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Review of “Smee” by A. M. Burrage: Halloween Countdown

PlotDuring a Christmas Eve party, Jackson refuses to play hide-and-seek because he sometimes stays at a house where a girl was accidentally killed playing the game by falling down a flight of stairs. He wasn’t there when this happened, but he was visiting the same house during another Christmas party when something worse happened. WhenContinue reading “Review of “Smee” by A. M. Burrage: Halloween Countdown”

Review of “The Signalman” by Charles Dickens: Halloween Countdown

Plot:Our hero visits a signalman in a railroad tunnel where he works, signaling trains that come through and passing messages along. He announces his presence by shouting from atop the hill, “Halloa! Below there!” Much to his surprise, the man walks away as if he hasn’t heard him. After some more screaming, the narrator getsContinue reading “Review of “The Signalman” by Charles Dickens: Halloween Countdown”

Review of “The Shadow” by Edith Nesbit: Halloween Countdown

Plot:A girl faints during a dance at a country house over Christmas in Victorian-era Great Britain. She is sent to recover in a dressing room. Other girls sleep in a bedroom attached to the dressing room. Of course, they don’t sleep but sit up, telling each other ghost stories. While they’re scaring themselves, a knockContinue reading “Review of “The Shadow” by Edith Nesbit: Halloween Countdown”

Review of “The Shadow in the Corner” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon: Halloween Countdown

Plot:Wildheath Grange sits back from the road, the last remnants of a once-vast estate of the Bascom family. The house has a bad reputation among the locals in the nearby village of Holcroft, but it suits the current owner, Michael Bascom, a middle-aged bachelor who spends his days among his books in scientific reading. TheContinue reading “Review of “The Shadow in the Corner” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon: Halloween Countdown”

Review of “Scoured Silk” by Marjorie Bowen: Halloween Countdown

Plot: Some twenty years earlier, Mr. Humphrey Orford moved to Covent Garden with his young wife. The understanding is that his family was from Suffolk, where he had considerable estates that he never visited. Only a few weeks after they arrived, his wife, Flora, fell ill and passed away. He erected a small plaque: Flora,Continue reading “Review of “Scoured Silk” by Marjorie Bowen: Halloween Countdown”

Review of “The Open Window” by Saki

Plot:Mr. Nuttel’s doctors have recommended that he get rest for his nerves. With letters of introduction from his sister, he visits people she knows better than he does. He stops one day at the Sappleton residence. Mrs. Sappleton is late in meeting him, so her “very self-possessed” fifteen-year-old niece speaks to him, letting him knowContinue reading “Review of “The Open Window” by Saki”

Review of “Negotium Perambulans” by E. F. Benson: Halloween Countdown

Plot: The narrator describes an isolated fishing village he was sent to when he was ten, “a small boy, weak and sickly and threatened with pulmonary trouble.” He slept not in the house but in a “shelter” in the backyard of his uncle, the local vicar, and spent his days wandering. His uncle taught himContinue reading “Review of “Negotium Perambulans” by E. F. Benson: Halloween Countdown”

Review of “The Moonlit Road” by Ambrose Bierce: Halloween Countdown

Plot:The following things happened: Joel Hetman returned from a trip at an unexpected time and used the back door without disturbing anyone. He chased what appeared to be a prowler into the woods, who got away. His wife, Julia, was strangled to death in her bedroom. He summoned his nineteen-year-old son, Joel, Jr., home fromContinue reading “Review of “The Moonlit Road” by Ambrose Bierce: Halloween Countdown”

Review of “Master of Fallen Years” by Vincent O’Sullivan: Halloween Countdown

Plot:Augustus Barber works in a paper-box manufacturing business in London. The narrator is at pains to tell the reader how ordinary, if commonplace, Augustus is. He doesn’t read anything outside of newspapers and shows no interest in anything spiritual or metaphysical. After falling ill to the point that he was expected not to recover, BarberContinue reading “Review of “Master of Fallen Years” by Vincent O’Sullivan: Halloween Countdown”

Review of “The Marble Hands” by Bernard Capes: Halloween Countdwon

Plot:Our hero rides his bike with his friend Heriot to the churchyard. Heriot wants him to check something out but doesn’t want to see it himself. Our hero soon finds what he’s looking for—a grave with no headstone or inscription. A beveled marble curb encloses a graveled area. In the graveled area stand two marbleContinue reading “Review of “The Marble Hands” by Bernard Capes: Halloween Countdwon”