In Mignon Eberhart’s 1949 novel, House of Storm, the female heroine is Nonie Hovenden, a young woman who has inherited great wealth.
Unlike most female heroines in the romantic suspense genre, Nonie is not a beautiful woman. The narrator says she has an “ordinary face” (13). Roy, her fiancé, and Jim both say they love her. Her average appearance creates an active question in novel: Do the two men love her for who she is as a person, or do they want her money?
In romantic suspense, the female heroine is often afraid. After Hermoine is murdered, Nonie tells Jim, “I’m so frightened” (55). Walking by a hedge, and sensing someone on the other side of it, she returns to the house, and her hands were trembling (86). When she finds the body of Seabury Jenkins, she had “a white face and frightened eyes” (116). It is a normal human reaction to experience fear when we are in danger. The female heroine’s fear can increase reader identification. If her life is in danger, the reader may also experience fear or anxious concern.
Nonie’s fear increases her love for Jim. After she “had a scare”, Jim’s presence is like a “fortress” and “she questioned her instinctive fear” (99). Being with Jim causes Nonie’s fear to diminish. In romantic suspense, the female heroine turns to the man she loves for strength and protection. Unable to defend herself, Nonie feels safe with Jim.
Nonie learns how to control her fear. Fearing the murderer is in the house with her, “she began to reason with herself” (148). Nonie controls her fear by thinking logically and concludes “no one was there” (149). This is a turning point in the novel, an experience that will help Nonie when the murderer threatens to kill Jim.
In the climax of the novel, Nonie discovers that Roy is the murderer. He hides in an armoire and threatens to shoot Jim if Nonie reveals that he is there (163). Nonie must control her fear, and she reveals Roy’s presence with a glance at the armoire (170). Nonie doesn’t gain mastery over her fear, but she controls it enough to save Jim’s life.
Like other heroines in the romantic suspense genre, Nonie has multiple experiences that terrify her, resulting in a change in her character. At the end of the novel, she has courage—the ability to act, despite feeling afraid.
Works Cited
Eberhart, Mignon G. House of Storm. Popular Library, 1964.
Christopher J. Lindsay 