Belladonna - Hardcover

Stewart, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002233878 ISBN 13: 9780002233873

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1992

Synopsis

While renovating an historic house in Charlottesville, Virginia, Matthew Cavewood, working on a biography of seventeenth-century physicist Nathaniel Shawcrosse, becomes increasingly obsessed with his project after he encounters the ghost of Shawcrosse's mistress

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

From the title-pun--about a beautiful but deadly heroine--on: an intelligent, literate occult thriller that suffers from the melodramatic excess typical of Stewart's previous chillers (Grace, 1989, etc.). One night, while studying at Oxford in the 1970's, budding American historian Matthew Cavewood is visited and seduced by a mysterious young woman clad in garb typical of the 16th century-- the era of Matthew's specialty, genius alchemist Nathaniel Shawcrosse. The woman vanishes that night, but her memory haunts Matthew for the next 15 years; and so he's shocked when, in the house that he's bought near the Univ. of Virginia for his fianc‚e, Hazel, and her son, he detects the perfume that graced the woman that memorable night. Matthew's shock grows when, at the school- -where he's writing a biography of Shawcrosse--he sees a portrait of his mystery woman, whom he learns was Isabel Hardment, Shawcrosse's lover. Now obsessed with Isabel--and following in the footsteps of Shawcrosse, whose life's work evidently proved the reality of reincarnation--Matthew begins to use ancient, herbal drugs to try to contact Isabel. His erratic behavior frightens Hazel; but real trouble starts only after Isabel responds to Matthew's call and causes the fatal car crash of one of her descendants, whose body she invades and refashions into her own. The deliciously malicious Isabel then seduces Matthew in a torrid affair marked by arcane rituals and scorching sex; but when Hazel finds out, Matthew is forced to choose--and he chooses Hazel, setting the enraged Isabel, rejected similarly by Shawcrosse 300 years before, on a violent vendetta that threatens to engulf Hazel and son, Matthew, and herself. The multiclimax finale to this entertaining but oh-so- breathless tale features poison, a slashing, a hanging, incantations, and a breaching of the ``Gate'' that separates mind and matter. Stewart, a generally talented writer, just doesn't know when to quit. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

The restless spirit of Isabel Hardiment, daughter of a 17th-century Oxford dean, materializes for a Fatal Attraction -type love affair with 20th-century American academic Matthew Cavewood in this high-powered thriller from the British author of Monkey Shines. "Astonishingly beautiful" Isabel was hung for murdering the wife of her lover, Nathaniel Shawcrosse--a renowned colleague of Newton's and Boyle's whose experiments in alchemy were based on metaphysical speculation. Matthew's publications on Shawcrosse have garnered him international acclaim and a funded research lab at the University of Virginia. Settling into an old farmhouse with his photographer financee, Hazel, and her young son, Matthew throws himself into Shawcrosse's studies of a drug-induced bridge between mind and matter. His obsession is strong enough to summon the spirit of Isabel, who takes over the body of Josie McDowell, a car accident victim, and starts a wildly erotic, drug-enflamed relationship with Matthew in the belief that he is Nathaniel. Confronted by Hazel, Matthew decides to cut "Josie" loose and awakens a rage that, having smoldered for centuries, now focuses on revenge. Hazel deals stoically with Matthew's loose grip on reality, while Matthew himself struggles to protect his loved ones from menace. Stewart maintains the suspense throughout this highly readable tale, and his settings ring true despite a few jarring Britishisms on the lips of his American characters. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0002233878
• ISBN 13: 9780002233873
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 367