Sheila Miller's newborn baby is gone. His death certificate is stamped SIDS, but Sheila knows her Timmy did not die in his crib from natural causes - he was taken. But no one believes Sheila's tale of standing helpless while a mysterious veiled woman hovered over the crib. Karl, Sheila's rigid, insensitive husband, openly scoffs at the supernatural and is convinced Sheila is emotionally ill. Her Aunt Iris - a sensual, counter-culture writer and a continuum of the sixties who loves her niece dearly - can't accept the story even though she wishes with all her heart she could. At least Iris is a positive, supportive force in Sheila's life and gives her a needed refuge in her mountain cabin. But as a series of bizarre incidents destroy innocent people linked to Sheila, those closest to her - including Chad Olsen, a student of Eastern philosophy to whom Sheila is inexplicably drawn - listen when a Chinese legend historian reveals a terrifying story involving a white jade amulet and a ferocious fox-maiden, an entity determined to destroy Sheila.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
an enthralling and entertaining dark fantasy,
This review is from: Dark Maiden (Paperback)
Everyone says that Sheila Miller's son Timmy died of SIDS but she knows an Asian woman sucked the soul out of her infant. Her husband Karl believes she hallucinated seeing an Asian woman as a means of projecting her feelings of guilt onto someone else; and had her hospitalized for three months. When she gets out they move to Auburn to be near her Aunt Iris. When she arrives there she meets Chad Olson and they both have immediate feelings for one another as if they knew one another in a previous life. Sheila starts hallucinating about a Chinese massacre that happened near the mine on the property. Chad is obsessed about opening up the mine and digging for artifacts. Sheila begins to hear sound and seen Asian woman and she starts blacking out. She doesn't remember what she did but those around her got hurt or killed. Chad sees a giant fox following Sheila around but she thinks he is seeing things. Sheila's psychiatrist from the hospital contacts the Wus and shows them a drawing she made while in the hospital. The elder Wu has an identical amulet and tells thr doctor that Sheila's condition is explained by a supernatural being and if it is not stopped, Sheila will cease to exist DARK MAIDEN is an enthralling and entertaining dark fantasy that will bewitch readers with its hypnotic storyline. Readers will empathize with Sheila who has to cope with the loss of a child and supernatural attacks. Norma Lehr is a talented writer who somehow makes the events that take place in this tale as believable as her characters who behave in plausible manners. Once the audience learns what motivates each of them it is exciting reading about their encounter with and how they react to the supernatural.. Harriet Klausner
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deliciously dark fantasy,
This review is from: Dark Maiden (Paperback)
Dark Maiden is the kind of story I love -- the kind that raises the hair on the back of my neck. It's not so scary I would call it horror, but it's definitely a dark fantasy. The author moves the story through different points of view, which allows the reader to get into the heads of all the characters -- at least the human ones! Norma begins the story with a bang, and keeps it moving from beginning to end. It's dynamic writing, believable characters, and a premise to keep you wondering!
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Atmospheric but ultimately disappointing mystery,
By
This review is from: Dark Maiden (Paperback)
Sometimes whilst reading Dark Maiden it was hard to keep up with what the author was aiming for. The story follows Sheila Miller whose child died several months ago and has been in a hospital ever since. She insists her child's soul was sucked out by a strange Asian woman but of course no-one believes her. Her husband Karl, who definitely doesn't have much of a bedside manner, arranges for them to move to the country for quiet and rest as Sheila tries to get better. However they appear to have moved to the source of the problems, an old abandoned mine where 100 years ago a massacre took place and a special amulet was hidden. Sheila finds herself attracted to her neighbour, Chad, but fears her grip on reality is lessening as she sees a strange chinese woman, a large fox and has odd moments of obsession about the mine and about her neighbour's child.
The story is told from many different perspectives. We see events from Sheila's eyes but also through her psychotherapist Theo, her husband Karl, her relative Iris, even her husband's mistress. A lot of people die in this story, although several of these deaths don't seem to have much of an impact on the people you think they would affect. Fortunately for Iris and Theo they stumble upon the very chinese man who knows all about the amulets and understands that a fox-maiden is trying to take over Sheila's body because of an ancient curse. The story works towards some sort of a climax where the disparate people who have been dragged into the plot do their best to destroy the fox-maiden. The story was reasonably well written but was overall unsatisfying. Partly because the story was a bit too outlandish in many ways, also because the characterisation was rather thin and people didn't seem to react that normally to significant events. I found some parts of the story felt like they had lazy plotting, such as Mr Huang the Chinese man being found easily, various people being killed off who might have prevented the Happy Ever After ending, and overall I found the fox-maiden device difficult to get into. It was a reasonable read but wasn't anything special. [...]
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