Old House of Fear - Softcover

"The New York Times" "Thrillingly executed. . . A grandly satisfactory tale of vivid adventure."John J. Miller in"National Review" "Kirk deserves a place alongside the classic authors of supernatural fiction, such as Algernon Blackwood, H. P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, and Edgar Allan Poe.""Saturday Review" "Offers wild excitement, sadistic violence. An unblushing Gothic tale.""New York Herald Tribune" "Rich in atmosphere, keen in its careful anticipation of large excitements, and boasting a formidable villain. . . A singularly beguiling book.""Chicago Sunday Times" "Outstanding. . ."Old House of Fear"unfolds, majestically and rhythmically, a story of adventure, romance, and suspense.""

Attorney Hugh Logan leaves Canada for Scotland to negotiate the purchase of Carnglass Island and the castle Old House of Fear for his employer, Duncan MacAskival. Logan is continually thwarted and threatened on his journey. But no matter how bad his travels, his arrival onto the island brings much worse trouble. Carnglass is under the control of evil genius Dr. Edmund Jackman, a Soviet-educated political revolutionary convinced that Logan is a spy who must die. Will Jackman's plot be thwarted? Will Logan be able to rescue the lovely niece of the noble owner of Old House? Will anyone get off the island alive? Debuting in the 1960s, Old House of Fear was Russell Kirk's most popular book, selling more than all his other books combined. Yet this Gothic tale is more than just a fascinating work of fiction. As in all of Kirk's stories, a deeper meaning emerges -- in this case, a satirization of Marxism and liberalism -- demonstrating the acute sense of the moral that sets Kirk apart from other genre writers.