10-17-2010, 01:47 PM
Some may gasp at my sacrilege, but I prefer Virginia Coffman to Phyllis Whitney. I like Whitney very much, mind you, but Coffman gives me more of what I look for in a Gothic. Moura, in my opinion, is in league with anything by Holt or Du Maurier -- and I can say that being as yet only halfway through the book.
Coffman had a high command of language; she understood the culture of the British Isles in the 19th Century; she had impeccable pitch for tone and atmosphere. And generally, her plots move along with the pleasing fluency of a good movie. (Bios of Coffman are hard to come by; I've read that she worked on scripts in Hollywood back in the day, but I can't find any references to her on IMDB.)
Despite my lavish praise, I never finished The Devil Vicar, the only Coffman book that's disappointed me. But I think I'll go back and give it another whirl.
Coffman had a high command of language; she understood the culture of the British Isles in the 19th Century; she had impeccable pitch for tone and atmosphere. And generally, her plots move along with the pleasing fluency of a good movie. (Bios of Coffman are hard to come by; I've read that she worked on scripts in Hollywood back in the day, but I can't find any references to her on IMDB.)
Despite my lavish praise, I never finished The Devil Vicar, the only Coffman book that's disappointed me. But I think I'll go back and give it another whirl.