Fri 9 Jan 2009
Archived Review: FRANCES COWEN – The Shadow of Polperro.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Reviews[5] Comments
FRANCES COWEN – The Shadow of Polperro.
Ace, paperback; 1st US publication, 1973. First UK publication: Robert Hale, hardcover, 1969.
Here’s a prime example of an authentic gothic romance novel. When this particular example of the genre recently surfaced in a box of books I was rummaging through, I just couldn’t resist.
It has all of the right ingredients, starting, of course, with the cover: A close-up of a young wide-eyed girl standing behind a iron gate next to a tall piece of statuary; in the gloomy background, a hulk of a mansion or castle, with the full moon partially hidden behind the bare branches of a convenient tree.
The castle is Polperro, located on the southern coast of Cornwall. Supposedly it dates back to the days of King Arthur, Camelot and the traitor Mordred. It was built by the latter as a fortress. In near decay now, and known by the nearby townsfolk to be haunted, it is the single item in Esther Roden’s inheritance from her father.
Not knowing how to dispose of it, she deems herself lucky to find a film director who wishes to rent it as a location site for his latest effort, a remaking of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto.
Lots of hints follow of dire things to come, a few unexplainable accidents occur, and there’s an abundance of spooky atmosphere, but except for one dead body found strictly offstage … nothing really happens.
There are some close calls, but just when you think the story is at last leading you somewhere, it doesn’t, and then it boldfacedly ignores even the possibility that it was leading you somewhere.
You’ll also think I’m crazy, but the book is as compulsively readable as a bag full of popcorn. It’s not the detective work, which is as flimsy and as transparent as a wisp of mist, the killers’ identities obvious within pages.
The author’s strong points are her characters, surprisingly enough, both major and minor. You may not notice it while she’s doing it, but she sketches and fills them in with ease, making what’s difficult for some writers seem almost effortless instead.
PostScript: One character who befriends the heroine in this tale is an older lady named Agnes Macintosh, whose psychic powers warn Esther of the castle’s malevolence. She doesn’t have a big role, but later on it’s revealed that she also has connections with Scotland Yard. Interesting, but not worth mentioning until I discovered that she also appears in Frances Cowen’s Village of Fear, another gothic published by Ace. Al Hubin doesn’t list her as a series character in Crime Fiction III, so I just passed the Big News on to him
[UPDATE] 01-09-09. I suspect that Agnes Macintosh may appear in some other of Frances Cowen’s books, but these are the only two identified so far.
Cowen is the author of 30 novels in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, all perhaps in much the same vein as The Shadow of Polperro. Four other novels by her are marginally included in CFIV. These were written as by Eleanor Hyde and are historical novels taking place in the 1500s with some criminous elements. She also seems to have written many books for children, mostly for girls.
All of her books for adults came out first in the UK in hardcover. Seven were published in US by Ace as paperback originals. Some of the other titles are The Curse of the Clodaghs (1973), The Gentle Obsession (1968), The Haunting of Helen Farley (1976), and The Hounds of Carvello (1970).
January 10th, 2009 at 6:24 am
The French cover of Polperro:
As you can see, it’s quite … different. You might not even guess it’s a gothic if not for the blurb.
I must admit a weakest of all weak spots for gothics. They’re always fun to read precisely because of their highly formulaic nature and sometimes what the author makes out of the formula is quite interesting.
January 10th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Different is right. Thanks for sending this. I have a feeling that the cover of the original British edition might not have also played up the “gothic” aspect of Polperro.
The “girl fleeing the mansion” aspect of gothic novels may have been purely an American convention. And they were selling so well in the US that almost any book with a female character somehow in danger was published here as a gothic romance.
In the same way that any black-and-white crime movie released in the 1950s is now repackaged and sold as a “noir” movie.
I can’t read too many gothics in a short period of time, but I too find them quite readable, given as you imply, the right frame of mind.
— Steve
January 10th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
“The “girl fleeing the mansion” aspect of gothic novels may have been purely an American convention.”
French publishers used it too, often by recycling original American covers.
Mary Elaine Edward’s book (sorry, I don’t remember the original title) is one of the very mysteries that actually fooled me – I’m usually pretty good at picking the guilty party, but not that time. Either I was out of condition or this book is an underrated gem. You choose.
January 10th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I recognized the Holt cover right away. She’s very popular (or was) and the book is easy to find in used bookstores.
The book by Mary Elaine Edward is probably Terror Manor, Paperback Library, 1967. It takes place in Louisiana, so that helps identify it too.
Here’s what the cover of the US edition looks like:
January 12th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
[…] move from Cornwall (see my earlier review of The Shadow of Polperro, by Frances Cowen) to Connecticut. From the present day when the previous […]