Seaview Manor

by Elissa Grandower

Masquerade Of Menace

Lovely young career woman Andrea Leighton came in disguise to the luxurious estate of Seaview Manor. Her job, to pose as the fiancée of the handsome master of this private kingdom. Only in this way could she gain the confidence of his mentally disturbed sister, and discover what secret demons tormented the horror possessed girl.

But in this place where staggering wealth and shocking guilt went hand in hand, Andrea was but one of many masking the truth. One man stole her heart…another seduced her senses…and neither could be trusted as Andrea realized how many women love had lured and death had claimed at Seaview Manor…and how little she knew of the nightmare danger she had come to fear so much…

Genres: Gothic

276 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1976

About the author

A pseudonym used by the male author Hillary Waugh.

Reviews

[Rebekah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started out pretty well. I was in the mood for a good gothic and this one came to my attention as a likely prospect. I liked the heroine who seemed to have a lot of gumption and an interesting background. I loved the 1970s New York City vibe the book started off with. It reminded me of T.E. Huff’s contemporary Gothics. Unfortunately, the male writer of this one (under a female pseudonym) didn’t measure up to my expectations. This was disappointing and surprising because Hillary Waugh was a very respected and pioneering writer of the police procedural subcategory of mysteries and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Surprisingly, the mystery part was one of the disappointments in this. It seemed pretty slapdash and not well thought out or constructed.

Andrea, our heroine, is in a dead-end boring job with a scientific journal and answers an employment ad looking for a young, personable, single female who is adventurous and able to travel. After a somewhat unusual interview, she is selected to be the pretend girlfriend of Charles Carteret, the attractive young head of a very wealthy and prominent family. Her mission is to become friends with Regina, his mentally disturbed sister who is suffering from a devastating disappointment in love which has caused her to become a recluse, depressed, and completely closed down. Hopefully, Andrea, spending the summer with Charles, Regina, and their family on their private island, can penetrate the wall she has put up and start the healing process. This seemed a pretty questionable plan to both me and Andrea. But she is talked into it.

The writing was engaging with a good setup for intrigue, danger, and mystery. It was cooking along pretty well until about the halfway point when smarmy Daniel, Hilary and Charles’s stepbrother and the supposed object of Regina’s unrequited love, arrives on the scene. A handsome and charming ladies' man, he and Andrea start flirting with each other. Daniel whines about how unfairly he has been treated inheritance-wise and has a “slightly soft body.” Gothic good guys don’t whine and their bodies are not soft, so I discounted Daniel immediately and soon viewed him with suspicion and distaste. But not so Andrea. Despite the attractions of Charles, she likes him, trusts him, and is even attracted to him. Which, in turn, makes her look stupid and a person of no judgment or sense. After some admittedly suspicious behavior on Charles’ part when a stable worker is killed she jumps to the conclusion that Charles is a murderer without a thought as to why he would murder that person. It’s not that he had no motive, but that the thought of “what is his motive?” and puzzling over what it might be never enters her mind. This was the point I lost interest in the novel. After a few more chapters, I started skipping through to the end. The death is ruled an accident even though proof that it is not is in plain sight. And on and on. Questionable motivations, unnecessary lies, “proof” that is not proof of anything, and ludicrous actions abound. Not to mention a jarring change of literary point of view near the end. The main thing though was having to see everything through the eyes of a heroine that was just so clueless. I got very antsy and impatient which was not helped by the fact that I was forced to read this book in hardback (interlibrary loan) as it was not available on Kindle. And I had another book with lots of potential waiting in the wings. Even the romance was a bust.

https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings....

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the late 1970s, prolific mystery novelist Hillary Waugh wrote a series of Gothics/romantic suspense novels under the pseudonym Elissa Grandower. "Seaview Manor," the first of them, follows its young heroine Andrea Leighton in the lives of the very rich, as she is hired by wealthy Charles Carteret to act as an unofficial companion to his troubled sister Regina, which will entail spending the summer on their private island off the coast of Connecticut. In the tradition of all good contemporary Gothics, Andrea will discover that things are not what they seem and her presence will be the catalyst for danger and in this case, a series of murders. Grandower/Waugh smartly makes Andrea a little bit of an outsider but not completely--she comes from a well-to-do family in Winnetka and is a bit of a slumming ex-deb--she's also smart, sensible, and confident, a nice change from the typical heroines of this genre. The author's background in writing mystery novels means that the murder plots here are more tightly woven than most, and that a requisite number of red herrings are skillfully done. If there are any problems, it's that the denouement is slightly spoiled by a little talkiness after the fact--possibly another legacy of the mystery genre, in which the detective explains it all, so to speak. But other than that, "Seaview Manor" is an enjoyable read and was the first of six written under that moniker.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. Kind of reminded me of an Agatha Christy. I liked the setting on a private island and the suspicious view from an outsider.

[Kasey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Carteret hires Andrea Leighton as a companion to his psychologically disturbed sister. Andrea suspects that the sister's subsequent suicide may, in fact, have been a murder and that Charles may also have been responsible for his wife's death. She fears for her own life. (from the book)