The Prisoner of Malville Hall

by Dorothy Daniels

Psychic forces trap her in a house of the dead.

Genres: Gothic, Horror

191 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1973

About the author

According to a mini-biography, accompanied by a photograph, on the rear cover of one of her many gothic novels, Dorothy Daniels was born in Connecticut but by the time she was a full-time writer, in the middle 1960's, was living in California. She was initially an English teacher at a state college but later wrote articles that appeared in national magazines, which led to her career as a writer of mostly gothic paperbacks. Lancer books, which published more than twenty of her novels, proclaimed her "America's Most Popular Gothic Novelist" while Pocket Books claimed her gothic novels had sold over eleven million copies by the middle 1970's. Her approximately 146 novels were published by a dozen paperback publishers, some had as many as four printings while others were printed only once. Lancer and Warner Books together published more than sixty of her novels. The vast majority of her novels were written in the first person and this was a trademark of sorts with Dorothy Daniels, as she rarely strayed from this pattern. Several of her novels take place in the Old South. Her novels were also considerably more involving plot-wise and contained more character development than other gothic novels. She published her last gothic novel, "House of Silence", in late 1980. Afterward she wrote a handfull of historical romances and her last published novel appears to be "Crisis at Valcour" in 1985.
The aforementioned photograph on the rear cover of her 1965 book "Cliffside Castle" contradicts some claims that Dorothy Daniels was male, and at least one internet website's author insists that Dorothy Daniels was actually a man named Paul Hugo Little who lived in Chicago and wrote over 700 books under at least a dozen pseudonyms. We may never know for certain who Dorothy Daniels was. Several of her gothic paperbacks, credited to Dorothy Daniels or Suzanne Somers, were copyrighted by Norman Daniels. She published one novel, "House of False Faces", under the pseudonym Helen Gray Weston, but this book was later reissued as "Dorothy Daniels writing as Helen Gray Weston". She wrote three nurse romance books in addition to her many gothic novels.

Also wrote under the names:
Angela Gray
Cynthia Kavanaugh
Helaine Ross
Suzanne Somers
Geraldine Thayer
Helen Gray Weston

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Meagan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am completely bewildered by the high rating that this book has on this site. It must not have been read by many people, and those people with exceedingly low standards. This book is TERRIBLE. T E R R I B L E. I'm not over-exaggerating in the slightest.

It's set in the times of TV's, expensive cars, telephones, and yet everyone in this book talks like they're supposed to be part of some victorian novel half the time. The lead character has 'powers' that are ultimately useless and literally do not help her in the slightest. She shows the most astounding lack of curiosity and an alarming lack of self-preservation, not wondering why the shady past servants of the Castle come back to help without pay, and also exchanging painfully horribly written 'I love you's' with a man that she literally (LITERALLY) met earlier that afternoon, and their conversation then consisted of, 'I'm psychic' and him responding, 'Yeah but you're also hot, dinner soon?'

Forced 'Darling's thrown around and a boyfriend who somehow thinks that stalking around the outside of the castle when all the danger is INSIDE is going to help anything are lovely, cringing parts of this book to look forward to. The exact same dinner described twice, once as being disappointing and lacking, and the next time (I'm serious, the exact same dinner: steak, baked potatoes, a salad) being described as the housekeeper having OUTDONE HERSELF. The entire plot of the novel is not described to us in an exciting play-by-play (btw, nothing in this book is exciting, it's entirely flat and laughable), it is, instead, literally listed out to us flatly by a man who has been introduced to the situation literally three pages beforehand, but he's a DOCTOR, so he knows these things. Apparently.

READ THIS BOOK if you ever doubt your own writing, or your own ability to get published, because my GOD. If this can get published and you've got more than the pin-drop of imagination that this woman has, then your books DEFINITELY CAN.

[Carrie Dalby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent, but not really worth the read. Redundant in places and a little lazy. Editorially, it needed to be tightened. A lot. My second, and probably last, Dorothy Daniels novel. I try to read the "big" Gothic names from the glory days of Gothic paperbacks, but I've been underwhelmed twice now.

[Rosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kept me guessing, impatiently. Not very well-written.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love gothic romances with all of the mystery and the strong female characters. Dorothy Daniels is an amazing author incorporating an unforgettable story with amazing characters.