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The Little Wax Doll Norah Lofts 9780552087827 Books

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The Little Wax Doll Norah Lofts 9780552087827 Books

Old-fashioned (by modern standards) suspense that builds slowly and surely. Another reviewer has compared this to the Hammer films, and I would agree. You don't need chain-saws and gore spatters to create horror. You need imagination and a steady build of anticipation. I love the protagonist, who is not young, not helpless, and not typical. Her intelligence and powers of observation are refreshing in a female suspense heroine. And every time she's in danger, I find little prickles of alarm running up the back of my neck. Beautifully written by a master of her craft.


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The Little Wax Doll Norah Lofts 9780552087827 Books Reviews

I'm a big fan of Norah Lofts, and picked this up eons ago; it was written eons before that, in 1960, and it shows. The rather lurid cover features a tall person wearing a strange headdress, a stained glass window, a naked blonde partially covered by a red robe, and also bears the legend "A Novel of Modern Witchcraft."

After a fairly slow beginning laden with description and backstory (but we know things won't stay idyllic because of the cover), it becomes a real page-turner.

Miss Deborah Mayfield, the new school headmistress, is learning that bad things are happening in the seemingly perfect little village of Walwyk. Things that might be tied to the doing of saintly-looking granny Ethel Rigby.

I love the way that Miss Mayfield is s super-unconventional heroine. She's in her mid-forties, single, and though there are hints of romantic interests here and there, this is NOT a romance. She has to use her wits and intelligence without the help of a male ally - even after a sharp blow to her head has robbed her of her most recent memories - to try to save her own life, and that of an innocent victim.

Miss Mayfield - having once suffered a "nervous breakdown" and amnesia, is in occasional doubt of her own mind, and the bad guys and good guys aren't always who you think. It's exciting, and there's even an extra twist at the end.

Problematic is the use of the terms witch and witchcraft to describe the evil goings-on, and conflating witchcraft with Devil worship. Having come to know people who actually practice "modern witchcraft," and knowing that their creed is "first, do no harm," the idea that "witches" would be involved in deliberately inflicting mental and bodily harm on others and committing murder and rape is as offensive as would be a novel centered around the sacrifice of infants by Jews, or cannibalism as a religious ritual by Catholics. Sure, if you can ignore those elements it's a great read, but CAN you?
This review is from The Devils Own (Paperback)

This one has it all - middle aged spinster with no family, secluded English village with mysterious goings on and eccentric inhabitants, children in peril, devil-worshippers. If you enjoy a well-written suspense/horror heavy on the suspense and implied horror, or are a fan of the old Hammer horror movies of the sixties, this is the book for you. Written by Norah Lofts under her suspense nom-de-plume of Peter Curtis, and also published as The Witches and Little Wax Doll.

This book was actually made into a Hammer horror movie in 1966, starring the fabulous Joan Fontaine as the lady who begins to suspect that something is 'not quite right' in the village where she goes to become a school teacher. Highly recommended.
Old-fashioned (by modern standards) suspense that builds slowly and surely. Another reviewer has compared this to the Hammer films, and I would agree. You don't need chain-saws and gore spatters to create horror. You need imagination and a steady build of anticipation. I love the protagonist, who is not young, not helpless, and not typical. Her intelligence and powers of observation are refreshing in a female suspense heroine. And every time she's in danger, I find little prickles of alarm running up the back of my neck. Beautifully written by a master of her craft.