Visit After Dark

by Daoma Winston

Recovered from her breakdown, Mary Tanner Layton was returning eagerly to the small, dusty, sun-baked town and her marriage that had scarcely begun. The griefand confusion were gone; she and Peter would pick up the pieces...

But Peter was living with his wife -- a woman who looked like Mary. A woman who was Mary Tanner Layton! And only the terrified girl barely hanging on to her sanity said she was not. Who was this woman with her face and her name? Why was Peter making her life a nightmare from which nobody would let her wake up -- a nightmare he'd go to any lengths to make permanent?

Genres: Gothic

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Daoma Winston was a prolific writer of Gothic romance and horror/thriller novels. All of her novels have a strong occult theme and usually feature ghosts, witches, demons or magic.
(Not "Golden Tramp.")

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!! One of the best books I’ve ever read!

[Nattie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting the book to be much better than it was. It was too crass for my tastes. I prefer earlier works by Daoma Winston. It seems her books in the later 1970's are more crude.

The book was supposed to be about a woman named Mary Tanner Layton who returns home to her husband after she was recently released from a mental institution, something shady is going down because he has another woman in her place acting as if she's Mary Tanner Layton.

The book IS about that, but it's more focused on a man named Ash who is trying to help Mary get to the truth. I didn't care for it. There were too many characters involved in the story that I didn't particularly like.

As usual Daoma Winston made her heroine small, fragile, and whiny. Mary is described as small so many times that I'm not sure I ever want to see or hear the word again. There's ageism, sexism, and racism throughout. I should just be glad that she didn't include any fat characters this time; she usually has a field day insulting the overweight.

In a visit after dark, a man of 35 is considered old. A character by the name of Loris who is 31 is still beautiful, despite being old as hell. She still has a great figure, despite being two years past 29. It was said that she could still catch an attractive man despite no longer being a 21-year-old anymore.

I'm sitting here shaking my head and rolling my eyes. Apparently Daoma had some issues.