Originally published in 1955
This is the 3rd Pyramid Printing from 1968
Nicholas Monsarrat was a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy. He served in World War 2 and afterward used his seafaring wartime experience to write many books on the subject. In 1955, in the midst of all the high action war thrillers he knocked out this spooky gothic.
Written review below. Video review here:
The basic premise: Thomas Welles is a penniless American writer living abroad in Nice France. He has just finished his first book and sent it off to the publisher, awaiting his paycheck. At the moment though, he doesn’t even have money to eat. While sitting in a café drinking his last dime’s worth of coffee he spots a well-to-do man at another table. The man, whose name is Paul Erhardt, invites him over and buys him a petit pain. He learns of Thomas’ plight and offers him a job to be his personal secretary.
Thomas is then introduced to the man’s wife Anna. Anna is flirty. Tom doesn’t want to blow this new job, so he denies her advances. Later Anna tells her husband Paul that she wants to bang Tom. Paul is like, as you wish, my love.
Here we have our first hint that there is more than meets the eye with this rich power couple. They also have a local driver henchman named Hugo. What could they possibly want with Paul that Hugo couldn’t do? The couple will never admit where in the world they are originally from, and Tom can’t place the accent. He thinks they are just an eccentric wealthy couple and doesn’t think much about it especially because they are throwing money at him.
They want Tom to travel to the country near Grasse in the Alpes Maritimes and find them a castle to rent. They have extremely specific qualifications for this castle like it has to have a wall around it and a chapel and a tower. They want the atmosphere of the 18th 19th century to escape all the modern noise. Tom heads out with his camera.
After his first quest he is given another. He must find a blonde nineteen-year-old girl that looks and acts her age, who is a native French speaker and has zero family ties. He obviously finds this request ludicrous. What would they even want with this girl? Paul assures him that he can’t tell him, but no harm will come to the young girl and in fact she will be paid well enough to change her life. Tom knows he’s deep into something shady now. He’s obviously being set up for something but it’s hard to turn down the money and he continues on.
Does he find the girl? What do they want with her? What’s up with this castle? Who are these people?
And here we have the gothic mystery. It’s a conspiracy against Tom but one that is in his face. He’s not being gaslit like in other gothics. He knows it’s bullshit but keeps on with the charade. Does this have to do with the fact that he’s a man? An interesting sociological example of the way men and women were viewed back then. This is the first gothic mystery I have read where the protagonist is male. Maybe because it was before the 60s explosion of the paperback gothics specifically marketed to women? Other than the lack of gaslighting this is tit for tat a gothic. A sole character plucked from their normal life and placed alone in an isolated location filled with strangers who seem friendly at face value. The story is saturated in gothic atmosphere. Hell, we even got a bona fide crumbling castle, isolated in the French mountains. Anna, the wife of Paul exudes pure sexuality but there is also a more wholesome love affair.
The pacing of this book was like being behind someone on the road who keeps checking their phone. You’re driving along at a normal pace and then inexplicably slow down to five miles under the speed limit for a block, all of a sudden they pick up speed a little and you’re doing five over. On and on. Go. Lull. Go. Lull. At one point some of the characters do something that would warrant action on the part of Tom but instead of figuring out what happened our main character is hanging around the café, eating petit pains and drinking orange juice. Other times he's scaling walls and fist fighting unknown attackers.
Either way, it’s a decent read.
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