean—previous personal assistant?
I don’t really remember what I read that prompted me to purchase and read this. I wasn’t even sure if it was going to be horror or a whodunit. The pacing kind of lags in the middle and I think that’s because there’s no real plot, just bits and pieces and suggestions of plots from other stories. I’m not complaining, I enjoyed the piecemeal aspect of it. Fantasy and reality clash and you’re never sure just what the fuck is going on.
What Shadow Play really reminded me of was the cheap thriller trash I read in middle school by R. L. Stine and Christopher Pike! Wuthering Heights meets Scream. It’s a fun story, if very derivative, and meta, and there is certainly adult content! But there’s something about the liberal use of exclamation points that makes me feel like I’m reading a YA novel! Like, totally. Beware, if that’s a pet peeve.
But Marvin Werlin could write, in that competent paperback way, and he could tell a story, in that competent paperback way. Sometimes his descriptions were very choice. Apparently, he was an artist. A good one, in my opinion. Worth a look, his art and Shadow Play. Recommended. Shadow Play is strange one, but readable.
A young secretary, after a personal tragedy, leaves her life in Hollywood to take a job at a mysterious mansion filled with film buffs. There’s tons of that gothic atmosphere and even more tons of film references. Mostly Rebecca and Jane Eyre. What is going on with these whackos? Is she in danger? What happened to the previous governess—whoops, I mean—previous personal assistant?
I don’t really remember what I read that prompted me to purchase and read this. I wasn’t even sure if it was going to be horror or a whodunit. The pacing kind of lags in the middle and I think that’s because there’s no real plot, just bits and pieces and suggestions of plots from other stories. I’m not complaining, I enjoyed the piecemeal aspect of it. Fantasy and reality clash and you’re never sure just what the fuck is going on.
What Shadow Play really reminded me of was the cheap thriller trash I read in middle school by R. L. Stine and Christopher Pike! Wuthering Heights meets Scream. It’s a fun story, if very derivative, and meta, and there is certainly adult content! But there’s something about the liberal use of exclamation points that makes me feel like I’m reading a YA novel! Like, totally. Beware, if that’s a pet peeve.
But Marvin Werlin could write, in that competent paperback way, and he could tell a story, in that competent paperback way. Sometimes his descriptions were very choice. Apparently, he was an artist. A good one, in my opinion. Worth a look, his art and Shadow Play. Recommended. Shadow Play is strange one, but readable.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews