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The Wakefield Witches, by Daoma Winston (1975). Cover illustration by Harry Bennett

#Harry Bennett #art #illustration #book cover #gothic

Jill Tattersall - The Witches fo All Saints - Fawcett - 1976 (cover illustration by Harry Bennett)

#witches #all saints #occult #vintage #the witches of all saints #halloween #fawcett books #novel #gothic novel #jill tattersall #harry bennett #gothic #suspense #1976

November 29, 1958 - Family and friends of Edward M. Kennedy and Joan Bennett gather outside the Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, New York, to bid farewell to the couple as they depart their wedding reception. Left to right: unidentified man; Sargent Shriver; bridesmaid, Danne Brokaw; cousin to the Kennedy children, Ann Gargan; unidentified man; best man, John F. Kennedy; unidentified woman; unidentified man; Patricia Kennedy Lawford; Stephen E. Smith; bridesmaid, Jean Kennedy Smith; Eunice Kennedy Shriver; maid of honor, Candace Bennett; and Harry W. Bennett, Jr, father of the bride.

Steamy Saturday

". . . she was a pretty notorious playgirl . . ."

". . . she posed for some rather startling photographs . . ."

". . . she was . . . involved in a hit-and-run accident."

"You wouldn't want to retain someone like that on your nursing staff . . . ."

". . . scandal had all but ruined her life. . . ."

". . . was it now going to terminate her career?"

Oh, the salacious nature of it all! But, as it turns out, the actual situation isn't as lurid as the cover copy and image suggest. Still, when we first meet Nurse Geraldine "Gerry" Addams in The Dilemma of Geraldine Addams by Diane Frazer, published in New York by Pocket Books in 1965, she is serving cocktails to children in the pediatric ward -- a Martini, a Gin Fizz, an Old-fashioned, and not just a Bloody Mary, but "a bloody, bloody Mary." Of course, it's just a game to induce her young patients to take their medicine, but as another nurse, the aptly-named Polly Sauerwein, observes, "I can't think Dr. Walton would approve. . . ."

Nurse Gerry is the scion of a toney family, the daughter of a globe-trotting diplomat, and prior to going to nursing school she had led a jet-set life. But she grew tired of her juvenile, irresponsible lifestyle, and wanting to do something useful with her life, she became a nurse and retreated to this small-town Maryland hospital. But reports of her former wayward life eventually leak out. Rumors begin to fly and an unscrupulous journalist begins to blackmail her. When blackmail fails, the journalist spills the beans to a trustee of the hospital. Fortunately, the hospital director knows the reports are way overblown, but things could get dicey with the trustees -- and with the small town's insular community.

Her champion in all this is the handsome and competent (and married) Dr. Paul Massey. But Dr. Massey's wife is a lush and their marriage is on the rocks, and of course more rumors begin to fly about an unseemly relationship between nurse and doctor, egged on by nurse Sauerwein. This doesn't mean, however, that nurse Gerry doesn't have the hots for Dr. Massey, or he for her. Good thing, then, that Mrs. Massey dies in a drunk driving accident. Phew! And everyone lives happily ever after.

Diane Frazer is the pseudonym for Dorothy Fletcher who published numerous nurse romances under her pen name. We couldn’t find out much about Fletcher, but we do know that the cover art is by Harry Bennett (1919-2012), a prolific cover illustrator, especially for romance novels, designing over 1,000 book covers in his career, including the first paperback edition of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather.

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