The Bewitching Grace

by Jennifer Blake

A young girl has been murdered, her body in perpetual slumber among the surrounding trees. The act seems random and unexplainable. Explain the dead lizard impaled on her pillow as a warning. Anne Tarrington is an up and coming hotshot journalist who's never seen anything like it. Not yet. She's about to see more than she bargained for, more than even her inquiring mind can fathom. Hot on the trail of the killer, she follows a path of Voodoo mysticism and witchery to a solemn Louisiana plantation where suddenly all hell breaks loose. Someone is channeling the forces of evil, but who? Could it be Nico, the obtuse Greek poet? Maybe Lena, with her expertise in the ways of Voodoo? Even Miranda, Anne's old friend who has had her soul mangled by a horrendous past? Perhaps it's Steven with his dark evil eyes that seem to will Anne into forbidden acts? Just when the forces of darkness seem ready to overtake Anne in her quest for the truth, the mysterious ritual of Indian Mound enables her to find the answers, but only by confronting the heart of Evil itself!

Genres: Gothic, Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary

Nook

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

A pseudonym used by Patricia Maxwell.

Jennifer Blake has been called a “pioneer of the romance genre”, and an “icon of the romance industry.” A New York Times and international best selling author since 1977, she is a charter member of Romance Writers of America, member of the RWA Hall of Fame, and recipient of the RWA Lifetime Achievement Rita. She holds numerous other honors, including two “Maggies”, two Holt Medallions, multiple Reviewer’s Choice Awards, the Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times BookReviews Magazine, and the Frank Waters Award for literary excellence. She has written over 60 books with translations in 20 languages and more than 30 million copies in print worldwide.

Jennifer and her husband reside in a lakeside Caribbean-style retreat in North Louisiana where they often entertain family and friends. Always a gardener, she spends much of her time encouraging her garden to bloom with her favorite daylilies and antique roses. She also enjoys walking her two dogs, Buffy and Lucky, and indulging in needlework, painting, and travel.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bewitching Grace by Jennifer Blake is a 2014 Steel Magnolia Press publication. (Originally published in 1973)

Anne, a journalist, is writing an article about an old historical estate, one her recently married friend, Miranda, happens to reside. It also happens that a murder took place on the grounds of the estate, that was never solved- a riddle Anne would dearly love to solve.

Unfortunately, someone is determined to stymie her investigations- sending her unwelcome messages via Voodoo rituals.

The house is packed with marital tensions, secrets, and suspects- and Ann could be in danger of becoming the next victim.

Rarely do I find anyone these days with an interest in the old Gothic novels that were all the rage in the sixties and seventies, so it was nice to meet a kindred spirit the other day who was just becoming interested in the genre.

As I thought back on the names of the more prominent authors back then, I suddenly remembered that Jennifer Blake-writing as Patricia Maxwell- had gotten her start by writing Gothic novels.

She only wrote a handful of them before the historical romance novel kicked the Gothic suspense genre to the curb. Blake is, of course, associated with her historical romances, and more recently her foray into contemporary romances, and some fans may not even know she wrote in the genre early in her career.

I also remembered that Blake has an impressive number of her older books formatted for digital format, and I happen to have a couple of her Gothic novels on my Kindle. Naturally, I had to hunt them down and read one right away.

This book was good! Yes, yes, yes- it was written in 1973 and it capitalized on the massively popular paranormal wave of the day, with lots of Voodoo rituals, and paranormal goings on.

Basically, these books can be described as being romantic suspense novels, with a paranormal tint, and as per usual, for this genre, the male characters, even the possible love interest, is not entirely trustworthy.

Still, the tension is palpable, and while I’m not an expert on Voodoo, the descriptions seemed well- researched, and authentic.

I thought the story stood the test of time well, with only a few dated phrases, etc., and was a nice creepy murder mystery.

Overall, I enjoyed this one well enough to add another one to my TBR via the KU program. For those interested, I think Blake has most of these in the Kindle store and are all available your KU subscription too, if you have one.

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another re-release from 1973.
For once, this Gothic is set in it’s present time.
Anne has looked after her childhood friend Miranda for as long as she can remember; especially after her father dies and her mother leaves. There’s just something about her that invites trouble and melodrama seems to follow her. So Anne is happy when she marries Louis Blackwell.
Five months later Anne is asked to do a story on antebellum houses and she stays with Miranda at Indian Mound, Louis’ ancestral home.

“Louis won’t mind having you here. He doesn’t mind anything much. He’ll probably be glad to have someone to occupy me. It should be interesting to see if a smoked honey blonde with turquoise eyes can lure him away from his books.”
“What?” She spoke so quietly that I wasn’t at all sure I had heard her right.
“My husband, the ascetic,” she went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “He resists my allure so well, it will be interesting to see if he succumbs to your charm as all the rest of my boy friends used to do.” (Kindle Locations 89-92).

Uh oh… that doesn’t sound good.
The other players are: Stephan, Louis’ brother; Aunt Hattie; Lena the cook/housekeeper who raised the boys; Nico the poet (pen name James Evans); and Sandy the farm worker.
Her first afternoon a salt circle and voodoo fetish appear outside her door. Stephan tells her it means ‘go away’. Everyone assumes it’s Lena.

“They mean,” Miranda said in an undertone as she leaned toward me, “our cook. She claims to be the great-granddaughter of the Negro voodoo queen, Marie Laveau. Practices on the side, dances with a snake at meetings, or so they say. She’s something else.” (Kindle Locations 198-200).

Miranda and Louis pick at each other during dinner.
Nico Kostelomos, poet in residence, arrives late for dinner. Anne is very impressed by him. He shares a guest house with Sandy.
She also lets slip that they picked up Nico on her honeymoon. She went shopping with him a lot which is an odd kind of honeymoon. Plus, there were more voodoo threats:

“Didn’t I tell you? A week after we returned from New Orleans I found a rooster’s head in my bathtub, and a piece of a black cat’s tail in my shoe. It thought it was a caterpillar, until Lena told me different.” (Kindle Locations 480-481).

Anne is interested in all the men.

Stephan, lounging in his chair with his long legs stretched out before him wore a blue shirt that, I noticed suddenly, made his blue eyes look darker. Three dark men. All three were attractive, yet so different. Louis, withdrawn, temperamental and bookish. Nico was his exact opposite in personality though he probably had a temperamental side too, if he were a poet. Stephan, the outdoors-man, bronzed, knowledgeable about farming, and yet at ease in the drawing room; his most outstanding characteristic seemed to be a self-possession that amounted to egotism, a self-confidence that bordered on arrogance.

And the death needed for the Gothic recipe? A local girl was murdered five months ago and her body left in an isolated hut. Stephan was arrested but released without charge.
Oh boy, this is definitely the seventies:

I was thinking that my cream floor-length pants dress with the gold belt and gold, braid-trimmed bolero should stand up to the formality of Miranda’s long skirt. (Kindle Locations 866-867).

A huge black hound called Loup appears in her room. Nico suggests to Anne that it is Miranda who is the manipulator. Stephan suggests she has forced her way into her marriage. Miranda takes Anne to the hut where the girl was killed. Nico has a book on voodoo. Stephan kisses her. A chameleon stuck through with a hat pin is left on Anne’s pillow.
Oh my, it’s all happening…
But then, Sandy is murdered - shot like the earlier victim.
***
This one ticks all the Gothic recipe boxes. Including storms. And complicated by cars and suicidal tendencies.
So much fun.
4 stars.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gothic novels are a little dark. However this one had enough twists and turns & visceral description to keep me intrigued to the end. Though I did suspect the trickster I had no idea of underlying motive & left me feeling weirded out.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good

[Irène Wadowski uliasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai beaucoup aimé cette histoire malgré quelques longueurs. On ne se doute pas qui est le coupable.

[Adrian Griffiths · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm amazed to see this book has found a second lease of life on Kindle because I found it tedious and repetitive. Basically, a young woman moves to a creepy isolated mansion to visit her highly strung friend, and encounters voodoo threats and murder, as well as a couple of eligible bachelors that she can swoon over. The voodoo menace is little more than characters repeatedly discovering voodoo charms placed on the floor, or at doorways, and asking "Who put this here?" Nobody owns up. Move to the next chapter and another voodoo charm appears. "Who put this here?" Nobody owns up. And repeat, and repeat. Somebody drives a car erratically and the heroine gets temporarily lost in the woods...none of this makes for thrilling reading.

[Ilene G> · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story.

I enjoyed this Gothic story. Twists and turns in the plot kept my interest. I figured out who was terrozing Miranda , but did not know the motive. The ending surprised me.