Esme Porcher marries her brother-in-law Bill a mere two months after the death of his former wife and her sister, Joanna. The first time the couple met was at the funeral. Bill’s controlling and manipulative behavior is apparent almost the instant the wedding ceremony is over. At the picturesque property in which they set up home, Joanna is shocked to find Amanda, Bill’s secretary, who is immediately antagonistic to her and seems to mistake her for her deceased sister. As Esme starts to question her new husband’s true intentions, she begins to suffer from the same mystery illness that proved fatal to her sister. Soon the walls of the property begin to whisper to her in the voice of Joanna. Is this a ghost, or is it Esme’s inner voice raising the alarm at what may be about to befall the naive young bride?
Jacqueline Garcia’s debut novel, DECAY OF SORROW, is an old-school Gothic romance. Doomed love. A house full of secrets. A wicked, if handsome, villain. The hint of a haunting. There’s a touch of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca in the set-up, though Garcia twists the plot around using the very modern set-up of a therapy session as a framing device. That said, the story, for all the surprises Garcia tries to bring to the table, is quite linear and predictable. Bill’s disguise of his true plan is paper thin, and readers may find Esme’s naivete rather difficult to buy into. This isn’t to suggest that stories of gaslighting and coercive behavior of the type that’s detailed here can’t happen—just that Garcia’s portrayal of her male lead never quite convinces that he could be charismatic enough to attempt his same wicked trick twice. His unraveling, when Esme finds the strength to fight back, is enjoyable within the confines of this rather ripe novel—even if it remains unconvincing.
Like many first-time novelists, Garcia’s style, while perhaps fitting for the genre, has a tendency to be rather florid. Heavy on adjectives, and sometimes a little cumbersome. Mostly, though, it remains engaging and easy to follow. On occasion she delivers some neat similes that elevate the prose. Esme’s dreams drift “like a ship sailing through a fog-laden ocean,” and a dirt road winds through trees “like a whip in mid-flick.”
An engaging debut, Jacqueline Garcia’s DECAY OF SORROW is a short novel that fans of Gothic romance should enjoy. Though never especially credible in terms of its plot, it works as a reminder of the kind of feverish stories of murder and betrayal beloved by the directors of classic film noir.
~Kent Lane for IndieReader