Dunleary

by Monica Heath

The fabulous titled adventurer came from across the sea to claim Deirdre Rynne, a woman he had seen only in a photograph. But Brendan O'Leary, King of Inish Laoghaire, led a young, innocent girl into a cold, remote, desolate den he called home; on a cursed island that condemned its women to deceit and perhaps death.

Genres: Gothic

Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written by my great-aunt. She was an excellent writer! I loved how naturally mysterious and borderline-creepy her writing was without seeming forced. I think it's pretty cool that one of my relatives could write haunting, twisted, curse-based novels with such an effortless style!
This was my first (and probably last, to be honest) venture into Gothic fiction. It was complete with ancient curses, castle, and darkly mysterious love. Super-interesting and very different from anything I've ever read.
The mystery part of this story was pretty good. Although it was fairly predictable, I wasn't sure about the bad guy(s) until the end.
I'm not sure if the romance was supposed to be romantic...to me, it was just dark and sort of twisted. Which is fine. But not romantic!
All in all, it was not my type of book but I really enjoyed the writing style and found the story very engaging, particularly in the last half.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gothic author Monica Heath once again uses the location of Ireland to plot her story of a centuries old curse, a wild, fog-shrouded island, a mouldering castle, bat-shite mad characters, and the ubiquitous sweet and virginal heroine.

Overly dramatic, with a very predictible villian, this 143 page gothic took me far longer to read then it should have, but frankly, it was only mildly entertaining, and nowhere as good as Heath is capable of writing.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sheltered young woman finds herself wooed, wed and transported to an isolated island off the western coast of Ireland, where she discovers a household of eccentric new in-laws--and one whopping curse in this early Gothic from prolific writer Monica Heath. More than a few echoes of "Rebecca" are thrown into the mix, but what stands out is the strongly sexual nature of the curse that haunts the O'Leary island, which is usually not a factor in the genre. Possibly the date of publication--1966--meant that the real world was making its way into the gothics. In any case, the novel is a brief, cohesive little story, even if some of the looser plot points are tied up a bit too tidily. One would also wish that Heath would have reined in her tendency to have her Irish characters preface almost every phrase with "Sure and..." or "he/she'll be after..." A little goes a really long way. Some of the set up from the first few chapters--orphaned naive young woman, debutante balls, bitchy cousins--would be recycled by Heath in one of her later novels, "Marshwood." Heath would also begin here a tendency to batter her heroines, literally: in this case, Deirdre both falls AND is beaten about the head. For its subtext of an island full of ungovernable women and the odd fact that characters clamber around through the castle's unused plumbing apparatuses, the novel is memorable.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a lovely gothic romance! Though at times i felt that the Hero was a bit extreme in his obsession with the heroine's virginity and his reactions at times didn't seem that of a normal person. However, the mystery was good and the romance clean. An isolated spooky Irish Island is used as a setting and after a miraculous rescue/release from the villain the ending very satisfying. I highly recommend this book to gothic-romance readers.

[Tapaqi · Rating 5 out of 5]

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