AustLit

Our new, serial, "Secret House," the first instalment of which will appear in our issue of Friday next, is from the pen of Hilda Bridges, an author whose tales are already well known to readers of the "Herald." "Secret House" is an exciting story whose scenes are set in Sydney, although the venue really matters little, since the exciting incidents which compose the plot might equally well have happened anywhere else—all localities being open to the constructor of mysterious houses and to the hider of jewels with dark histories. And of these two ingredients is the plot of "Secret House" mainly composed. The story is almost breathless in its rush of sensational happenings—in company with its chief characters, we meet with "faceless" visitants, and fall through trapdoors, escape most unpleasant extinction by the skin of our teeth, and are introduced to a motley collection of human beings with a speed that not only piles excitement on excitement's head, but which rightly inspires the most lively admiration for the author's ingenuity and imaginative powers. In the end, of course, the jewels are discovered, the evil genius who causes all the trouble is foiled, and the mysteries of "Secret House" are laid bare, with a thoroughness that leaves nothing to be desired. A slight affair of the heart adds sentimental interest to one of the most skilfully contrived stories of its kind that has yet appeared in our columns; and leaders will assuredly agree that the reputation of Hilda Bridges for contriving good plots and working them out effectively is more than sustained in this, her latest tale. 

- The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 March 1933, p10

"In our new serial, "The House with Creaking Doors," by Hilda Bridges, the well-known Tasmanian writer, a gripping story is unfolded, which has its roots in the old colonial days. The first instalment will be published on Thursday next. The scene is laid in an outlying district of Southern Tasmania, where a young girl is travelling by car, accompanied by a friend of her school days, a little older than herself, to visit the family home which has come to her as an inheritance. In the opening chapters something of the eerie atmosphere that envelops Edgar Alan Poe's tale of "The House of Usher" is suggested, and the reader's mind is prepared for strange happenings which duly occur. The younger girl gives her friend an inkling of her own family history, which shows that on her father's side she was descended from an English family proud of their ancient lineage, but on her mother's side from a prisoner, exiled to the penal settlement at Port Arthur.

Tragic happenings had involved a feminine member of the old family, who betrayed the escaping prisoner to pursuing soldiers and afterwards vanished. It was currently believed that she had been murdered by a mate of the man who had been betrayed by her to his death. The two young women found in the old house a life-sized portrait of the vanished betrayer, and were gazing at it with terrified interest when the strange manifestations began which seemed to them to have no possible explanation apart from the supernatural. The action of the story moves forward steadily, and new investigators arrive on the scene—to spin a double thread of love interest, in which each of the girls is involved. The secret of the strange happenings in the mysterious house is closely guarded, and the solution when it is reached, is a complete surprise. There is a considerable amount of historic interest in this picture of life in Tasmania more than a century ago, when human drama and living romance were interwoven with crime and its punishment, and when the hearts of men and women responded to the call of love even in the midst of suffering and terrors, as inevitably as in all other periods of history and in very different environments.

The intricate clues of the story are skilfully pieced together and work out to a logical and satisfying conclusion. The author tells her tale with a large measure of imaginative power, and has a real gift for the vivid presentation of strong character and striking incident."

The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 December 1931, p5