GAD'S HALL

by Norah Lofts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 4, 1978

Problematic romance and understated occultism from a practiced hand. The young British Spenders need a cheap new home for their family (he has been paralyzed by terrorist firebombs in the Congo, so they have no money), and charming old Gad's Hall is going for a song, complete with antique furniture. It seems no one is willing to live there--the place is ""evil,"" especially the attic. In no time, sensitive little Alice is afraid to go upstairs to the bathroom, and is drawing the most unpleasant pictures in school. What is the problem? Switch to the 1840s, when Isobel Thorley's husband dies and leaves her with a son and four grown girls to marry off. One of them, Lavinia, has always been a draggy, silent girl, given to drawing upsetting pictures which become more so after she meets the Fremlins, an Anglo-Indian family of recluses. At the point when the other three daughters have finally got themselves engaged to various semi-suitable young men, with a triple wedding in the offing, lsobel notes that Lavinia is pregnant--and oddly unconcerned about it, as if she thinks she will be rescued supernaturally. To hide their shame and save the weddings, the Thorleys decide to store Lavinia in the attic until after she gives birth, and pretend she has gone to India to get married. But why does the attic have such a nasty aura and what is Lavinia up to in there? A restrained creepiness that carries conviction without making you want to call the exterminator--but how come we never get back to the present and find out what happened to those nice stiff-upper-lip Spenders?

Pub Date: Aug. 4, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1978

Categories: FICTION