By Guy N. Smith
1988 Arrow Books
Paperback, 191 pages
I really liked this one. As good
a GNS read as any of the classic nature-runs-amok masterpieces. Completely
different in every way from every other book of his that I have read, but still
pure Guy N. Smith.
The Laird of Ulver is a dick. He
repeatedly assaults his wife to keep her pregnant in hopes of a son to call his
heir. When the fifth birth is yet another daughter, though stillborn, Marie,
the wife, has had enough. Her four daughters and she try to escape but his
lordship instead catches them and abandons them on Ulver Island, along with his
deformed boatman, Zoke. Nobody on the mainland ever saw them again.
In modern times, widower Frank
Ingram, trying to get over his wife’s tragic death, decides to buy a small
island “for a snip” to get away from it all and do some farming alone and
uninterrupted. It’s a fine plan and it more or less works until one stormy
night when five women show up on his doorstep. Their story isn’t very cohesive,
and Frank finally learns that they are a mother, Samantha, and her four
daughters. We, the readers, have a good idea who they really are.
The story is played out with
Marie and her clan alternating every other chapter with Samantha’s brood and we
follow Frank’s plight as they take over his house, his land and his life. His
frustration becomes our frustration, and Smith ratchets up the tenseness
of the situation (in both eras) brilliantly until we just want it all to end! I
don’t mean that in a bad way. I was just looking for relief for Frank.
The only problem I had with the
book was remembering all of the daughters and mothers’ names while reading.
Somebody on less medication than me would likely have no problem with that but
I got confused a few times about which daughter was acting out during some
moments. But the book is very satisfying, and I plowed through the last 100
pages just hoping to speed things up for poor Frank!
Top shelf GNS right here. And check out that Les Edwards cover!! Wow!