Alix Andre

Ghost of Ardnamore by Alix Andre is a 1979 Worldwide Library/Mystique Books publication.

As many of you know, I collect rare, out of print, and vintage books, and search through used bookstores etc. for these little gems. This book is one of those hard to find, out of print novels, by an author I was not at all familiar with. You never know what you'll get with these books since often they are dated or just plain bad, but at other times these novels are actually pretty good and it's a shame they are not being preserved or released in digital format by someone.

This one falls somewhere in between, since it was an obvious knock off of the mystery classic “Rebecca”.

When Martine and her step-sister, Helen, travel to Scotland with the intention of selling off a piece of useless property Helen has inherited, they become embroiled in an old legend concerning a haunted Loch. The man purchasing the property from Helen, Richard Duncan, insist they stay at his castle while they iron out the details, which leads to Martine falling in love with Richard, but the mystery surrounding the death of his fiance has her on edge, and determined to clear him of all suspicion.

This time of year always puts me in the mood to read a spooky story, and so I was combing through my bookshelves looking for a ghost story, when this book grabbed my attention.

This story falls in the romantic suspense genre for the most part, but had a few characteristics of the old Gothic mystery novels that were so popular in the 60's and 70's. Although, the outline was very familiar, it wasn't a bad read at all. It's a clean read, typical of it's time, with a castle, a dark brooding male lead, and while technically a damsel in distress, Martine, is not the too stupid to live type at all, and is actually a character I liked. There are some ghostly elements, but alas, everything has a plausible explanation. So, this is was not the spooky story I was looking for, exactly, but in the end I was pleasantly surprised by this one and enjoyed it for the most part.

3 stars… (plus d'informations)