Yes, The Golden Unicorn

My first book of 2007 is The Golden Unicorn by Phyllis A. Whitney. Yes, The Golden Unicorn cover includes an image of a woman clinging to a man with a her long flowing locks melding into the mane of a unicorn in the background. The cover lists it as a "romantic spellbinder." It completely lives up to its cover.

Sunflower Spinner (one of the great things of having a blog is coming up with names for those of you who might read it. I'll not entirely satisfied with that one, but it does at least alliterate with Sparkling Squirrel) gave me this "vintage" 1972 paperback for pure escapism. I escaped. It's a dreary day here in West Virginia and I am not yet prepared to prepare zoology lectures (or do the laundry for that matter). I read The Golden Unicorn pretty much straight through.

What I would like to emulate: I was surprised that the book was a suspenseful as it was. I kept changing my idea of who were the real parents and who was the murder (and for a time, even who was the love interest ) and I kept turning the page. As a writer who has never successfully plotted anything, I was impressed.
What I would not want to emulate: Whitney has never heard the "show don't tell" creative writing mantra, or thinks her audience needs to be told or just found it easier to tell. In any case, I read, over and over again, exactly what the main character was feeling and about what bad things were about to happen, if only she knew.
Who would I recommend this for: I would highly recommend this for those very rare days when you make the time to just read until the book is done and you don't really care that you were pulled into the world of intrigue on Long Island in a not very good book; which I believes means not much of anybody, but I'll probably give it to one of you one of these times. It's not, by the way, a bodice-ripper, and includes no sex.

SPOILER
Sunflower Spinner and Starship Scribbler (her mister) and I speculated about the possibilities of endings for this orphan running into her past and her mother's murderer via a gold unicorn chain. So here's how it goes down: Courtney (C, heroine) turns up to interview an artist and her family in hopes that they are her family. She finds that her mother (A) died right before she was put up for adoption and everyone was told that she was swept out to sea. Her father (J), his brother (H), H's wife (M, the artist) and H + M's daughter (S) all live together and her mother's sister (N) lives close by. S tries to kill C. S hates M + H. J and M had an affair before S and C were born. S and C look alike, but not like M. S dies. Nobody tries to figure out who did it. J admits he did, along with killing A 25 years before and tries to kill C. The butler (who along with his wife and ex wife, play major roles) ends up saving C (J may be swept out to sea, nobody seems to care). It turns out that N (who was the suggested murder all along) was C's mother all along, and that her father was H, who may not have any idea that he fathered a child other than S. S's husband becomes C's love interest. Wow! You really don't need to read it now.