Velda Johnston (1911–1997)

This book is similar in theme (and cover design, if one judges books by the covers) to Mary Stewart's books of the 1960s. I had high hopes! As the story begins, it is quite reminiscent of early Stewart: the "exotic" setting in the hills of Tuscany is fairly well-realized and the heroine as persistent and determined as one could wish. I found the ending disappointing because the beginning had been so encouraging and my expectations were high; I expected Samantha to find something more to do in a crisis than be rescued. A heroine of detection but not of action, she really does cope at least as well as the average female found in gothic romance, but not up to the standard she achieves earlier in the book.… (meer)

Imagine a novel written to get Nancy Drew back in the kitchen to go make some sandwiches.

I'm experimenting with a new genre. I have 3-4 selections to sample this summer from the ranks of "Woman on Cover is Running in the Dark From a House While Looking the Wrong Way," or, for short, "Ankle Breakers." I've long been fascinated with them. What they hell are they? Ghost stories? Mysteries? Paranormal romance? What do those breathless nocturnal athletes on the cover do?

With my first book read, the data point says: Sit down and shut up.

Our heroine is a young divorcée, fleeing to her recently inherited hotel in Mid-Nowhere, Nevada. The back of the book talks about a "legacy of human sacrifice," but really, she starts noticing some somewhat weird things going on. The townsfolk are close-mouthed, there's been a horrible child murder recently, and the titular howling in the woods turns out to be . . . a sickly dog. Who's shot forty pages in.

You get the feeling that the book REALLY what's you to believe it's supernatural.

Still, it builds and weaves well. Everything just good damn falls apart when her soon-to-be-divorced husband shows up.

With forty pages left, he takes over the damn novel.

-Want to see our heroine finally make a townsperson confess to the awful secret? No thanks, that last murder attempt on her killed her voice. We'll just have her husband do it and tell her to keep quiet the whole time. See gets to watch.

-The secret location? Yeah, her husband knows all about these places. He puts all the twos and twos together, too. Read a book once. He'll tell you all about it. I'm so grateful that there was a man around to explain the mystery's solution to our woman protagonist.

--That thrilling conclusion! It's most her husband being brave and trapped until the murderous villain knocks her out and . . . doesn't murder her? They just leave to be caught. Because reasons?

--At the end, has she learned to be an independent woman, one who values her own capabilities? Nope. Going back to New York with her husband. In fact, while she no long thinks he's sleeping around, she admits she'd stay with him anyway by now.

This is it? The entire thing ends in her giving up her agency for deep Stockholm Syndrome. I admit, up to this point she didn't have much personality. I had assumed that was to let the audience have maximum identification. I was stunned to see this, though. It was written in 1969, but the book was still written by a woman. Was she taking the piss out of some misogynistic editor?

All I know is, my female detective heroine would probably get sucked into the first half of this before setting the book on fire.… (meer)