An academic is invited to spend the summer at a friend and colleague’s house where the two of them hope to finish a text they have been collaborating on.
But the atmosphere at the isolated gothic manor is not conductive to work. Days of tennis, swimming and house parties are followed by evenings of needlepoint, crosswords and novels. At first the academic believes her change in interests is a factor of the summer holidays and her growing romantic interest in her host a product of their relaxed time together. But she soon begins to suspect that there is a more sinister force at work behind the changes in her personality.
Convinced that the house is haunted she teams up with the other house guests-her host’s aunt and her friend-and the local vicar to set the spirits to rest. This is achieved with ease but the academic still finds herself unsettled. It is only when her host proposes to her that she comes to understand what is happening.
The house itself is sentient and is ensuring its own survival by forcing contentment upon all its inhabitants.
She escapes back to her old life, regains her personality and counts herself lucky to have escaped.
I’ve been undecided about Barbara Michaels’s work. Of the two other works of hers I’ve read one was terrible, the other, quite good, so this book was a bit of a decider for me.
Sadly it contained many of the elements that I didn’t like in work I’d previously read. Particularly an absentee boyfriend that is introduced only to be more or less ignored for the rest of the book, and more detail about character’s pets than strictly necessary. The female characters were the type of humourless Feminists that were already going the way of the dinosaurs when this book was written but they were an even match for the male characters who were patronizing at best, if not completely misogynistic.
Having said that when in form, this author can deliver a great sense of place and a good story. But for me the inconsistent, uneven writing was too great a cost for the rare payoff of a good passage.
For me this book falls somewhere between the previous two Michaels I have read. Not awful but not great either. From my experience Michaels writing is mediocre at best. I’m glad I gave it a chance but I see no reason to try this author again.-Lynn
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