Welcome friend! The Devil and Mrs Davenport is a fast-paced psychological thriller with supernatural elements. Told from the perspective of Loretta, a housewife in her late twenties, this book beautifully portrays the complexities of navigating belief, faith, and self-doubt. Take a look at the synopsis:
Paulette Kennedy | Goodreads
The bestselling author of The Witch of Tin Mountain and Parting the Veil mines the subtle horrors of 1950s America in a gripping novel about a woman under pressure—from the living and the dead.
The first day of autumn brought the fever, and with the fever came the voices.
Missouri, 1955. Loretta Davenport has led an isolated life as a young mother and a wife to Pete, an ambitious assistant professor at a Bible college. They’re the picture of domestic tranquillity—until a local girl is murdered and Loretta begins receiving messages from beyond. Pete dismisses them as delusions of a fevered female imagination. Loretta knows they’re real—and frightening. Defying Pete’s demands, Loretta finds an encouraging supporter in parapsychologist Dr. Curtis Hansen. He sees a woman with a rare gift, more blessing than curse.
With Dr. Hansen’s help, Loretta’s life opens up to an empowering new purpose. But for Pete, the God-fearing image he’s worked so hard to cultivate is under threat. No longer in control of his dutiful wife, he sees the Devil at work. As Loretta’s powers grow stronger and the pleading spirits beckon, Pete is determined to deliver his wife from evil. To solve the mysteries of the dead, Loretta must first save herself.
Content notes include domestic abuse, emotional abuse, sexual assault, alcoholism, self harm, death.
The Devil and Mrs Davenport – Review
“The floor fell away like an elevator with a snapped cable, and Loretta fell with it.”
The book opens to the autumn of 1955. Loretta has a disturbing experience where she finds herself buried alive. She hasn’t been in the best of health lately and when she brings this up to her husband, Pete, he dismisses her concerns. But Loreatta can’t shake this off and when her intuition leads her to help the police find the body of a recently missing girl, Loretta reaches out to a parapsychologist, Dr Curtis Hansen to understand herself better and unravel the mystery of her visions. The Devil and Mrs Davenport is the story of Loretta challenging the status quo in her house and wanting a better life for herself.
Too long she has played the good housewife to her husband of over a decade. Pete is a professor at the local college. He doesn’t have tenure yet and is constantly stressed about giving a good impression to the rest of the world. He is not a likable character and as the story progresses, it becomes clear how controlling he is. With his actions, underhand comments and efforts to spy on her through the neighbor, he instills doubts and insecurity in Loretta. He has used God and faith to keep her under his thumb but she can clearly see he doesn’t care for her anymore. Incidents involving her children make Loretta decide that she can no longer put up with his behaviour. The love she had for him is long gone. Her first act of rebellion is to see Dr Hansen.
Dr Hansen is a young gentleman, interested in studying the paranormal. He believes in Loretta’s abilities and gets her connected to the underlying trauma from her childhood that may have been the first time they manifested. For so many years Loretta has doubted herself and seeing someone, even in a medical capacity, believe her, gives her strength to question the life she has built with Pete and the future for her children. Through Dr Hansen, Loretta meets his sister, Barbara, who herself was in an abusive marriage some years back. I enjoyed the camaraderie that the women came to develop and how Dr Hansen and Barbara supported Loretta.
The book has horror elements such as unpredictable visions, unexplained cracks in the wall (like the cover), and unexplained movement of objects. But the true horror is in the actions of the people. Those involved in the murder of the missing girl. The people of faith who are willing to subdue, hurt and constrain a woman who does not do what they say, calling her a witch. Terrible things happen to Loretta and her grip on reality is often questioned by the people around her. I wanted :Loretta to have the agency she deserved in life and was thankful for the support network she came to build as the story progressed.
I flew through The Devil and Mrs Davenport on a weekend. Some months back I shared about Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord where in the 1800s, rich men would admit their wives to mental asylums to get rid of them. I was horrified to see similar situations in this book, over 50 years later. Considering the freedoms I enjoy today, the restrictions on Loretta felt like chains to me. In recent memory, I haven’t read a book set in the 1950s. It wasn’t that long ago when women were not allowed to open a bank account for themselves. There was no check on whether the relationship between the man and woman was true, just that a man had to officially give her permission to have a bank account. Considering Loretta’s situation as a housewife who never took higher education herself and no family close by, it was challenging to leave the husband or even start to keep money in a safe place. I was reminded of contemporary stories of marital problems like Big Little Lies where Celeste was able to get an apartment for herself and the kids without relying on anyone. In The Devil and Mrs Davenport, Loretta needed Dr Hansen, her only male confidant, to support her and she tried to gain independence.
The supernatural elements woven into the story came together well and I liked figuring out why Loretta was experiencing visions. Overall The Devil and Mrs Davenport is a fast read. If you enjoy novels like Hidden Pictures and When the Stars go Dark, this one might resonate with you. It is fast paced and unpredictable, showcasing the reasons women stay in terrible relationships and how the times made that even harder.
If you are interested in giving this book a read, add it to your Goodreads shelf. Come back for a chat with Paulette tomorrow!
Many thanks to Over The River PR for a review copy of this book.
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