David Stuart Davies - Spinechillers - Collectors Library - 2012
Note `Collectors Library is/was an imprint of CRW Publishing Ltd, London NW1
Will I ever get tired of collecting anthologies of classic ghost stories and/or detective fiction ? Probably not !
Here we have 22 short stories in an anthology compiled by the excellent David Stuart Davies.
Any collection overseen by DSD is going to be out of the ordinary and this was no disappointment.
Inevitably (for me) there were a couple of stories I already have, and a couple I didn`t care for, but the great thing is that still leaves 18 I`d never encountered before and thoroughly enjoyed.
If I have one criticism, I would single out the inclusion of Elizabeth Gaskell`s The Grey Woman. Not just because I personally don`t like it - (though I do think it`s overly long and carelessly written) , but because I just can`t see how it belongs in a collection of this sort - it doesn`t chill the spine because it wasn`t, as far as I can see, intended to do so.
On the positive side, I would single out four stories for special praise - F Marion Crawford`s For the Blood is Life, E F Benson`s Mrs Amworth, R L Stevenson`s Markheim and Barry Paine`s The Glass of Supreme Moments. Obviously that`s personal choice, and they certainly aren`t the only good stories in this collection.
It`s easy enough to find a copy of this fine collection online, and I recommend you do so.
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