Suspenseful and Entrancing

Seven Tears for Apollo
By Phyllis A. Whitney
Hardcover: 305 Pages
Publisher: Appleton-Century Crofts (1963)
Rated 4 stars of 5 possible

This romantic suspense novel is largely set in the Greek island of Rhodes. The beauty of this country comes through the author's descriptions of the places to which Dorcas, the story's main character, travels. The characters are realistic, the background believable enough that the reader is immediately transported into the story's gripping and suspenseful action. Dorcas is given reason to believe her husband has been killed in a plane crash near the beginning of the story. Not long after, strange things begin happening to her which she attributes to the people with whom her husband had been working.

One thing that might detract from the story for some is that Dorcas is overly impressionable for her age (early 20's) and that she's somewhat of a doormat - easily manipulated. Yet, if she were not that type of character, the rest of the story would not be as realistic or as captivating. While Dorcas does not always make the best choices for her situation, those choices are made somewhat more credible by her character type. If she were the strong, independent type of woman, the hair-brained choices she sometimes makes would not be as believable.

In all, I found Seven Tears for Apollo to be an enjoyable arm-chair voyage to the Island of Rhodes and recommend this book to readers of romantic suspense novels, with the caviat that there are a few scenes (mostly near the end of the novel) with a bit of violence.