The House on the Cliffs

by Caroline Farr

A Touch of Evil. From the moment beautiful Trudy Page arrived at fortresslike Farland mansion, she sensed that something was amiss. Her friends Toni and Gene were off on a mysterious errand, and the servants whispered of hitchhikers and murder.

But suddenly real trouble descended on the brooding house. Trudy nearly lost her life in a rock slide, saved only by the quick action of handsome and mysterious Bruce Gallard, a painter with more than an artistic interest in Farland mansion and Trudy Page. Then Toni returned home alone, saying her brother Gene was being held by the police for questioning, and when Trudy tried to help, she was caught up in a nightmare world of terror, victim of an evil which no one could stop.

Genres: Gothic, Horror

156 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Caroline Farr is the pseudonym of Richard Wilkes-Hunter (1906 - 1991), a prolific Australian writer.

Under this name, he wrote a number of Gothic romance novels. He used over a dozen pseudonyms and wrote war stories, romances, spy novels, westerns and pornography.

Sometimes this name is incorrectly attributed to Allan Geoffrey Yates.

Other pseudonyms:
Diana Douglas
Todd Conrad
Alex Crane
Bradley Ross
Shauna Marlowe

Reviews

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've given this book 3/5. If I could, I would rate the first three-quarters of the book a 5/5 and the last quarter a 1/5. It started great, with plenty of mystery and suspense, but the ending was terrible! There were no twists, the villain was the same person that had been accused the entire time. I had all of these great ideas and theories in my head, and in the end, nothing happened. There was no explanation for why the person was doing these things, what caused his 'madness' or when it began. There was no clearing up of the incidents that happened earlier on in the book such as the cliff incident. It seems like the author ran out of ideas part way through the story.

[Yue · Rating 2 out of 5]

The MC turns out to be dumb when she couldn't confess where the culprit was (only bc he was her friend) Good friends she had! There are some good stuff for a gothic book, like her arrival at the town with all that fog, and the secret doors, but her friend Toni, who invited her at her house, was a terrible hostess, also a terrible friend, and the last chapter was too rushed, as if the author was just telling us in a summary how it ends, even the "romance" (which was super lackluster... we meet the main love interest after half of the book, and they speak like twice).

[Kimmy Cottle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was entertaining, but the ending seemed like she ran out of time and just condensed everything in a few paragraphs. Otherwise, I enjoyed it.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scary at times.

[Neoralisa Medrano · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was exactly what the blurb promise. The first part is absolutely breathtaking, it is atmospheric and very gothic. We have a house with very old furniture, and a cliff nearby. There is a landslide and a mystery surrounding missing girls. And the characters are intriguing, but then, our dear Caroline Farr lost the plot almost finishing the book.

Trudy Page becomes fucking dumb, and Toni Farland after being nice, start being mean out of nowhere. Like, why was Trudy dumb when at the start she was more observing of her surroundings. I have so many guesses about what the mystery could be, but the author was not into complicated plots, she just wanted to give us this very gothic city, and then forget about the mystery of it all.

[Viktoria Neborikina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Це було передбачувано, але так легко читалося. Більше мені таких книг
⠀
Невелика сімейна історія з елементами детектива, яка захоплює на кожній сторінці. Мені хотілося читати кожну вільну хвилину. Коли лишала книгу, продовжувала про неї думати.

[Mermarie]

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[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first read by Caroline Farr, and will definitely not be
my last. This was very entertaining.