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Lucifer Cove #6
From Satan, with Love
SIX WOMEN
had come to Lucifer Cove, each searching for personal happiness...only to meet with disaster, as they came up against the secret of the Cove's true master.
Now it was Maeve Weils' turn. She was there only because her niece, Jenniver, hurt herself in a foolish accident, and was taken to the Cove as the nearest place with a hospital. Maeva had no choice but to remain there, at first only for a night...but when she tried to take Jenniver away the next morning, sudden obstacles were thrust in her path.
What was the secret of the Cove? Why was Marc Meridon so intent on keeping her there, against her will? Would she finally break free, in time to save herself and Jenniver? Or would they be forced, as had others before them, to face the prospect of losing their immortal souls?
had come to Lucifer Cove, each searching for personal happiness...only to meet with disaster, as they came up against the secret of the Cove's true master.
Now it was Maeve Weils' turn. She was there only because her niece, Jenniver, hurt herself in a foolish accident, and was taken to the Cove as the nearest place with a hospital. Maeva had no choice but to remain there, at first only for a night...but when she tried to take Jenniver away the next morning, sudden obstacles were thrust in her path.
What was the secret of the Cove? Why was Marc Meridon so intent on keeping her there, against her will? Would she finally break free, in time to save herself and Jenniver? Or would they be forced, as had others before them, to face the prospect of losing their immortal souls?
212 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Virginia Coffman
91 books44 followersVirginia Edith Coffman aka Jeanne Duval, Diana Saunders, Victor Cross, Ann Stanfield, Virginia C. Du Vaul, Kay Cameron.
A native of San Francisco, Coffman contributed movie reviews to the Oakland Tribune from 1933-40. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1938 and was a movie and television script writer for Columbia, RKO, and other Hollywood studios in her early writing career (1944-56). She had her first success with writing novels in 1959, when Crown Publishing decided to take a chance on Moura, and the novel was showcased by Library Journal. By the 1980s, Coffman was recognized as "the author largely responsible for setting off the Gothics craze of the 1960s, "earning her the reputation of "Queen of the Gothics."1
She quit her day job in Reno and became a full-time writer in 1965. While historical romance novels seldom find their way into the literary canon, Coffman, who was both prolific and dedicated, took her writing seriously. Her research for historical fiction was meticulous. She also drew upon personal experience as a world traveler when setting some of her novels in Hawaii, Paris, and other romantic locales. Several of her historical romances and gothic mystery novels were translated into other languages, and many have been published in large print and audio editions.
She was recognized by Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in the West. She was a member of the Authors League of America and the Mystery Writers Guild of America. The Reno Gazette-Journal featured Virginia Coffman and her sister in a biographical story on April 4, 2002. In 2003, she donated a collection of her gothic mystery and historical romance novels to the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries.
A native of San Francisco, Coffman contributed movie reviews to the Oakland Tribune from 1933-40. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1938 and was a movie and television script writer for Columbia, RKO, and other Hollywood studios in her early writing career (1944-56). She had her first success with writing novels in 1959, when Crown Publishing decided to take a chance on Moura, and the novel was showcased by Library Journal. By the 1980s, Coffman was recognized as "the author largely responsible for setting off the Gothics craze of the 1960s, "earning her the reputation of "Queen of the Gothics."1
She quit her day job in Reno and became a full-time writer in 1965. While historical romance novels seldom find their way into the literary canon, Coffman, who was both prolific and dedicated, took her writing seriously. Her research for historical fiction was meticulous. She also drew upon personal experience as a world traveler when setting some of her novels in Hawaii, Paris, and other romantic locales. Several of her historical romances and gothic mystery novels were translated into other languages, and many have been published in large print and audio editions.
She was recognized by Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in the West. She was a member of the Authors League of America and the Mystery Writers Guild of America. The Reno Gazette-Journal featured Virginia Coffman and her sister in a biographical story on April 4, 2002. In 2003, she donated a collection of her gothic mystery and historical romance novels to the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 23, 2019
This was a disappointment. NOTHING happens in this book. When the heroine accidentally ends up in Lucifer's Cove with her niece, she begins to take notice of people's strange behavior, and eventually all that behavior adds up to a strong suspicion that something isn't quite right. But nothing happens, and she's able to dismiss everything for most of the book. She isn't dumb, but her willingness to overlook the strangeness while still feeling suspicion was quite frustrating. I also wanted this book to be much more salacious than it was. There are odd men in town, one of whom she's very attracted to, and the story wanted to be salacious so badly.
So much potential here, but ultimately disappointing.
So much potential here, but ultimately disappointing.
April 3, 2026
This series couldn’t have gone out with a bigger whimper. For five books, we’ve had a little of the mystery of Lucifer Cove leak out bit by bit, as one outsider after another came to the strange resort and realized things were not quite right. We’ve had, for the most part, compelling leading characters, from the conflicted minister Jean Benedict to the fiercely independent con artist Nadine Janos.
It should all have been building up to something, right? An ultimate conflict between good and evil? The final heroine turning out to be the person who finally brings about the end of the Cove? The revelation of secrets so hair-raising they make all that have gone before look mild?
And instead, we get . . . not much of anything. The leading lady, Maeva Wells, is just kind of colorless. We know she grows plants, works for a Hollywood studio, is very protective of her niece (whose injury near the Cove sets the plot in motion), and that’s about it. She commits one major blunder during the book, but . . . it’s not one she consciously made, she wasn’t aware of what was going on.
Furthermore, there’s no real revelations - we were told the true identities of Meridon and Rossiter at the end of the last book, and the writer must have thought that anything after that would be anticlimactic.
Plus, there’s stuff in here that feels out of joint with the rest of the series. Why is Christine suddenly deathly ill when there have been no previous hints of her having health issues? Why does Meridon insist on “fulfilling the contract” he made with Maeva right away when his usual MO is to exploit the people who fall under his spell for free labor for awhile before they are dispatched? Why is Irish suddenly eager to get out of there when two books ago he was offered the chance to get out of the Cove and refused, saying he couldn’t leave his woman? (Maybe if the last book would have had more to offer if it had been from his perspective. I would have liked very much to see what his thoughts on all this were).
In the end, the series stops, it doesn’t really conclude. There’s nothing earth-shaking, just a small conflict between two characters. The leading lady and her niece escape . . . and that’s it.
Given what Virginia Coffman did with the rest of the series, the finale could have been so much more. I still adore these books, in all their tacky, cornball, soap opera, outdated glory. I just wish the series had stuck the landing.
It should all have been building up to something, right? An ultimate conflict between good and evil? The final heroine turning out to be the person who finally brings about the end of the Cove? The revelation of secrets so hair-raising they make all that have gone before look mild?
And instead, we get . . . not much of anything. The leading lady, Maeva Wells, is just kind of colorless. We know she grows plants, works for a Hollywood studio, is very protective of her niece (whose injury near the Cove sets the plot in motion), and that’s about it. She commits one major blunder during the book, but . . . it’s not one she consciously made, she wasn’t aware of what was going on.
Furthermore, there’s no real revelations - we were told the true identities of Meridon and Rossiter at the end of the last book, and the writer must have thought that anything after that would be anticlimactic.
Plus, there’s stuff in here that feels out of joint with the rest of the series. Why is Christine suddenly deathly ill when there have been no previous hints of her having health issues? Why does Meridon insist on “fulfilling the contract” he made with Maeva right away when his usual MO is to exploit the people who fall under his spell for free labor for awhile before they are dispatched? Why is Irish suddenly eager to get out of there when two books ago he was offered the chance to get out of the Cove and refused, saying he couldn’t leave his woman? (Maybe if the last book would have had more to offer if it had been from his perspective. I would have liked very much to see what his thoughts on all this were).
In the end, the series stops, it doesn’t really conclude. There’s nothing earth-shaking, just a small conflict between two characters. The leading lady and her niece escape . . . and that’s it.
Given what Virginia Coffman did with the rest of the series, the finale could have been so much more. I still adore these books, in all their tacky, cornball, soap opera, outdated glory. I just wish the series had stuck the landing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 5, 2015
I loved Virginia Coffman books and wish she was alive to write more books. I read this as a teenager and had to read again. The only problem is that you can no longer order them. I had to find someone on Amazon who had them for sale.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews