NELLA WAITS

by Marlys Millhiser ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 23, 1974

Like locusts -- or lemmings -- they materialize and dematerialize and we're too scared silly to guess which one might really levitate. But this is another one, better than her first book Michael's Wife (1972), quieter than most of its competitors, and all taking place in Roggins, Iowa, ""an old folks home with a Main Street,"" population ? plus one. That one being Nella Van Fleet, dead but not gone from a large old house and her son Jay -- making herself only too felt in the deaths of one or two people who have set foot in it. Sometimes she's just a chill wind -- an ill wind -- that blows indoors. But Lynnette, brought back to Roggins after the deaths of her husband and her father to take care of her mother -- reluctantly, is determined to face down Nella which she almost might if she could see her. . . . The small town touches are just right -- it's all as neat as a box supper -- and surely there will be other ladies only too happy to spend that queasily enchanted evening in the house where Nella waits. Even if she's still there.

Pub Date: Oct. 23, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1974

Categories: FICTION