This is another Southern Gothic, an historical one, that I recently read. It was a disappointment. I had heard a lot about Dorothy Daniels and the synopsis on the back of the book was exciting. However, the book fell well short of expectation. Not very well-developed at all. Fast-paced but I felt the author was really rushing events. I think if she made it a longer story, she could have done a better job. The premise of the story is not bad, but the way it was told was too rushed. "C"

Thanks for the review. I think I'm going to pass on The Unguarded.

I loved Dorothy Daniels' books when I was twelve. The last one I read as an adult struck me as juvenile, under-developed and downright silly. I don't know if that's true of all her (well, his actually) work, but I suspect so. I think he was pretty much a writer for hire who had little real interest in the Gothic genre beyond a paycheck.

Was it really a man? What was his name? I was going to give Dorothy Daniels another chance, perhaps one of the later books, to see if there are any improvements. I recently picked up some books by her/him which looked to be more of the thriller/espionage type.

Here's a bibliographical entry on him. He wrote under many names, including Helen Gray Weston, which is not listed here. He was very prolific, writing mostly detective stories from what I can see. I believe his wife was named Dorothy, so there really was a "Dorothy Daniels," though he was the actual writer. "Marilyn Ross" was a similar situation. She really existed, but it was her husband, W.E.D. Ross who wrote the books. Marilyn was more of a secretary to him.

"DANIELS, NORMAN (A.) [born Norman Arthur Danberg] (1906-1995); see pseudonyms Dorothy Daniels, Grant Dell, Charles Alan Gregory, Frank Johnston, David M. Norman, Kirk Rand, Mark Reed & Jud Tally (chron.) "