Escape the Night

by Mignon G. Eberhart

While visiting her sister, a woman becomes ensnared in a cursed house

Serena’s last memories of California are of her sister Amanda’s wedding to Sutton Condit, a wealthy rancher from Monterey’s oldest family. But when she remembers those days, she doesn’t think of the bride but instead dreams of Jem, a sturdy young man who won her heart so completely that, when she couldn’t have him, she fled to New York. Four years later she returns for a visit, and Jem is as charming as ever. He hasn’t changed, but everything else on the Condit ranch has.

Bitterness has crept into Amanda’s entourage, and strange secrets pollute the fine California air. Something terrible is afoot in the Condit mansion, and Serena has just begun to sense it when Sutton’s aunt tumbles off a cliff near the house. The old woman’s plunge seems like an accident until more murders follow. Nothing can protect Serena from the menace that haunts Monterey.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

252 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Mignon Good (1899-1996) was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. She studied at Nebraska Wesleyan University from 1917 to 1920. In 1923 she married Alanson C. Eberhart, a civil engineer. After working as a freelance journalist, she decided to become a full-time writer. In 1929 her first crime novel was published featuring 'Sarah Keate', a nurse and 'Lance O'Leary', a police detective. This couple appeared in another four novels. In the Forties, she and her husband divorced. She married John Hazen Perry in 1946 but two years later she divorced him and remarried her first husband. Over the next forty years she wrote a novel nearly every year. In 1971 she won the Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America. She also wrote many short stories featuring banker/amateur sleuth James Wickwire (who could be considered a precursor to Emma Lathen's John Putnam Thatcher) and mystery writer/amateur sleuth Susan Dare.

Reviews

[Kavita · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't imagine how Eberhart manages to make murder mysteries soooo boring and then suddenly amp up the tension. In this 200 page book, I only began to get interested around page 125. That's too little too late for me.

Serena is a job-holding young woman and she decides to go back to her home town in the middle of war. She stays in her sister's home, and meets the old gang, including Jem, her old crush. However, there seems to be something heavy in the air and tragedy is just around the corner. When her brother in law's old aunt dies, nobody suspects anything. But then other deaths happen, and they are all under suspicion.

It's actually a great plot with high potential for a thrilling read. But Eberhart just plods on and on and on with Serena's thoughts and vague 'something is wrong' feelings until I was heartily tired of her and just wanted someone to murder her. Then there was Alice, Serena's sister. She is childish and annoying, and for some reason, everyone seems to go along with her atrocious demands. Jem was annoyingly 'male'. The rest were forgettable. They also all seemed to blend into each other for a long time, so I am sure I missed much of the foreshadowing.

I have read just one other book of Eberhart, and I am not thrilled with either. I have just one more book of hers, so I suppose I would read it at some point, but this author is fast palling on me.

[Rick Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

This title features two of Eberhart's usual setups: the protagonist (Serena) in a love triangle (she loves Jem, who loves Amanda); and the action occurring in a fascinating sort of Spanish architecture. Eberhart's stories frequently use a three or four sided residence built around an open patio/courtyard, two stories, bedrooms upstairs, with verandas around the inside with spiral stairs on either side. This provides opportunites for persons on the verandas to observe and listen to the people below. This story has these two exterior stairs as the only connection between floors, handy for the plot but totally impractical for a residence. In any event, I always look forward to stories using this sort of residence, as it is already in my mind's eye.

It is interesting seeing how the four years' absence - and the war -has changed the group of friends for the worse.

I did pick the killer out early on. But that's OK, still an engaging story.

[Carla Remy · Rating 3 out of 5]

From 1944
There are always things I love in Mignon Eberhart's work. And then a lot that is just too long..... Makes me think about books from the past being longer. And the trends of publishing, the importance of where and how books are sold.

[Marya · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Carol Gleason-Rechner · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's like reading a soap opera.