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+--- Thread: The Haunting Fear by Ethel Bangert (/showthread.php?tid=2976)
The Haunting Fear by Ethel Bangert - InTheAttic - 09-17-2023
I read The Haunting Fear first time in the age 12 or 13 - it was a Christmas present, the Finnish translation called Pahuuden talo (House of Evil). It was a pretty, glossy paperback but with Miriam Lynch as the author and the plot description of a different book in the back cover!
Anyway, I now re-read it in English.
Terri Norton arrives at the Laurel Hall in the rain - not to work as a governess or a nurse, because the modern setting, but to appraise antiques. She falls instantly to the family doctor Bruce who is in the clutches of Prissy, the spoiled rotten daughter of the family.
There is some violence - beating, rape attempt, some deaths - but it is either off-screen or stops before anything happens. Writing is clean, but clumsy, setting and atmosphere work best as the old paperback with the beautiful handpainted cover and yellow pages.
Solid three stars.