T
he Etruscan Smile by Velda Johnston ~ 1977. This edition: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1977. Hardcover. 181 pages.
My rating: 6/10
I had read several of Velda Johnston’s mildly thrilling and sometimes simplistic “novels of suspense” before, so had tempered my expectations for The Etruscan Smile accordingly.
1975’s A Room with Dark Mirrors generally pleased me; the period detail of the heroine’s stewardess career and the doesn’t-miss-a-beat flow of the story kept me engaged enough to award it a thumbs-up and a 5.5 rating.
The Girl on the Beach, 1987, felt rather more awkward in plot and style; the author was a quite venerable 75 years old when it was published, and I theorized that perhaps she feeling rather tired of the whole writing-a-book thing. I panned the Beach Girl badly, mentioned that I was almost ready to cross Velda Johnston off my “light reading” list, and gave her a dismissive rating of 4.
Two years have passed, and the memory of my disappointing second encounter with the author has faded; enough so that when I came across this novel recently I was moved to give her another chance. And I am happy that I did; The Etruscan Smile was nicely done for its sort of thing, and reading it was no hardship at all.
A perfect sort of book for a waiting room sojourn; engaging but not challenging. It rocketed right along, and handed me a few surprises in the way of plotting that I wasn’t expecting, though I’m not quite sure that these worked out story-wise all that well. I did give the writer points for creativity; I could tell where she was going and the big picture she was attempting to embroider, even if she dropped her threads a bit here and there.
Mary Stewart this soundly second-rank writer isn’t, though there are bits here and there which remind me favourably of Stewart’s style. Our heroine is nicely independent and capable; but she does end up in the arms of a man, and one that she hasn’t known terribly long or particularly well – a favourite Mary Stewart closing scenario. Those brushes with death do tend to speed along romantic acquaintanceship, is all I can assume.
And I found this much more readable than anything I’ve experienced by Phyllis A. Whitney (see my last post, wherein I hand poor Phyllis her walking papers out of my personal book collection), though Velda Johnston was nowhere near as prolific or (apparently) as popular. Still, she (Velda) did manage to produce something like 35 romantic suspense novels, and so far out of the three I’ve read two have been acceptable; she’s now back on my list of promising minor writers, though I won’t be searching her out specially or paying more than bargain basement prices for any more of her books that I come across in my travels.
So – the actual storyline of The Etruscan Smile. Here it is, such as it is.
Samantha Develin has flown to Italy from New York, accompanied by her devoted German Shepherd, Caesar. Samantha has just learned that her older sister, Althea, an accomplished artist who has gained a certain reputation as a painter-to-watch, has unaccountably vanished from the small rented farmhouse she has been living in for the past several years. No one seems to know where Althea has gone; the assumption is that she is off with a man; but Samantha immediately finds some clues that her beloved sister may not have planned her departure in a typical fashion.
A dashing Italian count – an old flame of Althea’s – appears out of the blue and puts himself rather unexpectedly at Samantha’s service. Another of Althea’s ex-lovers, an English archeologist, living close by, makes himself conspicuous by his continued presence, zipping in silently on his bicycle at the oddest hours of day and night.
These two men in particular and, to a lesser degree, everyone else she questions regarding Althea’s recent activities are rather cagy and evasive; everyone obviously knows something that they’re not divulging to Althea’s little sister. But what?
Samantha persists in her quest to track down her sister, and she soon comes to sense that perhaps something rather final has happened to Althea, though there is no evidence to support an act of violence or misadventure. Samantha must revisit her own past to unravel the tangled web which her sister had become bound up in; what she discovers is more bizarre than she (or we) could ever have imagined…
A hidden statue of an ancient Etruscan goddess plays an important role in the quest for Althea and the climactic scene; kudos to the author for not doing the expected with that particular clichéd suspense novel scenario. And kudos as well for not making everything all sunshine and light and picturesque Italian travelogue; there are some darkish situations in this short novel which add a certain depth to what could have been pure fluff. And the dog was a nice touch, and well portrayed. (Total super-dog; too good to be true, really. Hint: one may require a Kleenex near the end.)
An adequately engaging story to while away an hour or two on a summer afternoon; a long lunch hour today was sufficient to polish this one off. I must confess that the strongest impulse I felt upon completion was to revisit one of Mary Stewart’s Greek novels, to enjoy the next level up in this particular cozy-escape-lit genre.
Read a lot of Velda Johnson when I was a teenager! Thanks for the blast from the past!
She’s just this side of the acceptable line. Occasionally I cringed when I read this last one – she bobbled here and there – but more often I read along happily. Good summer reading; I would also have devoured these as a teen, if I had come across them. Rather odd that I didn’t, but I have no recollection of ever having seen one until just a few years ago. Memorable name, too – hard to forget that “Velda”! 🙂
I just started reading your blog a few weeks ago and I am loving your reviews and your taste in mid-20th-century romance novels! Have you ever read any of Mary Elgin’s books? (sadly, there are only three, she died young in the 60s) I think you’d like her work.
Thank you for the kind words, Susan. 🙂
Something about summer seems to lead me to the lighter fiction on the shelves; old favourites to re-read and new discoveries to be (hopefully!) enjoyed. Perhaps it’s the holiday mood of summer (even if one isn’t actually on holiday) or just the reduced time available for reading what with the long days and so much to do outside which makes a short, fast-paced, not too emotionally deep book so perfect. Though the long lunch allowing reading time is also a luxury of this time of year, and those afternoon breaks when the sun is just too hot to work in…I’m not exactly suffering for lack of reading time if one adds it all together!
I have never read anything by Mary Elgin. You intrigue me; I am about to see what I can discover about her.
Still… Italy, antiquities, a bit Mary Stewart-ish. You’re not doing a good enough job of putting me off. If the dog was a cat… I’d never heard of her, so there’s also the curiousity factor!
She’s rather obscure now, though I think popular enough in a low-key way in her own time. This is very mild fiction, indeed. But there is a certain competence and creativity in Velda Johnston’s writing – at least in the two I read that I liked – that has me interested. Mary Stewart “lite”! 😉
Like Peggy, I read her a lot as a teenager and early 20ish woman. I always enjoyed them. Not fantastic, but reliably entertaining.
I’d nearly forgotten her
Yes, reliably entertaining might well describe this writer. I would cheerfully sample more of her books. Good light reading, for those times when one doesn’t want to engage too deeply!