Hugh Zachary - Gwen, in Green

[severance]

Hugh Zachary - Gwen, in Green

Published by Fawcett Gold Medal (M2982) in July 1974.

Cover art by George Ziel.

Hugh Zachary - Gwen, in Green par severance_23, on ipernity

blurb:

To the real estate man, Gwen and George seemed like any normal young couple. And, for that matter, they were ... until they bought their dream island and began to live on it.
For in the cool, clear pool near the house - the one where there had been a tragic drowning so many years before - lay the terrifying secret that had been there for centuries.
Suddenly Gwen found herself with strange new powers - sexual power, telepathic power ... even the power to kill. She heard voices in her mind and she knew what she had to do.
George no longer knew the woman he called his wife, because she was really somebody else ...

[dem bones]

Always did love that cover. There's a later Coronet edition (1976) which Calenture reviewed HERE

[doomovertheworld]

i would like to echo the love for that cover. it is really rather good. definitely superior to this one:



even if it does have the better tag line

"The plants had already taken her over in mind - and body"

[helrunar]

I think James, Keeper of the Treasures, posted a scan of the cover that's a focal point of this very short thread recently. I was interested to know more about the novel.

I've been looking through here to see if there are any existing threads in this section about Ace titles that involve some of our favorite themes, I just read Broomstick in the Hall by "Jane Blackmore" (which I presume is a pseudonym), from 1970... not a very good book but it did have some pages that diverted me when I was in need of diversion. The plot in many ways is similar to Conjure Wife by Maestro Leiber.

H.

[dem bones]

Hugh Zachary - Gwen, in Green (Coronet, 1976: originally Fawcett, 1974)

Jim Burns

Blurb:
Gwen and George seemed like any other young couple planing their ideal home. After several years or marriage his parents‘ death in an aircrash had suddenly made them rich — and able to build the house they had always dreamed of.
The house was beautiful, isolated on its island and ringed with forest. And at first only the distant sound of the bulldozers clearing the forest disturbed their peace. But suddenly Gwen, who all her life had been paralysed by a sense of shame, discovered a new sensuality lurking in her unsuspecting body. And soon even Georges loving attention was not enough. For as the bulldozers tore into the forest near the house Gwen felt the plants' pain rending her own flesh. And there was only one one way to drown the pain.

Eighty pages in and the signs are we may have a were-venus fly-trap novel on our hands.

Possum Creek, Pine Tree Island, Illinois. Inheriting a fortune on his parents' tragic death, George Ferrier buys several acres of marshland near the new nuclear power plant and sets to building a dream house for he and Gwen, college sweetheart and wife of seven years. Gwen, 27, has finally overcome the trauma of being raised by a nymphomaniac mother and now actually enjoys sex where once any thought of such disgusting activity filled her with shame and horror. She has even - more or less - forgiven George his affair with a cheerleader within ten months of their marriage. Men have needs, after all and who wants a frigid spouse? Even so, it is only recently Gwen could sleep without a light on and she still checks beneath the bed nights for .... what?

Gwen is prone to adopt every stray cat, dog and bird that comes into her orbit, though presently she's down to just the two mutts and a mangy ex-tom. She's taken up painting, her subject twisted tree limbs which she invariably paints a deep shade of red.

As George sets to felling tree and bush with axe and chainsaw to create a wide open space to the freshwater stream, Gwen suffers appalling nightmares, recurring theme dismemberment. And then, inexplicably, she ravishes the guy come to read the electricity meter who can't believe his luck. Aghast that "what she's always hated and condemned, she'd become," Gwen takes up George's rifle and is about to blow out her brains when Sam the cat flies at her, clawing aside the shooter and slashing her arm.

Gwen is hospitalised. On her husband's suggestion she agrees to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Irving King, 82, who advises George buy her a new puppy and half a dozen African violets to feed her newly acquired empathy with plant-life. Gwen is particularly taken with the venus fly-trap flourishing in the pool beneath the balcony ...

To be continued

[andydecker]

A lovely cover. One of the rare where the American and the British edition have the same motif but different artists. I like the Burns' more.

[dem bones]

Randy bulldozer drivers Billy Daniels and Jock Peebles are clearing a half mile stretch of woodland to make way for the canal when the killer babe in hot pants entices first one, then the other into the trees to strip off. Only surprise is Gwen doesn't insist on screwing the pair before shooting them dead.

George is having the time of his life. Dream home, fulfilling, well-paid work. Best of all, this new sexually insatiable version of Gwen is such an upgrade on the frump he married! Jeez, she wants it always and all ways. If he were a suspicious man he'd wonder how she makes do for the three days he's away fulfilling professional obligations. A capable electrician, George offers to fix Dr. King's malfunctioning polygraph. Turns out it was only a matter of soldering a wire. As an experiment, George wires the apparatus to one of multiple venus fly-traps Gwen is tending indoors. He achieves startling results. "This is too spooky for me. The bastard reads my mind. It faints when I threaten it. It goes crazy when its hurt."

More deaths among the construction workers. Now fearing the worst, Dr. King consults his case files, draws parallels with an earlier patient and suspected avenging angel on behalf of the vegetable kingdom. Mrs. Evelyn Roger, whose house stood on the same site as the Ferrier place, claimed to share the agony of trees when they were cut, a pain she could only endure by indulging in sex and murder. Mrs. Rogers was killed along with husband and children when their house mysteriously burnt down in 1937. Her charred remains were found in the pool. Within weeks of the tragedy, the rotting corpses of four murdered black loggers were discovered in the wood.

King drives over to Pine Tree Island. With George at his office, Gwen is working her way through a group of twelve to fourteen year old boys on the balcony. He confronts her with his suspicions. An unphased Gwen brazenly admits to following in Evelyn Rogers footsteps, and confides the secret history of the Venus fly-traps from outer space. Once she's through explaining, there can be no further doubt. Plants hate us with good reason.

Jun 2, 2020 10:37:56 GMT andydecker said:

A lovely cover. One of the rare where the American and the British edition have the same motif but different artists. I like the Burns' more.

I prefer the George Ziel, not that it matters. Most important thing is that Gwen, in Green is fully deserving of lovely cover art. A swift 190 pager, no boring bits, and a proper ending.

[Middoth]

[humgoo]

Jun 2, 2020 19:03:35 GMT dem bones said:

Most important thing is that Gwen, in Green is fully deserving of lovely cover art. A swift 190 pager, no boring bits, and a proper ending.

The cover certainly caught my eye when I saw it in Paperbacks from Hell, but I thought it's just another case of "great cover, bad story" and didn't track it down. Now having read your notes, what can I do but to get my hands on it? Big big sigh.

[Middoth]

www.valancourtbooks.com/gwen-in-green-1974.html