House of Many Shadows (DTB) - Barbara Michaels

This book was my choice for the category "Read a book I loved, but haven't read for years." This particular choice has a bit of nostalgia wrapped around it.  I believe I was a teenager when my mom took me to the bookstore and gave me $100 to blow.  We went to the mall, and I remember taking a chance on this author.  I crouched on the floor of the bookstore, reading the backs of novels.  I'd never read anything by Michaels before, but my whole fun money went on her books.  Later, I found out her real name was Barbara Mertz.

In later years, I picked up all her books, both as Barbara Michaels, and as her other pseudonym, Elizabeth Peters.  There was only one of her books that I remember not liking, and it was called Other Worlds.  I still have my whole collection of paperbacks, but I watch for the price to drop on the Kindle versions.

Barbara Michaels wrote books that were on the spooky side.  When I was younger, I read a lot of that kind of thing, even though TV shows and movies would scare the living daylights out of me.  I read a lot of Lois Duncan back then as well.  When I started reading Michaels' books, she had a way of writing that drew me in.  I cared about the characters and what happened to them.  I wanted them to conquer the darkness that was threatening them, and sometimes it was supernatural in nature.  This is one of those books.

Meg is having hallucinations after an injury.  She hears strange noises and sees elephants in places they definitely shouldn't be.  She appeals to her relative, Sylvia, who offers to let her stay at a house she owns in Pennsylvania. 

Once she gets there, she learns that her childhood nemesis, Andy, is the caretaker of the place.  They get off to a rough start, but when Meg realizes that Andy can see the same things she does, they start to search for answers together.

This book shows its age.  It was originally published in 1974, and in some ways, you can tell. These days, it seems strange that Meg can't make a phone call without going into a certain room or that she has to travel to another town to unearth the history of the house.  In addition to that, I can see how some readers would consider this slow.  I remember trudging my way through Pride and Prejudice wondering how anyone could read it.  Now, my kids wonder the same thing when I give them one of the books I loved when I was their age.

For me, I was able to enjoy this book.  I liked how it was frightening, but not too scary.  I liked the little snippets of history that were sprinkled throughout the book as Meg and Andy did their research.  I liked reading about their adventure, and if I had to put the book down, I looked forward to getting back to it.

Would I have enjoyed it as much if this were my first read-through?  I'm not sure.  What I do know is that Michaels (Mertz) has a great writing style that I usually enjoy.  This book was no exception.  And even though I don't go the mall and hang out on the floor of the bookstore anymore, I carry around the memory of hunting for Barbara Michaels books in my heart.  Great Book!

(I purposely used the picture that's on my paperback for this review, because it's amazing and looks much better than the current Kindle cover.)