The Catch-all Drawer

Nightmare in Eden by Miriam Asher, 1974

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Cover by Elaine Duillo, 1974.

Going alone with a stranger given to violence to an island with a reputation as dark as the Black Hole of Calcutta, to locate a man who didn’t want her, was the dumbest thing she’d ever attempted in her life.

You have to love when the heroine expresses your own thoughts about the plot so far while she is doing her obligatory examination of herself in the hotel mirror.

Shout-out to this book for citing the cover artist on the copyright page. It’s not common enough in these old gothics! And shout-out to Bodice Tipplers because I literally just listened to their podcast for Warrior’s Woman by Johanna Lindsey, where they talked about Elaine Duillo’s cover art career. ✨Everything is connected. ✨

It’s like that episode of Mad Men where Don spends a couple of days with an elite coterie of pleasure seekers. The Jet Set meets The Love Witch.
For some reason, the most mundane lines in this book are jumping out at me.
Wow.
This book is light on descriptions of our heroine, Sheila. When she looks at herself in the mirror, her focus is on her body, she’s gained weight and feels good about it. She remembers a time when her boyfriend called her “a sensual stringbean.”
That’s… not a normal reaction to a sarcophagus. 👀
I always enjoy the weird sexy satanism depicted in the 70s. It’s goofy and takes itself too seriously and there are always weird phalluses strewn about. The satanists in this book participate in nightly games that are almost indistinguishable from corporate team building exercises. When you think about it, enjoying corporate team building games IS pretty satanic.

Originally published August 2020

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