The Tallow Image

Gothic hysteria proves no substitute for atmosphere and plot in this supernatural potboiler. Rebecca Norman, transported in 1860 to an Australian penal colony for being a witch, takes a fancy to prison guard Ralph Ryan. Just before she's executed, Rebecca gives Ryan one of two dolls she has fashioned from candle wax; the apparently indestructible dolls carry a curse that plagues Ryan's family for the next century. Brindle (a pseudonym) never explains why Rebecca doesn't use her formidable occult powers to escape her fate, or why she bothers ruining the life of the least of her tormentors. Instead, from this setup the author constructs a contemporary soap opera that begins when Ryan's descendant Matt Slater travels Down Under in search of his roots with his new bride, Cathy, who miraculously finds the second wax doll secreted in Rebecca's former cell. Possessed by Rebecca's spirit, which sometimes talks to her in charged italicized passages, Cathy sets about bringing misery into the lives of Matt, his long-lost great-aunt and a cast of supporting characters who exist primarily to be killed off. The novel's coincidences are almost as rampant as its turgid prose, which features phrases like ``unspeakable evil'' and ``in her heart she knew the darkest evil.'' Although it aspires to be a serious tale of the supernatural, this novel never rises above the level of a Dark Shadows teleplay. (Aug.)