Tales From The Other Side (1983)
Mar 24, 2007 8:51:11 GMT -5
Post by Gloomy Sundae on Mar 24, 2007 8:51:11 GMT -5
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Tales From The Other Side (Kimber, 1983: Tor, as The Other Side, 1988)
Introduction
Woodwork - 1850
Bricks And Mortar - 1969
Loft Conversion - 1980
Labour-Saving Devices - 2000
Blurb:
Time cannot stop the terror
For centuries, Clavering Grange has been a focus for evil. Whether cursed manor house, blasted heath, or modern housing development, the Grange is stalked by ghosts and demons, by an evil that never dies, merely sleeps - and soon rises to strike again!
Kepple thinks he can master the spirit of the Grange, tame its evil to his will. An innocent child will be his sacrifice, will bind the demon to him forever.
And so it is - but it is Kepple, not the demon, who is bound, Kepple who will serve forever in horrible darkness.
Only the blood of another child can close the occult circle and set Kepple free.[/color]
Great to see him back in paperback, even if "They tell me my books are too subtle for the American market. Pyramid did three and said 'our critics think you're too English' - whatever that means."
Woodwork - 1850:
Try to forgive me if any harm befall either you or your sister, but I am controlled by a force that is hungry for life. Possibly, I have ascended to the highest peak of insanity, for at this moment I am convinced that even the total destruction of two young creatures would be a small price for the prize I seek."
Clavering Grange, Kent: The sixteen year old Stephen Sinclair and his sister Catherine are sent to stay with their guardian-grandmother Elizabeth Lady Sinclair, who will preside over the property until Stephen is 21. Lady Sinclair tends to Catherine's education, Stephen is tutored by the likable, booze-feuled Mr. Brownlow who has more than a passing interest in the macabre history of the Grange. From the first, the youngsters are affected by a particularly cold spot in a room where an ancestor, Lady Cynthia, reputedly shot herself rather than be forced into an arranged marriage. Catherine, who is genuinely psychic, even hears sobbing noises. Both of them hate the room, but grandma is keen to exploit the girls gift. It becomes evident that the sinister forces in the woodwork of the Grange are taking the old girl over ....
Mr. Brownlow realises that Lady Elizabeth is out to use the body of her granddaughter as a receptacle for the unbound spirit of Cynthia and, together with Stephen and the cockerney coachman Clare, they conspire to have the girl smuggled off the premises. But there's a traitor in the camp and soon the terrified Catherine is bound to a chair with the ghost of Cynthia sat on her knee ... and sinking into her body.
Chetwynd-Hayes is an old hand at these Upstairs, Downstairs extravaganzas, and this is a confident start to the book with several skeletons unearthed - one literally - and an exciting climax. Hints of a Clavering vampire clan, too. At just short of 100 pages, this would probably have made for a decent stand-alone Lancer Gothic romance.
Brick And Mortar - 1969:
"Godfrey, what has come over you? Please remember who you are. Who I am."
His eyes slowly acquired a bright gleam, then he reached out, slid his finger over the top of her dress and ripped it down to the waist. Then he said after emitting a sof chuckle: "I always wanted to do that."
The Kepple story referred to in the blurb and it's a good thing he dates it because, other than a passing reference to Sir Stephen from the previous story dieing of fright at the age of sixty-five, you've no other indication that we're out of the nineteenth century.
Kepple drifts into the village and takes a room at the Old Rectory, home to Mrs. Brown and her obligatory beautiful daughter, Clover. The Grange is by now a desolate ruin, due for demolition (which is how Rosemary and William come to purchase The Door in Cold Terror), but Kepple is determined to commune with the spirits before the bulldozers get to work. He is an energy vampire, possessed of extraordinary mental powers that enable him to read others' minds and subject all around him to his will. Clover soon discovers that her mother, chinless wonder of a boyfriend and even the family doctor who's tried to help her are all under his influence, as she would be if he didn't have other uses for her.
Perhaps his editor advised RCH to sex this one up some as, not only does he treat us to more mild bondage fun and games, he even works in a rape (made all the more uncomfortable to read by virtue of who's written it: it's very small beer when compared to a GNS gang-bang but even so ... ). By removing a chain from around the neck of the staked skeleton we met briefly in the previous story, Kepple unleashes all the ghosts of the Sinclair dead before somebody upsets a lantern as people have a habit of doing in this kind of story.
The Grange is razed to the ground and "a neat estate of highly desirable semi-detached houses" are built on the site: Clavering Retreat.
Yet another spurious book by the versatile Baron Von Holstein is name-checked: Ye Historie Of Clavering Grange (translated by Arthur M. Cooper, Grimms of Zurich, 1638)
Introduction
Woodwork - 1850
Bricks And Mortar - 1969
Loft Conversion - 1980
Labour-Saving Devices - 2000
Blurb:
Time cannot stop the terror
For centuries, Clavering Grange has been a focus for evil. Whether cursed manor house, blasted heath, or modern housing development, the Grange is stalked by ghosts and demons, by an evil that never dies, merely sleeps - and soon rises to strike again!
Kepple thinks he can master the spirit of the Grange, tame its evil to his will. An innocent child will be his sacrifice, will bind the demon to him forever.
And so it is - but it is Kepple, not the demon, who is bound, Kepple who will serve forever in horrible darkness.
Only the blood of another child can close the occult circle and set Kepple free.[/color]
Great to see him back in paperback, even if "They tell me my books are too subtle for the American market. Pyramid did three and said 'our critics think you're too English' - whatever that means."
Woodwork - 1850:
Try to forgive me if any harm befall either you or your sister, but I am controlled by a force that is hungry for life. Possibly, I have ascended to the highest peak of insanity, for at this moment I am convinced that even the total destruction of two young creatures would be a small price for the prize I seek."
Clavering Grange, Kent: The sixteen year old Stephen Sinclair and his sister Catherine are sent to stay with their guardian-grandmother Elizabeth Lady Sinclair, who will preside over the property until Stephen is 21. Lady Sinclair tends to Catherine's education, Stephen is tutored by the likable, booze-feuled Mr. Brownlow who has more than a passing interest in the macabre history of the Grange. From the first, the youngsters are affected by a particularly cold spot in a room where an ancestor, Lady Cynthia, reputedly shot herself rather than be forced into an arranged marriage. Catherine, who is genuinely psychic, even hears sobbing noises. Both of them hate the room, but grandma is keen to exploit the girls gift. It becomes evident that the sinister forces in the woodwork of the Grange are taking the old girl over ....
Mr. Brownlow realises that Lady Elizabeth is out to use the body of her granddaughter as a receptacle for the unbound spirit of Cynthia and, together with Stephen and the cockerney coachman Clare, they conspire to have the girl smuggled off the premises. But there's a traitor in the camp and soon the terrified Catherine is bound to a chair with the ghost of Cynthia sat on her knee ... and sinking into her body.
Chetwynd-Hayes is an old hand at these Upstairs, Downstairs extravaganzas, and this is a confident start to the book with several skeletons unearthed - one literally - and an exciting climax. Hints of a Clavering vampire clan, too. At just short of 100 pages, this would probably have made for a decent stand-alone Lancer Gothic romance.
Brick And Mortar - 1969:
"Godfrey, what has come over you? Please remember who you are. Who I am."
His eyes slowly acquired a bright gleam, then he reached out, slid his finger over the top of her dress and ripped it down to the waist. Then he said after emitting a sof chuckle: "I always wanted to do that."
The Kepple story referred to in the blurb and it's a good thing he dates it because, other than a passing reference to Sir Stephen from the previous story dieing of fright at the age of sixty-five, you've no other indication that we're out of the nineteenth century.
Kepple drifts into the village and takes a room at the Old Rectory, home to Mrs. Brown and her obligatory beautiful daughter, Clover. The Grange is by now a desolate ruin, due for demolition (which is how Rosemary and William come to purchase The Door in Cold Terror), but Kepple is determined to commune with the spirits before the bulldozers get to work. He is an energy vampire, possessed of extraordinary mental powers that enable him to read others' minds and subject all around him to his will. Clover soon discovers that her mother, chinless wonder of a boyfriend and even the family doctor who's tried to help her are all under his influence, as she would be if he didn't have other uses for her.
Perhaps his editor advised RCH to sex this one up some as, not only does he treat us to more mild bondage fun and games, he even works in a rape (made all the more uncomfortable to read by virtue of who's written it: it's very small beer when compared to a GNS gang-bang but even so ... ). By removing a chain from around the neck of the staked skeleton we met briefly in the previous story, Kepple unleashes all the ghosts of the Sinclair dead before somebody upsets a lantern as people have a habit of doing in this kind of story.
The Grange is razed to the ground and "a neat estate of highly desirable semi-detached houses" are built on the site: Clavering Retreat.
Yet another spurious book by the versatile Baron Von Holstein is name-checked: Ye Historie Of Clavering Grange (translated by Arthur M. Cooper, Grimms of Zurich, 1638)