The End of Temperance Dare

This book started out with an intriguing premise but in the end I was disappointed. There were various plot points that just seemed contrived. It\’s still worth a read if you\’re looking for a couple hours of diversion, but it all falls apart in the last few chapters. Anyway, Eleanor \”Norrie\” Harper is a journalist who starts having panic attacks and feelings of dread and impending doom. She gets fired from her job. Then, she finds out that Penelope \”Miss Penny\” Dare, the Director of Cliffside Manor, is retiring and searching for a replacement. Cliffside Manor is a beautiful mansion in a beautiful setting on the shore of Lake Superior, with gardens and also woods for hiking. It started out as a TB sanatorium, but in 1952 Chester Dare, the philanthropist who had founded the sanatorium, changed it into a retreat for writers and artists. Norrie had met Miss Penny twenty years earlier, after Chester and his other daughter Millie had been killed in an alleged car accident. Norrie felt there was more to it, and had investigated, but hadn\’t found any answers as to what really happened. When Norrie contacts Miss Penny about the Director\’s position, she finds that Miss Penny remembers her, and then Norrie gets the job! Talk about a great job! She gets to live in a luxurious suite of rooms in a mansion, on well-tended grounds, with servants to cook and clean, and even do her laundry! All Norrie really has to do is to go through applications and choose the creative types who come at intervals throughout the the year, five at a time, for two or four week stays. And to make sure they have everything they need to create, in peaceful and inspiring surroundings. Being a \”fellow\” at Cliffside Manor is a competitive and sought after position. But, something unexpected and terrible happens on Norrie\’s first day. Then, the following week, the first group of fellows arrives. There are three women and two men. A poet, two writers, a painter, and a photographer. As it turns out, all but one have a previous connection to Cliffside Manor. Three of them had relatives who had actually been there when it was a TB sanatorium—two as patients, one as a nurse. Another one had been there briefly twenty years earlier, in a hired position, and Norrie herself had a connection from the car accident investigation. Only the female poet had no apparent connection. A good part of the book is Norrie trying to piece together why they are all there together at the same time. Supernatural events take place, and it\’s obvious there\’s a reason they were all brought together. But then, as I said, IMO, the story becomes contrived. The ending seems rushed after all the suspense and mystery that builds up in the previous chapters. It was all revealed by characters filling Norrie in, not by her finding the answers, or at least some of them, by herself. Basically, Norrie and the reader are clueless, and then other characters literally sit Norrie down in a chair and explain it all. Not a terrible book, not a great one. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. I originally gave this book three stars, but now I have changed it to two. After thinking about it, I realized a lot of the plot just didn\’t make sense.

Don\’t judge all of Wendy Webb\’s writing by this one. It is hokey, to be frank. It\’s hard to invest as we read about every cup of coffee, every shower, every time a computer \”whirrs to life\” and someone is constantly \”poking\” their head around a door. Let\’s be a little more imaginative with our details, please! And I couldn\’t believe the characters could be so dense, it was blatantly obvious what was going on. I\’m just glad to be through with this, and even gladder that it was only a buck ninety-nine. Try The Vanishing for a better spooky tale. At least it was fun thinking about that big, beautiful house on the lake…

Eleanor Harper is the new Director of Cliffside Manor, a retreat for artists & writers. It was founded in the 1950\’s by Chester Dare a local philanthropist & patron of the arts. It\’s longtime director, Penelope Dare (Chester\’s daughter) has retired. Twenty years ago, Eleanor had been the crime reporter/journalist who covered the suspicious death of Chester Dare & his daughter Chamomile. Over the years, Eleanor covered all matters of horror & heartbreak; school shootings, teen suicides, domestic violence, serial killers. It\’s time for a change. Cliffside was built in 1925 as a sanatorium for TB patients. It was a magnificent building sitting on forty acres of forestland on the shores of Lake Superior. But, it\’s a house that has seen more than its share of death & suffering. Eleanor soon learns that the house is full of ghosts & that the dead at Cliffside are out for vengeance. Penelope Dare entrusted Eleanor Harper with continuing Cliffside\’s mission to foster & support the arts. Eleanor agreed to take the job, has given up her apartment & moved there. Strange occurrences begin as soon as she arrives. Shortly thereafter, Eleanor finds out that there was a third Dare sister, named Temperance who had died there in 1952 at the age of seven. Rumor has it, she was pure evil; some sort of demon & she was murdered. Everyone who has died on the property since she was born is still there. The property has a malevolence about it, a residue of the evil that took hold of the beautiful & rugged coastline when Temperance was born. I\’m completely open-minded about the paranormal & the supernatural. But, I would have preferred a different ending. It suddenly & illogically segues into the occult with a pentagram & all; TOTALLY HOKEY!!!

One of the best books I\’ve read all year! Wendy Webb really got me this time.Thought I had figured out what was going on in this fabulous gothic horror, but the twists and turns were way beyond my imagination. This one kept me reading at every chance I got… but I was so sad when this thrill ride was over. I wished it could have gone on forever! This author is clearly one of the best in this genre! All of her books have kept me glued to them to the very end and she reigns at the top of my Favorite Authors List! You will not be disappointed. Chills and thrills are here for those who pick up this book. And the audio version is divine! Highly highly recommend!!! <3 <3 <3

Read this book in my day off couldn\’t put it down and when the daylight went I put all the lights on because it defiantly left me feeling nervous . Fantastic book ,if you like the film the others this goes beyond and is better for it . Highly recommended

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