The dark fantastic

DOUBLEDay AND CO, 1947. Hard cover. Very good in very good dust jacket. Signed by previous owner. The dark fantastic (Hardcover IN DUST JACKET CONDITION GOOD-DJ FAIR-SIGNED BY PREVIOUS OWNER-PUBLISHED BY DOUBLED AND CO-1947 COPYRIGHT 312 PAGES) by Margaret Echard (Author) BOOK REVIEW:... The dark fantastic (Hardcover IN DUST JACKET CONDITION GOOD-DJ FAIR-SIGNED BY PREVIOUS OWNER-PUBLISHED BY DOUBLED AND CO-1947 COPYRIGHT 312 PAGES) by Margaret Echard (Author) BOOK REVIEW: Blending charming period atmosphere, evocative writing, sharp The dark fantastic (Hardcover IN DUST JACKET CONDITION GOOD-DJ FAIR-SIGNED BY PREVIOUS OWNER-PUBLISHED BY DOUBLED AND CO-1947 COPYRIGHT 312 PAGES) by Margaret Echard (Author) BOOK REVIEW: Blending charming period atmosphere, evocative writing, sharp pacing, ever-mounting mystery and tension, and characters you either root for or revile, I'd call The Dark Fantastic something of a lost treasure! The story starts off shortly after the American Civil War, with Judith, a sharp-witted young schoolteacher throwing off her small-town shackles to head for the big city and see a Shakespeare play. A meet-cute with a handsome stranger at the big-city theatre (in Terre Haute, Indiana) follows. Then there's a pleasantly humorous scene at the after-hours gathering of the potential suitor and his friends-interrupted by the appearance of our heroine, who is already using her smarts to inveigle herself into the world of their friend, the dashing gentleman farmer Richard Tomlinson. At this point, I was on board for a charming historical romance. But things took an unexpected turn. Tomlinson has an ailing wife, Abigail; a doting mother and many nearby siblings around...and a girl named Thorne who also resides in the household. Who young Thorne exactly is and why she's there are eventually made clear. What's mysterious is the reason for Abigail's acute dislike of the girl. What follows is a page-turner that moves steadily into quite a different realm than mere romance, as Judith's motives and methods grow less sympathetic in her dogged pursuit of eventual matrimony with the appealing but manipulable Richard. It becomes both a psychological and supernatural thriller. Young Thorne attracts our sympathy like a magnet, even as Judith s machinations reveal her true character. And then there are the mysterious bricks