Phantom of the 13th Floor by Marilyn Ross

Gothic romances as mentioned in an earlier post enjoyed a long heyday in the '60s and '70s, perhaps fueled in longevity by symbiotic success of Dark Shadows, TV's Gothic soap which began in 1966 and continued until 1971.

Perhaps appropriately, a long series of Dark Shadows paperback tie-ins were released under the pen name Marylin Ross, actually William Edward Daniel or W.E.D. Ross (1912-1995).

Ross also penned a long string of stand-alone gothics under Marylin and a variety of other pseudonyms including tales from perhaps the twilight of the gothic era.

Phantom of the 13th Floor would seem to be from that later edge of the era, released four years after Dark Shadows' cancellation.

It's an engaging little tale set around Christmastime and New Year's in midtown Manhattan and stretches the boundaries of the gothic. It might be called romantic suspense these days. It eschews the usual old dark houses, though there is the ominous Midtown Hotel Brant, modeled on the Drake Hotel.

The heroine's a young Broadway actress who's a bit naive. Joan Crane is the granddaughter of actress Molly Miller who headlined "Me and Molly" in 1928 until her death in a fall during a party at the Brant. Joan's starring in a mid-'70s revival with much of the same production team and living in an apartment across the street from the historic hotel.

She's dating choreographer Rex Grayston, a generically perfect romantic lead, has a cabbie named Archie on retainer, and is surrounded by a circle that includes some familiar with her grandmother or at least the theater community.

A written invitation from Rex lures Joan to a party at the Brant on a rainy December night after a show, and there she encounters a turban-wearing mystic who soon has her in a trance that will quickly be followed by blackouts that coincide with murders. All of the victims have some tie to Joan's grandmother or others involved with the show including the gentlemanly producer of both original and revival.

As Joan becomes a murder suspect, Rex is drawn away to tweak the dances on a show in another city leaving her to fend on her own, and a possibly ghostly or possibly criminal series of events unfolds as Christmas approaches.

Ross tosses several red herrings into the mix, teases a bit of a romantic rival in the police detective investigating the murders and keeps the supernatural viable for much of the tale. Is the ghost of Molly Miller possessing Joan to kill off old rivals? Is the Vaudeville mentalist who once loved Molly really dead or pulling Joan's strings in a twisted act of revenge?

Despite the twists the tale remains a thriller and not a true mystery. The theater world feels just a tad generic. The sense that the novel was penned for a target audience is always there, as is the case with most tales of a type, I suppose. There's also a sense that this is a bit of a soap-on-paper, more in the realm of The Edge of Night if not Dark Shadows. 

None of that's to say it's not a fun, creepy and engaging page-turner with a real atmosphere of a grim and cold winter city as backdrop.

Gothics, especially those by prolific masters like Ross, shouldn't be lost to time. The serve up interesting thrills and chills.