Supernatural Tales

  It seems such a long time since I climbed this path with some friends from A Ghostly Company, the literary society for ghost story fans. I have aged a lot since then, and yet I've also been in a kind of suspended animation. If Arthur truly lies sleeping and dreaming under that hill - or any hill - his half-life seems far less strange to me than it once did.

Not supernatural, I suppose, but good fun and a story by a now-neglected writer of cracking tales. 

We're approaching the end of this powerful (and newly reprinted) Egaeus anthology, and what do we find but another ST veteran? 'House of Sand' is a doubly interesting title, as the previous tale (see below or somewhere) featured sand rather prominently. There the resemblance between the tales ends, however. The story concerns a young woman who always felt she was destined for greater things than her somewhat dull and childless marriage. She is invited to a house party in the rather grand mansion of her boss. There is an odd moment at the beginning of the story as she (apparently) miscounts the guests. The chit-chat of a social gathering is shot through with strange asides and peculiar omissions, and the woman gets lost amid rooms that seem to shift and change. A séance is held, and there are hints that the whole setup is the product of someone else's deep yearning for a life they could never truly lead.  All in all, it's an interesting story that leaves an enigmati...

This next story from the excellent Egaeus anthology (which I'm reading in pdf supplied by one of the authors) concerns three siblings who return to their late parents' house after years spent abroad. The two brothers and a sister are a documentary-making team, specialising in vanishing cultures, and recently returned from North Africa.  The house in the eponymous road proves to be problematic as mysterious winds somehow blow indoors a red dust descends into the living room down the chimney. It's a very absorbing tale of an unusual haunting that leaves its bright, well-travelled characters badly rattled. Eventually the truth about the haunting is revealed. No spoilers, but it's nicely done. Rebecca Lloyd has cemented her reputation as a very accomplished writer of modern weird fiction. More from this book very soon - sorry about the review hiatus. A combination of work pressure and vaccine side-effects slowed me down a bit. 

I enjoyed this one. It's a short, near one-handed take on the traditional ghost story, with some modern spin. A troubled man moves from the big city to a fine old house in the country - one that has been empty for eighteen months. He tells himself this is because it is too remote from stores etc, but other reasons become evident. Strange noises are heard outside - a scream, fragments of a tune played on a flute, the noise of an axe on the trees. He finds a locket, and also a cat skull in a kind of woodland shrine. He becomes increasingly paranoid and buys a gun... This story could in theory have been written at any time in the last two hundred years but writer and star Josh Criss does a great job of updating it. (He also provides a solid reason for the found footage to exist in the first place - one I won't reveal here.) New tech - digital recorders, infra-red 'game cameras', home security systems - don't hamper the sense of a timeless ghost story playing out in a m...

This story from the newly-reprinted  Egaeus anthology is a foray into M.R. James country, but also nods to Arthur Machen in its setting. As the title makes clear, we are firmly in the Jamesian era and our protagonist is a Carmbridge man, one Hartwell. He is charged with making a record of ancient monuments in the county and finds himself exploring the ruins of a manor house. A local offers him a box that was removed from the ruins years before, and Hartwell's troubles begin. For fans of Dr. James there are a references to his stories, such as a reference to Chorazin. A very barbaric practice that was supposed to ward off evil from houses (and bridges) is central to the plot. It's very atmospheric and has that tactile horror we know so well. All in all, it does a fine job of reminding us that houses long uninhabited by people can still be places of residence. So, another winner from an excellent book. I hope to venture into another haunted house very soon.