I don’t know where I came up with this one – I suspect I was assigned to clean out the bargain bins and mark down and dispose of the remainders that hadn’t sold, and snagged this gem instead of tossing it. The packaging clearly didn’t help – although that’s Gorey on the cover, the dull beige background and uninspiring red font wouldn’t appeal to customers at the time.

This is a darkly gothic novel, starting with a nuclear scientist who has inherited a family mansion in the middle of nowhere, dark and gloomy. He is also dark and gloomy, his body as twisted as his soul, and suffering from a bad case of IBS. Sulking about, he discovers the journal of a 15-year old girl from generations ago. Like a young horse, she had a fiery spirit and, also like a young horse, she could lie to you, lure you into trusting you, and then bite you or throw you off.

Her journal reveals that she has fallen in with a bad gang: a dashing nobleman gone bad; a frighteningly huge brute; and a farmer who is not in it for a profession but to support his family, which includes a girl her age. She has something they want and won’t tell them where it is, with the suspicion that they will kill her when they have the information. Her journal tells the story of the nobleman grooming her, winning her love, and then…

The book cuts back and forth: between the scientist’s struggles with himself and his moods, his sense that the house – that he – are haunted by the girl’s spirit, that she is speaking to him; and the girl’s story, told in her voice.

Delightfully illustrated by Edward Gorey, darkly humorous, and yet spine-tingling. You like the girl in spite of her selfishness; you fall in love with the noble highwayman although you know, as she does, that he is only for himself; you hope the nuclear scientist will turn the corner, find a sunbeam to marvel over. It’s a real page-turner.

Just remember: sometimes when people tell you who they are, you should believe them, even though you want to believe there’s someone worth voting for saving inside. If they tell you they’re going to do something bad – as the evil aristocrat does tells the girl in this book – you should believe them.

Also published under the title Pippin’s Journal or Rosemary is for Remembrance, you may find it hard to get ahold of this one now. If you see it, pick it up – it’s worth the effort.