Rachel Ruth Cosgrove Payes (1922–1998)

I'm not saying it's a bad story, just that it could have been better, it had potential it didn't live up to. Teenage Mellie Wilton, part of the the French Court scene in the 18thc, ends up forced to leave her home, excepts the "kindness" of the wrong person and winds up working in a brothel, is bought by Lord Henning as a bride for his homosexual son, Jaimie, in the hopes that she'll have the sex skills to make a proper man out of him and produce an heir, but Jaimie's too enamored with his current boyfriend to want to make the attempt. (A few tries prove ineffective.) To make matters worse, Mellie's fallen for Lord Henning, despite the age difference and wants to be his wife, not his daughter-in-law.

Lord Henning (his first name escapes me at the moment) is a real dull dud of a H, as when he's not nagging Mellie to keep trying with Jaimie, he's forever lamenting that his first wife hated sleeping with him, left him, took their son, and turned Jaimie into what he is. (This was either a reflection on what was thought at the time or else the author didn't know her facts, because being raised by a domineering mother, especially a man hating one, doesn't make a son gay. It may make him a beta male, but not a gay one.) He even cries about this and later, when he discovers Jaimie's not his son, he cries again! Then he gets drunk, sleeps with Mellie, and doesn't remember, so when she discovers she's pregnant, he thinks it's either Jaimie's or some other guy's.

From there it's a lot of repetition: "It's not my baby", "It is your baby", "It is not", "It is too", on an on, and ENOUGH! He's finally convinced, but by then who cares anymore?

The same with a plot to kill him, in which Jaimie and his birth father are involved, Mellie discovers this and pretends to go along in order to get evidence against them. When it's over and his un-son and bio dad are both dead, dumb dumb Lord Henning thinks Mellie was in on the plot and again it starts: "You wanted me dead," "I didn't", "You did".....

The best part of this book was when Mellie gets revenge on the man who raped her in the brothel (her first customer) and later tries to threaten her into becoming his mistress. She sends one of her brothel friends to meet him in disguise and he has sex with her, thinking it's Mellie, and discovers not only the truth, but also that the girl has an STD, commonly known back then as the pox! The guy sure deserved it, though today she'd be in real trouble, as he could also charge both women with rape! Times sure have changed!

Yes, there's a HEA, but for this H and h, who gives a....… (més)

Fun Short novel by E. L. Arch.
The authors real name is Rachel Cosgrove Payes. She wrote in many genres under various names. In the 1960s she wrote several SF novels under the name E. L. Arch. These books were only published once and in hardback. If you find one now it will likely be from a library. This one was included in a collection of, classic, short SF novels, as an audio book by BLackstone Audio.

I found the story quite fun and interesting. It is mystery based on "who is the strange one among us and why are some of us being killed". It will not win awards but I enjoyed it. I'll be looking for more of her, hard to find, books.… (més)