House of Many Shadows
by Barbara Michaels
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Meg Rittenhouse fears she is losing her mind. The doctors tell her the strange and disturbing hallucinations she's been experiencing ever since her accident are all in her head, and that, with a little rest, the haunting visions will vanish. But accepting an invitation to stay with her cousin in the country may be the worst decision Meg has ever made. Here, in a remote old house miles from anywhere, the terrible sights and sounds have gotten even worse. Suddenly eerie black shapes dance in show more the shadows-mocking Meg, haunting her . . . threatening her. And the presence of kind, considerate Andy Brenner, the caretaker, both reassures her and terrifies her-because Andy also sees these dark specters . . . show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I can see why some fans of Barbara Michaels are put off by House of Many Shadows. It is more of a paranormal mystery/Gothic with a touch of romance. I love discovering the answers along with the characters. Putting aside expectations and judging the book on its own merits, it is well-written and left me with that frisson of delightful horror. It is a keeper!
A re-read
This is one of those books that is good, but not great, and then it warms up to you more at the end.
Barbara Michaels had an enthusiasm for old houses that shows clearly in almost all her gothic works, of which there were many. She also has a fondness for antiques. I noticed that in Agatha Christie's biography, she also loved houses, antiques, and traveling - which Barbara Michaels did as well under her real name, Barbara Mertz. (She had a PhD in Egyptology.) It's telling that antiques, old houses, and the cultural history of places is fascinating, each having countless stories and mysteries of their own waiting to be told.
House of Many Shadows has a slower pace because the mystery can only unravel slowly. The location isn't as show more interesting since, because of illness, finances, and plot, the two mains are almost exclusively isolated in one location (the house.) They go into town for research, but it's a small town and only feeds into the story of "THE HOUSE."
Meg has been offered a reprieve for six months by her unusual aunt Sylvia - to go to the country, the house, and stay there for six months. There they hope she will recover from a head injury that has been giving her visual and auditory hallucinations. On the property, a caretaker is also recovering from his own illness, finding solitude to be a balm in recovery.
There is no way a reader can guess the complex outcome of this one. Clues are too ambiguous, yet they are not teased. They drift down slow, steady, but they seem simple on the surface. In the end how it all ties together is actually layered. This gothic delivers the punches with the paranormal, but avoids cliches in doing so. When it seems like it is too simple, the next few chapters shows there is much to be discovered and the characters are back to square one.
The ending and the girl's face in the last vision a little haunting - I think I'll remember that shocked glance for awhile. This is only fitting since the characters have been slowly haunted (but not in classic methods) for the entire book.
Flimsy on the 'pure gothic angle', but rich with mystery and history. As a side bonus, I'm curious about embroidery now! show less
This is one of those books that is good, but not great, and then it warms up to you more at the end.
Barbara Michaels had an enthusiasm for old houses that shows clearly in almost all her gothic works, of which there were many. She also has a fondness for antiques. I noticed that in Agatha Christie's biography, she also loved houses, antiques, and traveling - which Barbara Michaels did as well under her real name, Barbara Mertz. (She had a PhD in Egyptology.) It's telling that antiques, old houses, and the cultural history of places is fascinating, each having countless stories and mysteries of their own waiting to be told.
House of Many Shadows has a slower pace because the mystery can only unravel slowly. The location isn't as show more interesting since, because of illness, finances, and plot, the two mains are almost exclusively isolated in one location (the house.) They go into town for research, but it's a small town and only feeds into the story of "THE HOUSE."
Meg has been offered a reprieve for six months by her unusual aunt Sylvia - to go to the country, the house, and stay there for six months. There they hope she will recover from a head injury that has been giving her visual and auditory hallucinations. On the property, a caretaker is also recovering from his own illness, finding solitude to be a balm in recovery.
There is no way a reader can guess the complex outcome of this one. Clues are too ambiguous, yet they are not teased. They drift down slow, steady, but they seem simple on the surface. In the end how it all ties together is actually layered. This gothic delivers the punches with the paranormal, but avoids cliches in doing so. When it seems like it is too simple, the next few chapters shows there is much to be discovered and the characters are back to square one.
The ending and the girl's face in the last vision a little haunting - I think I'll remember that shocked glance for awhile. This is only fitting since the characters have been slowly haunted (but not in classic methods) for the entire book.
Flimsy on the 'pure gothic angle', but rich with mystery and history. As a side bonus, I'm curious about embroidery now! show less
When a car crash leaves Meg Rittenhouse suffering from strange hallucinations, an invitation to recuperate at her elderly relative's crumbling mansion in the Pennsylvania hills seems like the answer to her prayers. But she couldn't be more wrong. There, in a remote old house miles from anywhere, the terrible sights and sounds become even worse. Suddenly eerie black shapes dance in the shadows-mocking Meg, haunting her . . . threatening her. And the presence of kind, considerate Andy Brenner, the caretaker, both reassures her and terrifies her-because Andy also sees these dark specters.
I have read, at least once, everything that this author has ever written as Barbara Michaels, but it's been a l-o-n-g time, at least since the early 70's show more since I read this one. A trip down Memory Lane is long overdue.
Meg Rittenhouse is a young woman who was injured in a recent accident and has been experiencing hallucinations. Her doctor said her "mind was playing tricks on her". Sylvia, A wealthy relative offers to let Meg move into one of many houses that she owns to recuperate. What Sylvia calls a "house" is a large mansion in Pennsylvania, that comes with a caretaker, Andy Brenner, whose family had once owned the house. Meg soon discovers that Andy has his own "issues", and she suspects her cousin is allowing him to stay to also recover. A romance begins to blossom, and they discover that the hallucinations that are starting up again, are shared. Meg is more than relieved to learn that they are not just further evidence of her mental health but she unsure how to deal with the fact that she can no longer ignore...that the house might be haunted.
Meg and Andy work together to dig into the history of the house and soon discover who in the "netherworld" is trying to get their attention and why. They also find themselves becoming the target of the previous renter; a dangerous artist who is also an alcoholic that starts to harass them. The house is full of antiques, and the former tenant had made previous attempts to steal them, and he plans to try again. He and his wife are dangerous, and Meg and Andy are never entirely sure if the ghost activity is real or if the former renter is trying to scare them away.
Like I have found all of Barbara Michael's gothic mystery books, this one proved to be an enjoyable read. Anyone who likes cozy mysteries with a little paranormal activity will love her gothics. Andy, for all his gruff, turned out to be a little bit of a coward. Meg was the tough one...a strong woman, even if she was seeing things that weren’t there.... or were they?
There were, what felt like a few loose ends concerning the characters that made the story seem a little like the book wasn’t quite done. Barbara Michaels started me on my "ghost hunting" venture in books, so I was happy to pay an "old friend" a revisit. This was just as good as I had remembered the first time I read it. It's a dark spooky mystery that will produce the "required number of goosebumps" that a ghost story fanatic requires:) I would highly recommend this one or any of Barbara Michaels books for that matter. I'm not crazy about her series that takes place, I believe in Egypt with the archologist, but I sure some of you would like it. It's not "ghosty"...so, no goosebumps required:) show less
I have read, at least once, everything that this author has ever written as Barbara Michaels, but it's been a l-o-n-g time, at least since the early 70's show more since I read this one. A trip down Memory Lane is long overdue.
Meg Rittenhouse is a young woman who was injured in a recent accident and has been experiencing hallucinations. Her doctor said her "mind was playing tricks on her". Sylvia, A wealthy relative offers to let Meg move into one of many houses that she owns to recuperate. What Sylvia calls a "house" is a large mansion in Pennsylvania, that comes with a caretaker, Andy Brenner, whose family had once owned the house. Meg soon discovers that Andy has his own "issues", and she suspects her cousin is allowing him to stay to also recover. A romance begins to blossom, and they discover that the hallucinations that are starting up again, are shared. Meg is more than relieved to learn that they are not just further evidence of her mental health but she unsure how to deal with the fact that she can no longer ignore...that the house might be haunted.
Meg and Andy work together to dig into the history of the house and soon discover who in the "netherworld" is trying to get their attention and why. They also find themselves becoming the target of the previous renter; a dangerous artist who is also an alcoholic that starts to harass them. The house is full of antiques, and the former tenant had made previous attempts to steal them, and he plans to try again. He and his wife are dangerous, and Meg and Andy are never entirely sure if the ghost activity is real or if the former renter is trying to scare them away.
Like I have found all of Barbara Michael's gothic mystery books, this one proved to be an enjoyable read. Anyone who likes cozy mysteries with a little paranormal activity will love her gothics. Andy, for all his gruff, turned out to be a little bit of a coward. Meg was the tough one...a strong woman, even if she was seeing things that weren’t there.... or were they?
There were, what felt like a few loose ends concerning the characters that made the story seem a little like the book wasn’t quite done. Barbara Michaels started me on my "ghost hunting" venture in books, so I was happy to pay an "old friend" a revisit. This was just as good as I had remembered the first time I read it. It's a dark spooky mystery that will produce the "required number of goosebumps" that a ghost story fanatic requires:) I would highly recommend this one or any of Barbara Michaels books for that matter. I'm not crazy about her series that takes place, I believe in Egypt with the archologist, but I sure some of you would like it. It's not "ghosty"...so, no goosebumps required:) show less
House of Many Shadows is what I consider a proper Barbara Michaels book, as opposed to an Elizabeth Peters book under Ms. Mertz's Michaels nom de plume. (In my idea of a proper Barbara Michaels book, the ghosts are real. In Elizabeth Peters books, there is only a hint of the supernatural or none at all.) I count it among my top three proper Barbara Michaels books, along with Ammie, Come Home and The Walker in Shadows.
This one is set in Pennsylvania, in a big Victorian house near a small town called Wasserburg, in Pennsylvania Dutch country. The house's name is Trail's End. It belongs to wealthy twice widowed and once divorced Sylvia, whose second cousin, once removed is our heroine. Meg Rittenhouse, a New York City secretary, suffered show more a brain injury in a hit and run accident. She suffers from visual and auditory hallucinations. Sylvia is letting Meg spend six months at Trail's End to recover.
There's a caretaker living in a cottage on Trail's End's grounds. He's Andy Brenner, son of Sylvia's second husband, George, who left her the house. Andy is writing a book in his spare time. Meg remembers Andy as the boy who teased and bullied her when she was eight and he a few years older. Understandably, they don't get along well when they first meet again.
There are a few other characters, of which the most enjoyable is Sylvia's friend, antique seller Georgia Wilkes. The most annoying are the previous tenants of Trail's End, Culver (a lazy artist) and his 'wife,' Cherry. They're both still very angry about being kicked out. Andy is still trying to fix the mess they left in revenge.
Meg and Andy have strange experience's in Trail's End: they keep seeing rooms in an older house where three persons lived: an old man, his elderly female servant, and a young girl. Their efforts to find out who they were take up a good portion of the book. If you're too young to remember what doing research was like before the internet was available, you should get an idea.
More ominous are the shadows by the oak tree near Trail's End. Those shadows cause intense fear and anxiety. They seem to be coming a little closer each night. Will they be able to enter the house? If they do, can they actually harm Meg and Andy?
NOTES:
Chapter 1: Here is where Sylvia tells Meg which of her properties she got from which husband.
Mention: the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Chapter 2: The outside and some of the inside of Trail's End are described.
Mentions: Fifth Avenue and Brentano's [bookstore],
Chapter 3:
a. Wasserburg has 43 antique shops.
b. We meet Frank Culver and Cherry.
c. Meg visits the attics for the first time.
d. Given that this book came out in 1974, I suspect that Meg is talking about the books of ghost hunter Hans Holzer.
e. Andy and Meg are quoting from Walter de la Mare's 'The Listeners'. (You may listen to the author reciting it on Youtube.)
Mentions: Lizzie Borden, Victor Herbert (composer), 'Saturday Evening Post' magazine, Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan's, etc. creator), 'Argosy' magazine, Mozart, 'We're Gonna Kick the Kaiser' (Meg might be confusing 'We're Going to Get the Kaiser' or 'We're Going to Whip the Kaiser' or 'We're Going to Kick the Hell out of Will-hell-em' or similar World War I songs), Bartlett [Familiar Quotations], Roget [Thesaurus], and Walter de la Mare
Chapter 4:
a. Meg finds a privately printed 1933 genealogy of the Emig family. Trail's End was built by Benjamin Emig. His son was Alexander, whose daughter was Beverly.
b. Andy quotes some more from 'The Listeners'.
c. Meg finds a box.
Mention: the 'Mayflower'
Chapter 5:
a. Look here for the verse on Anna Maria Huber's sampler, stitched when she was 11 years old in 1734.
b. We meet Georgia Wilkes, who explains about genuine Chippendale versus the Chippendale style.
Mentions: Philadelphia, Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, and Duncan Phyfe
Chapter 6: Andy tells Meg about an old hex murder in Pennsylvania. (It's real, but happened five years later than Andy says it did.)
Chapter 7:
a. Meg finds the the von Friedlans of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel crest.
b. Meg reads aloud from The Sheikh (also spelled The Sheik by E. M. Hull.
c. Andy makes a momentous discovery.
Mentions: Sir Walter Scott, Abbotsford (Scott's estate), Lizzie Borden, Burke and Hare (body snatchers), Constance Kent (unsolved murder), Little Women, and The Sheikh
Chapter 8: We meet Mrs. Adams, elderly Historical Association volunteer.
Mentions: Quakers, Dunkards, Mennonites, Ben Franklin, the 'Pennsylvania Gazette,' and First Purchasers of Pennsylvania
Chapter 9: Georgia and Meg discuss Sylvia and Andy.
Mentions: Betty Friedan (co-founder of the National Organization for Women, wrote The Feminine Mystique), Beethoven, Vivaldi, Bach, Jonathan Gostelowe of Philadelphia (18th century cabinetmaker), Christopher Sauer's German Bible
Chapter 10:
a. Andy tells Meg how one writes a mystery story.
b. Andy talks some more about [John] Blymire and the murder of [Nelson D. Rehmeyer], the hex murder mentioned in chapter six.
Mentions: Sicily, the Netherlands, Pennsylvania Deutsch, the Rhineland, the Ephrata community, the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness, the Kentucky rifle, and the specter of the rose
Chapter 11:
a. Meg learns things visiting Mrs. Adams.
b. Christian Huber's journal is found.
Mentions: Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Bokhara carpet, and Kerman carpet
Chapter 12:
a. Andy reads aloud from the journal.
b. Meg learns some information about John Emig from Mrs. Adam's copy of the Sadler-Gross-Emig genealogy book. Mrs. Adams' letter includes a family legend.
Mentions: Rosicrusians, Swedenborgians, Hermetic philosophers, Gnostics, Ophites, Emanuel Swedenborg, Hermes Trismegistus, the Masons, the Three Musketeers, Louis the Fourteenth, and [The Man in the Iron Mask]
Chapter 13: Meg talks about England's 1752 revision of the old Gregorian calendar.
There's a difference to the haunting going on in this haunted house story, although Andy doesn't put it together until the last chapter. I enjoyed Andy and Meg acting as if they were cold case detectives trying to solve the mystery of what happened to the Huber family in 1740. On the other hand, Meg is so upset about what they learn that she fails to see what wouldn't have happened if what she so devoutly wished had come true.
The scary parts are few and far between until the climax, so if you're looking for sustained horror, this isn't the book for you. On the other hand, if you like amateur sleuthing with a horror story sneaking around until it catches up with the sleuths, you should enjoy this. show less
This one is set in Pennsylvania, in a big Victorian house near a small town called Wasserburg, in Pennsylvania Dutch country. The house's name is Trail's End. It belongs to wealthy twice widowed and once divorced Sylvia, whose second cousin, once removed is our heroine. Meg Rittenhouse, a New York City secretary, suffered show more a brain injury in a hit and run accident. She suffers from visual and auditory hallucinations. Sylvia is letting Meg spend six months at Trail's End to recover.
There's a caretaker living in a cottage on Trail's End's grounds. He's Andy Brenner, son of Sylvia's second husband, George, who left her the house. Andy is writing a book in his spare time. Meg remembers Andy as the boy who teased and bullied her when she was eight and he a few years older. Understandably, they don't get along well when they first meet again.
There are a few other characters, of which the most enjoyable is Sylvia's friend, antique seller Georgia Wilkes. The most annoying are the previous tenants of Trail's End, Culver (a lazy artist) and his 'wife,' Cherry. They're both still very angry about being kicked out. Andy is still trying to fix the mess they left in revenge.
Meg and Andy have strange experience's in Trail's End: they keep seeing rooms in an older house where three persons lived: an old man, his elderly female servant, and a young girl. Their efforts to find out who they were take up a good portion of the book. If you're too young to remember what doing research was like before the internet was available, you should get an idea.
More ominous are the shadows by the oak tree near Trail's End. Those shadows cause intense fear and anxiety. They seem to be coming a little closer each night. Will they be able to enter the house? If they do, can they actually harm Meg and Andy?
NOTES:
Chapter 1: Here is where Sylvia tells Meg which of her properties she got from which husband.
Mention: the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Chapter 2: The outside and some of the inside of Trail's End are described.
Mentions: Fifth Avenue and Brentano's [bookstore],
Chapter 3:
a. Wasserburg has 43 antique shops.
b. We meet Frank Culver and Cherry.
c. Meg visits the attics for the first time.
d. Given that this book came out in 1974, I suspect that Meg is talking about the books of ghost hunter Hans Holzer.
e. Andy and Meg are quoting from Walter de la Mare's 'The Listeners'. (You may listen to the author reciting it on Youtube.)
Mentions: Lizzie Borden, Victor Herbert (composer), 'Saturday Evening Post' magazine, Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan's, etc. creator), 'Argosy' magazine, Mozart, 'We're Gonna Kick the Kaiser' (Meg might be confusing 'We're Going to Get the Kaiser' or 'We're Going to Whip the Kaiser' or 'We're Going to Kick the Hell out of Will-hell-em' or similar World War I songs), Bartlett [Familiar Quotations], Roget [Thesaurus], and Walter de la Mare
Chapter 4:
a. Meg finds a privately printed 1933 genealogy of the Emig family. Trail's End was built by Benjamin Emig. His son was Alexander, whose daughter was Beverly.
b. Andy quotes some more from 'The Listeners'.
c. Meg finds a box.
Mention: the 'Mayflower'
Chapter 5:
a. Look here for the verse on Anna Maria Huber's sampler, stitched when she was 11 years old in 1734.
b. We meet Georgia Wilkes, who explains about genuine Chippendale versus the Chippendale style.
Mentions: Philadelphia, Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, and Duncan Phyfe
Chapter 6: Andy tells Meg about an old hex murder in Pennsylvania. (It's real, but happened five years later than Andy says it did.)
Chapter 7:
a. Meg finds the the von Friedlans of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel crest.
b. Meg reads aloud from The Sheikh (also spelled The Sheik by E. M. Hull.
c. Andy makes a momentous discovery.
Mentions: Sir Walter Scott, Abbotsford (Scott's estate), Lizzie Borden, Burke and Hare (body snatchers), Constance Kent (unsolved murder), Little Women, and The Sheikh
Chapter 8: We meet Mrs. Adams, elderly Historical Association volunteer.
Mentions: Quakers, Dunkards, Mennonites, Ben Franklin, the 'Pennsylvania Gazette,' and First Purchasers of Pennsylvania
Chapter 9: Georgia and Meg discuss Sylvia and Andy.
Mentions: Betty Friedan (co-founder of the National Organization for Women, wrote The Feminine Mystique), Beethoven, Vivaldi, Bach, Jonathan Gostelowe of Philadelphia (18th century cabinetmaker), Christopher Sauer's German Bible
Chapter 10:
a. Andy tells Meg how one writes a mystery story.
b. Andy talks some more about [John] Blymire and the murder of [Nelson D. Rehmeyer], the hex murder mentioned in chapter six.
Mentions: Sicily, the Netherlands, Pennsylvania Deutsch, the Rhineland, the Ephrata community, the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness, the Kentucky rifle, and the specter of the rose
Chapter 11:
a. Meg learns things visiting Mrs. Adams.
b. Christian Huber's journal is found.
Mentions: Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Bokhara carpet, and Kerman carpet
Chapter 12:
a. Andy reads aloud from the journal.
b. Meg learns some information about John Emig from Mrs. Adam's copy of the Sadler-Gross-Emig genealogy book. Mrs. Adams' letter includes a family legend.
Mentions: Rosicrusians, Swedenborgians, Hermetic philosophers, Gnostics, Ophites, Emanuel Swedenborg, Hermes Trismegistus, the Masons, the Three Musketeers, Louis the Fourteenth, and [The Man in the Iron Mask]
Chapter 13: Meg talks about England's 1752 revision of the old Gregorian calendar.
There's a difference to the haunting going on in this haunted house story, although Andy doesn't put it together until the last chapter. I enjoyed Andy and Meg acting as if they were cold case detectives trying to solve the mystery of what happened to the Huber family in 1740. On the other hand, Meg is so upset about what they learn that she fails to see what wouldn't have happened if what she so devoutly wished had come true.
The scary parts are few and far between until the climax, so if you're looking for sustained horror, this isn't the book for you. On the other hand, if you like amateur sleuthing with a horror story sneaking around until it catches up with the sleuths, you should enjoy this. show less
This is a just "okay" little mystery/ ghost story with a somewhat interesting plot but weak characters. I always forget that Barbara Michaels was writing in the 60's and 70's, and thus the way the male and female characters interact with and treat each other is a little old fashioned. I was uncomfortable with how often Andy told Meg to "shut up" and how much of their relationship was built on mistrust and dislike. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it just wasn't that pleasant to read.
March 14, 1999
House of Many Shadows
Barbara Michaels
God, I love Barbara Michaels. Great heroines, great ghosts, great settings.
Meg has had an accident that causes her to have hallucinations, so she takes a leave from her job and takes up temporary residence in her snobby cousin’s country house for some rest (the snobby cousin lives elsewhere, so Meg has the place to herself). But the hallucinations get worse, and soon she realizes that her presence has awakened old ghosts and an old tragedy borne of hate and fear – the murder of a young girl and her father by superstitious and greedy neighbors. She doesn’t just see their ghosts; she also sees the house as it was then, the weather, everything – like a door opening between the show more worlds of time. She must put the old ghosts to rest somehow.
GREAT!!! show less
House of Many Shadows
Barbara Michaels
God, I love Barbara Michaels. Great heroines, great ghosts, great settings.
Meg has had an accident that causes her to have hallucinations, so she takes a leave from her job and takes up temporary residence in her snobby cousin’s country house for some rest (the snobby cousin lives elsewhere, so Meg has the place to herself). But the hallucinations get worse, and soon she realizes that her presence has awakened old ghosts and an old tragedy borne of hate and fear – the murder of a young girl and her father by superstitious and greedy neighbors. She doesn’t just see their ghosts; she also sees the house as it was then, the weather, everything – like a door opening between the show more worlds of time. She must put the old ghosts to rest somehow.
GREAT!!! show less
Meg Rittenhouse has started having hallucinations after being hit by a car. Her doctor had told her to expect this and that they'll eventually wear off. But after seeing an elephant strolling down a busy street in New York Meg has decided that she needs to get somewhere more relaxing. So she calls up her rich cousin, Sylvia for help. Sylvia agrees that Meg does indeed need help so loans Meg the use of her large Victorian house in the country for 6 months. But the house Sylvia has decided to let Meg stay at has a twisted history and suddenly Meg is having joint hallucinations with Andy, Sylvia's step son, about a family that lived on the grounds before the current house was even built.
Both Meg and Andy have had some psychological show more conditions in their recent pasts that keeps you guessing if what they're seeing is really paranormal or if they're just somehow feeding off of each other. Meg and Andy end up joining together to discover who the people are in their visions and why there are shadowy things that surround the house at night giving off the feeling of doom. As their research starts going deeper into what happened to the family who lived on the property before Andy's ancestors built the house, the hallucinations start becoming more real and more revealing.
I liked that the mystery of the visions isn't the only thing that keeps the story moving. There’s Meg’s cataloging of the ancients furniture in the attic, which was oddly interesting to read about. Also there’s Meg and Andy having to deal with their mutual frustration towards Sylvia who isn't exactly known for having a very warm personality and her constant checking up on them. Then there's the past tenant of the house, a cracked out painted, who is harassing Meg because he blames her for his being evicted.
Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a good mystery or ghost story. show less
Both Meg and Andy have had some psychological show more conditions in their recent pasts that keeps you guessing if what they're seeing is really paranormal or if they're just somehow feeding off of each other. Meg and Andy end up joining together to discover who the people are in their visions and why there are shadowy things that surround the house at night giving off the feeling of doom. As their research starts going deeper into what happened to the family who lived on the property before Andy's ancestors built the house, the hallucinations start becoming more real and more revealing.
I liked that the mystery of the visions isn't the only thing that keeps the story moving. There’s Meg’s cataloging of the ancients furniture in the attic, which was oddly interesting to read about. Also there’s Meg and Andy having to deal with their mutual frustration towards Sylvia who isn't exactly known for having a very warm personality and her constant checking up on them. Then there's the past tenant of the house, a cracked out painted, who is harassing Meg because he blames her for his being evicted.
Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a good mystery or ghost story. show less
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Barbara Mertz was born on September 29, 1927 in Astoria, Illinois. She received a bachelor's degree in 1947, a master's degree in 1950 and doctorate in Egyptology in 1952 from the University of Chicago. She wrote a few books using her real name including Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs (1964), Red Land, Black Land (1966), and Two Thousand Years in show more Rome (1968). She also wrote under the pen names Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters. She made her fiction debut, The Master of Blacktower, under the name Barbara Michaels in 1966. She wrote over two dozen novels using this pen name including Sons of the Wolf, Someone in the House, Vanish with the Rose, Dancing Floor, and Other Worlds. Her debut novel under the pen name Elizabeth Peters was The Jackal's Head in 1968. She also wrote the Amelia Peabody series and Vicky Bliss Mystery series using this name. She died on August 8, 2013 at the age of 85. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- House of Many Shadows
- Original title
- House of Many Shadows
- Alternate titles
- Das dunkle Herz der Villa
- Original publication date
- 1974
- People/Characters
- Meg Rittenhouse (secretary recovering from brain injury); Andy Brenner (Trail's End caretaker, the late George Brenner & Beverly Emig Brenner's son); Sylvia (widow of Frederic, then George Brenner, Wilfred's ex-wife, Meg's rich 2nd cousin once removed, Andy's stepmother); Frank Culver (lazy drug-addicted artist who was the tenant at Trail's End before Meg); Cherry (posed as Mrs. Culver because Sylvia wouldn't have let an unmarried couple stay in her house); Georgia Wilkes (owns the Antique Market, Sylvia's friend) (show all 15); Jim Stoltzfuss (owns the Antique Barn); Fred Zook (Police officer); Christian Huber (owned the 18th century house on the Trail's End site); Anna Maria Huber (Christian's granddaughter); Berthe (the Hubers' elderly servant); Mrs. Adams (Historical Association volunteer, friend of Andy's Great-Aunt Matilda); John Emig (Christian Huber's neighbor); Jacob Emig (John's son, fancied Anna Maria Huber); Jim Courtenay (Sylvia's black chauffeur)
- Important places
- Wasserburg, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA (town); Trail's End, on almost 20 acres, near Wasserburg, Pennsylvania, USA (the Enig Victorian house, now Sylvia's); Antique Market, on a side street in Wasserburg, Pennsylvania, USA (Georgia's stone house/shop); Historical Association building, Reading, Pennsylvania, USA; Mrs. Adam's house, Reading, Pennsylvania, USA
- Dedication
- To my daughter Beth
- First words
- The sounds bothered Meg most.
- Quotations
- Andy opened the door -- and stopped, so suddenly he rocked back on his heels. Meg felt it too, even before she saw what was outside. It poured into the house like a flood of evil-smelling gas.
The half-grown moon, hig... (show all)h in the sky, cast a thin light over the lawn. The shadows it made were faint; but those other shadows were not the products of moonlight. Tall, columnar shapes of blackness, they hovered in the widere, pale shadow of the big oak. The horror emanated from them, whatever they were -- and Meg thought she knew what they were. (chapter 8) - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)'Sylvia's already made up her mind.'
- Blurbers
- Clark, Mary Higgins; Ripley, Alexandra; Whitney, Phyllis
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- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 17
- ASINs
- 10
