Echo of a Curse
R. R. Ryan

R. R. Ryan’s birthday was a few days ago, and I said in that post that I would read Echo of a Curse and review it. So here goes. I read the Midnight House edition, which I’ve had for a number of years.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. I ended up liking it very much.

Terry and Mary have grown up next door to each other in a small English town and are best friends. Terry wants things to be more than friends. He’s about to head off to fight in WWI. Just as he’s about to leave, he decides to ask Mary to marry him but changes his mind. He knows he might not be coming back and doesn’t feel it is fair to her to make such a commitment under those circumstances.

This is a decision he will regret.

During the war a soldier named Vincent, known as Vin, comes under his command. They are injured in the same battle and find themselves in adjacent hospital beds. Terry invites Vin to accompany him home on leave. Vin meets Mary, and she falls for him immediately. After a whirlwind courtship, they are married. Terry has been permanently sent to the friend zone.

But Vin isn’t who he pretends to be. Turns out he’s done time for, among other crimes, rape. He quickly begins to brutalize Mary. This part of the book is not for the squeamish. Vin is a true sadist when he’s drunk. Terry has to intervene.

He tries to convince Mary to divorce Vin, but she’s pregnant. She doesn’t want to deal with the scandal. She and Vin begin to live as housemates but not spouses.

Mary goes to a fair and sees a sideshow attraction that’s billed as part man and part beast. The creature escapes and begins a reign of terror. Vin tells Mary this thing is his father. During a violent storm, while she and Vin are having a fight, Mary curses the child in her womb, wishing it to be a monster.

I’m going to stop here. There is a plot twist involving the pregnancy and the curse.

This book is divided into two parts. The second takes place years later, when the result of the pregnancy is grown. There are hints of the supernatural int he first part of the book, but the second is where the supernatural really takes hold.

The first few chapters read like one of the upper middle class romances of manners that were popular in the 1920s and 30s. Or at least how I imagine one would read. I’ve never actually read one. Echo of a Curse was published in 1939.

Vin is by far the most interesting character, especially int eh second part of the book. He grows and changes more than any other. And what he does in the final chapter…

I can see why Karl Edward Wagner included this novel in his list of best horror novels.

One final note. Karl Edward Wagner and Ramsey Campbell both thought Ryan was a woman. There’s even a picture of a woman as the author in the front of the Midnight House edition. It appears Ryan was actually a man named Evelyn Bradley, who was a theatrical manager. He committed suicide in 1930.