The Castle of the Demon

by Patrick Ruell

'I will never divorce you, though that is not to say that I might not be constrained some day to dispose of you.'Emily Salter returned to the sleepy seaside resort of Skinburness where she had spent her childhood holidays to come to terms with the break-up of her marriage to the enigmatic, controlling Sterne Follet. Using her maiden name Emily finally felt free from her husband's presence and the threat that he had calmly issued when she mentioned her plans to leave him.But Emily's illusion of safety is rapidly shattered as a sequence of sinister events unfolds that culminates in the finding of a body in the water's shallows. It gradually becomes apparent to Emily that whatever is going on she is somehow involved, and so is her husband, but not necessarily on the same side.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 23, 1971

About the author

Pseudonym of Reginald Hill.

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Awkwardly written, almost as if Ruell (aka Reginald Hill) lacked experience. This is one of three books he had published in 1971; perhaps if he hadn't spread himself so thin, it would be better. Pretty blond Emily Salter has just left her controlling older husband to take a beach holiday in Cumbria - a location which he suggested. (Red flag?) Soon drowned bodies are washing up on the beach, the contents of her rental cottage are being disrupted, green men are appearing to frighten her, she is assaulted amid the dunes, and archaeologists are not who they seem. Dogs and cats have near-humanoid sensibilities, viciously defending their owners and all the good people and attacking their owners' enemies.

A male author fashioning a young female protagonist produces such oddities as: "The wind flattened her dress against her body, pushing a fold of cloth between her legs. She knew the effect was dramatic, watched Scott surreptitiously to see if he noticed. He didn't appear to, but the dark glasses hid a lot." Just in case he missed it, a minute later she's "turning her back into the wind to give her rear silhouette a chance."

[J. Merwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I liked the characters in this short novel by Hill, especially the dog...and the cat... and the plot I found just a little predictable.
(spoiler alert) There are several scenes where our heroine is hunted mercilessly...it's not that it was as gruesome as a lot of today's fiction can be it was just agonizing, I suppose that means it was successfully suspenseful, but there was a lot of landscape, description of this area, although wild and beautiful, I found I wanted to skip through. I think this is one of his earlier books, his later ones are so much tighter.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty poor early Reginald Hill. Only finished it because I like his later books.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book for the most part - particularly the first 2/3 of it. The final third and the ending were something of a disappointment to me.

[Ronald Wilcox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a gothic romance thriller written by the creator of the Dalziel and Pascoe excellent police procedurals. Protagonist is a little wimpy for my taste but the book was still enjoyable

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book is really really boring.