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Columbella (1966)

por Phyllis A. Whitney

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1733156,521 (3.94)1
A governess becomes entangled with a dysfunctional and dangerous family in this novel by a New York Times-bestselling "master of suspense" (Mary Higgins Clark).   Finally liberated from her cruel and domineering mother, twenty-eight-year-old schoolteacher Jessica Abbott has accepted a position as governess in Hampden House, a crumbling plantation on the cliffs of St. Croix. Her charge is Leila Drew, the oppressed teenage daughter of a pathologically punishing mother. But the vulnerable girl is not Catherine Drew's only victim.   For years, Catherine's desperate husband, King, a man to whom Jessica is irresistibly drawn, has been searching for the means to a safe escape--for himself and Leila--from this ruin of a family. As Jessica becomes further entwined in the violent dynamics of the Drew family, she realizes Catherine's wretched power may be grounded in a secret that has trapped not only King and Leila, but herself as well.   A recipient of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, Phyllis A. Whitney was hailed by Mary Higgins Clark as "a superb and gifted story teller, and a master of suspense."   This ebook features an illustrated biography of Phyllis A. Whitney including rare images from the author's estate.  … (mais)
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An engaging gothic romance by a virtuoso of the genre. Jessica has just arrived at her aunt's Caribbean hotel to wallow in her depression over having no idea where her life is going. Her aunt's friend has a granddaughter that she thinks needs a better influence than her narcissistic and promiscuous mother, so Jessica is browbeaten into moving into the estate and enduring the verbal abuse of both the girl's mother and father. Of course the father and Jessica develop feelings for each other and have to foil the plotting of the mother and her accomplices. ( )
  EmScape | Apr 9, 2021 |
I first read Columbella in 1966 when I was 15. Even more than the murder mystery, I loved the little details, especially the ones about Catherine Drew: her red dress, her ruffled green bikini, her water lily perfume, the columbella shell that was dipped in gold to make a pendant.

Jessica Abbott, the heroine, is a bit of a goody-goody, but wicked Catherine is a fascinating character. She can twist men around her little finger, all except her husband, Kingdon Drew, who is on to her games. Catherine's mother, Maud Hampden, hires Jessica as a tutor/companion to the Drew's teenage daughter, Leila, in a bid to prevent King from sending the girl away to boarding school in the States, to get her away from Catherine's influence. So, King is opposed to Jessica, although she is drawn to him. Jessica also empathizes with Leila, as she herself suffered with a manipulative, charming and devious mother. Tensions keep building in the house on the hill above Charlotte Amalie, until everything comes to a head on the night of Catherine's fateful party.

I wasn't always a big fan of Phyllis Whitney, as I found her heroines sometimes a little too sweet, but Columbella has always been my favourite of her books. I hadn't read it for years, when I decided to acquire a copy again; I'm glad I did. ( )
  booksandscones | Aug 14, 2015 |
It was a proud day when I received my first adult library card and Columbella was one of the first two books I checked out with it. I haven't read my old paperback copy in decades, but as I read a library's large print copy, memories came back: the golden columbella necklace, the beautiful wallpaper in Cathy's room at Caprice, the red dress, and the special Calypso song at a party.... I remembered who the killer was, but it didn't matter.

Did this book cast the same spell over me that it did when I was 13? No. I'm no longer ready to believe in a true love that happens as quickly as it does here, but the descriptions are just as beautiful and the characters as interesting. Ms. Whitney had a way of showing how a toxic parent's damage to his or her child could affect that person still. Here we have one woman damaged by her mother and another damaged by her father. While we don't know that either parent meant to damage his/her daughter, there is a teen being deliberately damaged by her mother. Can our heroine save that girl and the father who made the mistake of imagining his dead comrade-in-arm's sister was as fine a person as her brother?

The woman who calls herself 'Columbella' has already run through the money her father left her, yet is still spending money as if it grew on trees. She's even talking about restoring the family mansion. Where's that money going to come from?

Columbella is good old-fashioned romantic suspense. Enjoy. ( )
  JalenV | Jan 27, 2014 |
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Love is
a time of enchantment:
in it all days are fair and all fields
green. Youth is blest by it,
old age made benign: the eyes of love see
roses blooming in December,
and sunshine through rain. Verily
is the time of true-love
a time of enchantment -- and
Oh! how eager is woman
to be bewitched!
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I HAD come softly along the upper balcony so as not to waken the members of a household which was still strange to me.
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[part of what Kingdon Drew says to Jessica Abbott in chapter three] 'I've sensed something in you from the first -- a quality I haven't seen much of lately. Call it decency, honesty, if you like. Old-fashioned terms, perhaps, but you've brought a rush of fresh air into this house.'
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A governess becomes entangled with a dysfunctional and dangerous family in this novel by a New York Times-bestselling "master of suspense" (Mary Higgins Clark).   Finally liberated from her cruel and domineering mother, twenty-eight-year-old schoolteacher Jessica Abbott has accepted a position as governess in Hampden House, a crumbling plantation on the cliffs of St. Croix. Her charge is Leila Drew, the oppressed teenage daughter of a pathologically punishing mother. But the vulnerable girl is not Catherine Drew's only victim.   For years, Catherine's desperate husband, King, a man to whom Jessica is irresistibly drawn, has been searching for the means to a safe escape--for himself and Leila--from this ruin of a family. As Jessica becomes further entwined in the violent dynamics of the Drew family, she realizes Catherine's wretched power may be grounded in a secret that has trapped not only King and Leila, but herself as well.   A recipient of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, Phyllis A. Whitney was hailed by Mary Higgins Clark as "a superb and gifted story teller, and a master of suspense."   This ebook features an illustrated biography of Phyllis A. Whitney including rare images from the author's estate.  

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