The Inheritor by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Title:  The Inheritor
Author:  Marion Zimmer Bradley
Pages:  414
Genre:  Thriller / Horror
Publisher:  Severn House, 1984
Series:  Claire Moffatt, Book 2

Synopsis:  Leslie Barnes has just bought her first home, overlooking San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. It seems the perfect place for Leslie and her sister, a brilliant young musician....but as soon as they move in, a plague of dark events begins, unsettling both women. To her horror, Leslie realizes that she is living in a vortex of magical power. She must become the guardian of that power and protect it from those who seek to use it for evil. Trained as a psychologist, Leslie is in over her head when dealing with the occult -- until she meets Claire Moffatt, a charming medium, and Claire's mentor, Colin MacLaren, world-famous psychic investigator. Together they stand against evil and enable Leslie to claim her full inheritance.

Review:  This book dealt with everything from fake mediums to human sacrifice.  It had moments of terror but it also had a great deal of psycho-babble in it.  I realize that the main character, Leslie, is a psychologist, but it seemed that everything had to be explained with very detailed reasoning that you might expect to find in a psychology course.

This book is set in the early 1970's, just like the last one, but still seems like it's the 1950's.  I know that women were treated differently not all that long ago, but certainly not to this degree in the early 1970's.  Or at least I would hope not.  Either way, it just is very old-fashioned feeling, especially the interactions between men and women.

There's one book left in this series and it's short.  I haven't hated the first two and liked this one a little better than the last.  It's unfortunate though that I knew fairly early on who was responsible for all the dark events happening to Leslie.  I really want to try to finish this series.  It's been sitting on my shelves far too long for me to give up on them now.  This is not one of the better works by this author.  I am reminding myself that Ms. Bradley is really at her best with historical novels and this isn't one of those.

Rating:  5 / 10