From Publishers Weekly
In 1982, before Matheson achieved the cult-and-grandmaster status he enjoys today, Playboy Press published a version of this erotic ghost story that was so severely edited that the author took his name off the book, which was presented as by "Logan Swanson." In this "approved and restored" version, David and Ellen Cooper's 21-year marriage is nearing the rocks, so they decide to leave L.A. for a honeymoon on Long Island. Soon after they arrive at their beach cottage, a strange woman, Marianna, appears to David, who's immediately entranced. Matheson adeptly explores David's growing fear and guilt, which becomes intensified after he and Marianna make love in a secret room in the house. Although Marianna is portrayed as an "earthbound spirit" (a ghost who rejects the afterlife, appears real to all senses, believes she is alive and, through psychic attack, sucks life from the living) she's really more or less just another succubus, gussied up in Caspar-the-friendly-ghost clothing. With each graphically detailed sexual rendezvous, Marianna pushes David to deeper levels of obsession, loss of will and irrationality. When the evil ghost threatens Ellen, however, he comes to his senses just in time for a literally cliff-hanging ending. Though the author injects some excellent suspense into this tale, he also veers into unabashed bathos and outright titillation; anyone who's been waiting for a new--or even revised--Matheson on the level of I Am Legend or The Shrinking Man will have to keep marking time.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Matheson, master of both horror and suspense, here gives us a picture of a man obsessed, then possessed, by the ghost of Marianna, a beautiful, depraved woman. David and Ellen have come to a cottage on the East Coast near their honeymoon cottage (since destroyed), trying to restore their marriage. Inside the cottage both feel preternaturally cold and enervated. When Marianna appears and thrusts herself on David, he makes no attempt to resist. When he is told by Marianna's sister what is going on, he at first refuses to believe it. When he does believe and tries to escape, Marianna takes over Ellen's body, and only desperate measures can save the couple. While the first half of this book is not entirely convincing, the second half is incredibly powerful. This belongs in any horror fiction collection.
Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
