author from new zealand

[bronte]

Dorothy Eden was an AMAZING writer from New Zealand. Vines of Yarby is a good one but my two favorite is "Shadow Wife" and "Waiting for Willa". In Shadow Wife a young girl marries a man and goes to meet his relatives. He warns he not to tell them they are married yet as he want to break it to them gently. She thinks it's weird by goes along. Then they are in a bad car crash and she wakes in hospital. She tell everyone she is married but her husband denys it and she can't find her ring or marriage license, everyone thinks she lying or crazy or more hurt in the crash than they thought....In "Waiting for Willa" a girl receives a letter from her cousin Willa, but she signed Willemina (her full name). When they we children they had a game in which the "code-word" for danger was Willemina. The girl goes to visit her cousin and discovers that she is missing.
Dorothy Eden books are worth tracking down.

[Penfeather]

These are going on my list right away. I love the inexplicable in a story. Shadow Wife sounds somewhat like Victoria Holt's On the Night of the Seventh Moon, or perhaps I should say the other way around, because a quick Google search informs me that Shadow Wife was written first.

I've read several other Dorothy Eden novels and enjoyed them. I look forward to reading these. Thanks for the recommendations.

[Carrie Dalby]

Dorothy Eden is my favorite in the genre.

[Penfeather]

Dorothy Eden is my favorite in the genre.

She really was outstanding.  I just went on a binge reading several of her books consecutively.  She excelled at characterization and her heroines are timeless.

[Carrie Dalby]

This is my Dorothy Eden collection so far, as well as a paperback of SIEGE IN THE SUN, which I forgot to pull from my TBR pile for the picture. (Five are still waiting to be read.)
   

[Penfeather]

This is my Dorothy Eden collection so far, as well as a paperback of SIEGE IN THE SUN, which I forgot to pull from my TBR pile for the picture. (Five are still waiting to be read.)

Wonderful old covers!

I recently got a three-set edition of some of her suspense novels under the title Eerie Nights in London.  They are: Death Is a Red Rose, Listen to Danger, and Night of the Letter.  If any of them qualify as gothics, I'll post reviews on this forum once I've read them.

[Carrie Dalby]

I bought another yesterday: An Important Family.
She does Gothic family sagas well. I'm excited to read it.

[Penfeather]

I bought another yesterday: An Important Family.
She does Gothic family sagas well. I'm excited to read it.

She had a real talent for getting the reader emotionally involved in her stories, didn't she? Her heroines have the perfect blend of warmth and fighting spirit.  Whenever I read one of her novels, I'm drawn into caring about the protagonist's plight almost immediately.  Lots of colorful and entertaining side-characters, too.

I hope you post a review of An Important Family once you've read it.  I've put it on my list as well.