Friday Fright Night...er Spooky Saturday: Creepy Country Homes

  Curtis @The Passing Tramp (and sponsor of the Vintage Mysteries Group on Facebook) has revived the Friday Fright Night first launched in October 2020. Bloggers will take part in a month-long event sure to prepare us for Halloween. Friday Fright Night will find us serving up spooky, spirited reads at the end of each week throughout October. Curtis put out the call on Facebook but all bloggers are welcome to serve up ghastly delights and if you aren't on Facebook and would like to be included just provide a link to your post in the comments and I'll pass it along to Curtis. 

How did it get to be the end of October already?! This week flew by and I wasn't quite ready for Friday night...so I've made it into Spooky Saturday instead.....and this week's topic is all about those cozy country homes that wind up giving the shivers to their residents. Many a heroine (and sometimes a hero) in mysteries set off to the country in search of a respite from city life only to find themselves in the middle of creepy circumstances.

Mary Roberts Rinehart turned this scenario into a good thing repeatedly. In fact she took one story and revamped it after it was turned into a play. The Circular Staircase (1908) was Mary Roberts Rinehart's first best-seller. She had begun her mystery-writing career with The Man in Lower Ten (1906), but Staircase made her name. It also gave her the distinction of having created the Had I But Known (HIBK) school of mystery writing--full of spooky houses and heroines who would have stayed out of trouble if they only knew then what they know now. It also involves said heroines in actions which manage to extend the time necessary to solve the crime.

As Miss Rachel Innes tells us in the very fist line:

This is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind, deserted her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house for the summer out of town, and found herself involved in one of those mysterious crimes that keep our newspapers and detective agencies happy and prosperous.

Miss Rachel (or Aunt Ray as she's known throughout the book) has been the guardian of her niece and nephew for years and they convince her that getting out of New York City for a cool, quiet summer in the country is just what she (and they) need. She follows their advice and rents a secluded home called Sunnyside. However, peace and quiet is the last thing that they find in the secluded country house. The first night passes quietly enough, but it is the last one that does: "Never after that night did I put my head on my pillow with any assurance how long it would be there; or on my shoulders for that matter."(14) On the second night, Miss Rachel's maid Liddy swears she hears a ghost and Miss Rachel, despite telling us repeatedly that she doesn't take fright easily, becomes alarmed as well when she sees a shadowy figure outside the window and is later disturbed by "a sound from the east wing, apparently, that made me stop, frozen, with one bedroom slipper half off, and listen. It was a rattling metallic sound, and it reverberated along the empty halls like the crash of doom."(23)

Later, I read Rinehart's The Bat--which is a book based on the play which was in turn a loose reworking of the plot in Staircase. I had great fun with The Bat and actually recommend it more highly than the first novel. The Bat is more tightly plotted and the action moves far more fast and furious with suspense at just the right level. In this version Miss Rachel is turned into Cornelia Van Gorder, a spinster who has longed for adventure. Cornelia takes herself, her Irish maid Lizzie, and her neice Dale off to the country to escape the city's summer heat. She rents a country home that has recently become available when Courtleigh Fleming, a local bank manager, died. She's bemoaning her quiet, unadventurous existence when suddenly the countryside becomes the center for some very mysterious activity.

Cornelia begins receiving anonymous notes meant to frighten her away from the house. There are rumors that The Bat, a notorious criminal mastermind, is in the area. And...in the wake of the bank manager's death, it is discovered that a large amount of bank funds are missing--as well as one of the bank clerks. Cornelia's neice begins acting strangely, her maid Lizzie is nervous as a cat, and her butler Billy is inscrutable (as all Chinese men of the time are represented). Dale brings home a new gardener who isn't what he seems and Cornelia decides to request that a detective be sent to help her get to the bottom of the nasty notes. Who on earth could possibly care if she spends her summer in the banker's abandoned house? That's when the excitement begins. There are mysterious people popping in and out of rooms. Strangers on the roof and bats flying through the rooms. Lots of adventure and excitement now, eh, Cornelia?

But Rinehart doesn't limit creepy country house adventures to ladies in distress. Oh, no. In The Red Lamp you think you might have a young woman in danger or Had-I-But-Known book. As the the back of the book tells us:

Jane wanted to leave Twin Towers the moment she arrived. She had a strange feeling about the old mansion, a chilling apprehension of doom that followed her through the creaking halls like a death shadow. The others thought her fears were groundless--until they felt the evil iridescence of the Red Lamp, and realized how terrifyingly right she was.

But then you read the book and you find out this isn't a woman-in-danger book. The story isn't really about Jane at all. It's a man in danger. And, as a matter of fact, it's a Professor in danger. And as the detective Greenough tells him, "you'll have to admit that you've seemed to go out of your way all summer to get into trouble!" So, what is the trouble, you ask?

Well...Professor William Porter has inherited Twin Towers from his Uncle Horace. Uncle Horace died from what was declared natural causes--a simple heart attack. Or was it? Was he literally scared to death by earthly agents or...perhaps by supernatural forces? Twin Towers had been rumored to be haunted. There are tales of a red lamp that glows in its windows at night. And when the red lamp glows, things happen. Things that no one can explain.

Of course, Rinehart didn't corner the market on spooky goings-on in the countryside. Ethel Lina White joined her with The Spiral Staircase (1933; originally titled Some Must Watch). She even used the old cliche: It was a dark and stormy night....no, really, it was. It is a suspense thriller with a damsel in distress that makes excellent use of the dramatic storm-tossed night at a secluded house in the country to provide a top-notch novel filled with Had-I-But-Known moments.  

She was visited by no prescience to warn her that--since her return--there had been certain trivial incidents which were the first cracks in the walls of her fortress. Once they were started, nothing could stop the process of disintegration; and each future development would act as a wedge, to force the fissures into ever-widening breaches letting in the night.

Things start off calmly enough. Helen Capel is over-joyed to find a position as lady's help at the Summit, Professor Warren's remote estate on the Welsh border. After all, apart from the loneliness of the locale, the post is a very good one--offering her a very nice room and sitting room of her own, good food, and she's even allowed to take her meals with the family. It is a bit worrisome that there is a murderer loose in the countryside. A mysterious killer who has chosen as his prey young women who work for their living. Some think he may be a man who believes these women have taken jobs away from men. 

But, reasons Helen, all the girls who have been killed have been alone.  And the murders have taken place at a good distance from the Summit. Surely she, and the others in the house, will be safe if they keep the place shuttered and bolted at night and they all stay inside. Yes, she's sure of it. Until a victim is strangled in a house just five miles away. Until the next victim is found murdered just on the other side of the estate. Death and terror creep closer to the Summit, but still Helen feels safe...until the stormy night when she bolts herself in the house only to find that the danger was somewhere inside and had chosen her as the next target.

White also provides the typical suspense-thriller heroine in Helen Capel, a self-identified independent-minded young woman who none-the-less does remarkably silly things for someone who suspects she's in danger. Through various plausible-sounding means, several of the inmates leave the house, a few of them are drugged, drunk or otherwise incapacitated, and Helen promptly goes about alienating one of the few people who couldn't possibly be the killer--thereby setting herself up to slip into the maniac's clutches. 

White manages to bring about a quite nifty ending--I won't spoil it by giving even a hint of what I mean. The book is a classic example of good suspense done right without blood and gore or explicit scenes. It is also a terrific character study with plenty of misdirection to allow the reader to question each person's motives and whether they are really what they seem. A very good read for a dark and stormy night of your own. Just make sure to lock all the doors. You might want to check under all the beds first, though.

Friday Fright Night: Curses! Spoiled Again!

 Curtis @The Passing Tramp (and sponsor of the Vintage Mysteries Group on Facebook) has revived the Friday Fright Night first launched in October 2020. Bloggers will take part in a month-long event sure to prepare us for Halloween. Friday Fright Night will find us serving up spooky, spirited reads at the end of each week throughout October. Curtis put out the call on Facebook but all bloggers are welcome to serve up ghastly delights and if you aren't on Facebook and would like to be included just provide a link to your post in the comments and I'll pass it along to Curtis. 

This week I'm taking a look at spooky curses and the similarities between The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a recent book featured here on the Block, The Curse of the Fleers by Basil Copper. To give you fair warning: there are spoilers ahead. If you have not read either or both of these books, then you may want to give this week a pass. 

Doyle's hound stems from an old curse laid upon the Baskerville family during the 17th Century when Hugo Baskerville, a rake and a hell-raiser in his time, kidnapped a young girl who had caught his fancied and then when she escaped pursued her to her death upon the moors. Sir Hugo was also found dead, killed by a huge hound which was found standing over his body. Because of their evil ancestor, the men in the Baskerville family are cursed and the hound is blamed for their deaths. The last Baskerville to die before Sherlock Holmes enters the case is Sir Charles Baskerville--found dead, purportedly from a heart attack when he ran, terrified away from the gate leading to the moors. Upon the ground was found the footprints of a gigantic hound. Holmes dismissed the idea of a curse, but he and Watson do find that there is a gigantic hound on the moors. A hound that kills a man wearing a cast-off suit from Sir Henry Baskerville, the heir who takes over after Sir Charles' death. And a hound that seems to be after the newest lord of Baskerville Hall

Similarly, in The Curse of the Fleers, we find a curse hanging over the Fleer family. Again, we have the rakehell ancestor who takes advantage of a neighbor's wife--causing her death--and then tortures and is directly responsible for the death of her husband, who falls to his death in an attempt to escape Fleer Manor. As he falls, Darnley curses Redbeard Fleer and all his descendants. And, of course each time a Fleer man dies, there are rumors that a Creeping Man (supposedly Darnley escaping across the battlements) is seen just before the death. Now in the current age (also the Victorian era--as with the Holmes story), we have Sir John Fleer being driven out of his mind with fear because he has begun seeing a Creeping Man crawling across the battlements whenever he looks out his window late at night. 

 Both Doyle and Copper use their curses and the atmosphere of the fog and moors of the Victorian period to great effect in their stories. Sir Henry Baskerville and Holmes may not take the curse seriously, but Sir Charles certainly did and Watson is none too sure--especially when he hears the eerie howls at night. Sir John Fleer doesn't want to believe in the Creeping Man, but with the battlements being locked and nothing but sheer walls below he finds it difficult to believe that a human agent can be at work. The foggy nights provide the perfect setting for a reasonable man to doubt his sanity. 

Of course, in both of these books there is a human agent at work--greedy human agents who are looking to either have Baskerville Hall all for themselves OR to find an ancient treasure hidden somewhere in Fleer Manor. Greed is the driving force that makes the villains of the pieces willing to do great evil in order to have their way--whether all-out murder or just driving a man insane. These stories being what they are good does triumph in the end. But the villains suffer from rather grisly deaths (in keeping with the ghoulish nature of our Friday Fright Night). Death by drowning in the Grimpen Mire for one and terrible blow to the head from a booby trap laid by ancient Fleers for the other--à la traps set in the various Indiana Jones movies for those who would steal treasures. And along the way Doyle and Copper provide a dose of spooky thrills for those of us who like a bit of ghoulish adventure without a heaping helping of horror.

Friday Fright Night: Witches, Ghosts, & Mummies, Oh My!

 Curtis @The Passing Tramp (and sponsor of the Vintage Mysteries Group on Facebook) has revived the Friday Fright Night first launched in October 2020. Bloggers will take part in a month-long event sure to prepare us for Halloween. Friday Fright Night will find us serving up spooky, spirited reads at the end of each week throughout October. Curtis put out the call on Facebook but all bloggers are welcome to serve up ghastly delights and if you aren't on Facebook and would like to be included just provide a link to your post in the comments and I'll pass it along to Curtis.

I love Halloween. When it falls on a work day, I love to get into costume and go to work. But...I'm a big weenie when it comes to scary bits or horror. So, I'm going to start things off with a look at young adult mysteries with a spooky flair. First up is The Witches's Bridge by Barbee Oliver Carleton. Set in Massachusetts where young Dan Pride has returned to live with his uncle after his parents die in a plane crash. The Pride family has had its share of troubles over the years. During the time of the witch trials in America, an ancestor by the name of Samuel Pride was accused and executed as a witch--based on an accusation by the Bishop family. The years that followed found the Prides being blamed for all that went wrong in the area around Pride's Point and superstition kept everyone from using the causeway bridge that led to their land. Rumor said that the witch Samuel would appear as a large black dog and folks claimed to hear Samuel playing his fiddle near the Witches' Bridge. Carleton does an excellent job with atmosphere and uses the witch legend to full advantage. It may be the middle of summer, but the foggy marshland, eerie nights in the country, storms rolling in, and the spooky music near the bridge all work to make this a very appropriate book to read during the month of Halloween. We get all the trappings for a spooky story--a witch's ghost, creepy music, an ancient curse (uttered by the original "witch"), a large, ugly black dog, and an unexplained death. As a bonus, my edition of the book features cover art by Edward Gorey.

Second in our spooky line-up is The Ghost in the Gallery by Carolyn Keene. The Starhurst School where the Dana girls are residents is preparing to put on an operetta set in the time of Louis XIV called Spring Is Here in order to raise funds for a local charity. The operetta has generated such interest that the school has sold more tickets than their auditorium can hold. So, the girls suggest that they ask to rent the Mozart Music Hall which is owned by a former singing star. Mrs. Merrill is more than happy to let school use the Hall, but warns the girls that there are rumors that the Hall is haunted. It isn't long before the Starhurst students see a ghostly figure and hear weird singing when no one is around. Various attempts are made to discourage the girls from using the hall--from the ghostly sightings to a fake official declaring the Hall as condemned. Obviously someone wants them out, but is it all part of a real world plot or is there something other-worldly about the ghostly songs?

And finally, we have the Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy by Robert Arthur. The boys take on the case of Ra-Okron, an Egyptian mummy that whispers to Professor Yarborough, a friend of Alfred Hitchcock's. There are all sorts of mysterious goings-on, from the ancient Egyptian mutterings to statues that topple all by themselves to huge marble balls that tumble down hillsides (apparently unaided) to the reincarnation of Ra-Okron in the likeness of his favorite cat to the god Annubis appearing and stealing the mummy. The Investigators have quite an adventure dealing with all those spooky events.

Of course, each of these books could almost be an episode of the Scooby Doo mysteries, but good writing and a decent plot go a long way to making these very entertaining stories for the target age group (and for adults looking for a bit of mild ghoulish hijinks). 

Friday Fright Night: Halloween Word Search

 Well, here we are--the last Friday of the month and the last edition of Friday Fright Night. At the beginning of October Curtis Evans from the The Passing Tramp put out the call to his fellow bloggers to take part in a month-long event to get us ready for Halloween. Each Friday has found bloggers across the internet as well as familiar faces from the Tuesday Night Blogger crew serving up ghastly delights These are being gathered on up on the Golden Age of Detection Facebook page, but if any of my readers would like to join the fun you are welcome to leave a link in the comments and I'll see that Curtis gets it.

Last week I ransacked my Goodreads book list (the easiest to sort) and presented you with a sampling of Halloween-Themed Titles from my read and/or to-read lists along with a little quiz to see if you could match authors and titles. As promised, the answers will appear at the end of this post. This week I present a word search based on that post on Halloween-Themed Titles. In the puzzle, you will find one word from every title mentioned in my previous Fright Night post as well as the last name of each author referenced. Each word will be used only once--for instance,(The) Mystery of the Skeleton Key and The Skeleton Key have duplicate words. So "skeleton" and "key" (if used) may only appear once. Similarly, authors who have more than one title in the list only appear once in the puzzle. If I have done my job correctly and you have found all of the correct words (65 total), then the remaining letters will spell out (in order) the names of the blogs that have participated in our Halloween adventures (twice each)--followed by a suitable holiday message. There should be one random letter left over at the end. 

Clicking on the photo will enlarge the grid. If you would like a file to down load and print, you should be able to access it HERE.

And now for the answers to last week's quiz.

Ghosts

1. Ghost of a Chance                 C. Kelley Roos

2. Death of a Ghost                    D. Margery Allingham

3. Old Lover's Ghost                  B. Leslie Ford

4. What Beckoning Ghost          E. Douglas G. Browne

5. Three-Thirds of a Ghost         A. Timothy Fuller

Skeletons

1. (The) Mystery of the Skeleton Key     D. Bernard Capes

2. The Skeleton in the Clock                  E. Carter Dickson

3. The Long Skeleton                             C. Francis & Richard Lockridge

4. Skeleton Key                                      B. Lenore Glen 

5. Skeleton in the Closet                        A. A. B. Cunningham

Skulls & Monsters 

(I had fewer of these, so I combined)

1. The Riddle of the Traveling Skull     D. Harry Stephen Keeler 

2. The Monster of Lazy Hook               C. Thorne Lee John Dickson Carr

3. Castle Skull                                      B. John Dickson Carr

4. Many a Monster                               A. Robert Finnegan

Witches

1. The Witch of the Low Tide            B. John Dickson Carr

2. Brood of the Witch-Queen            C. Sax Rohmer 

3. The Witch's House                        A. Charlotte Armstrong

Bats

1. Bats Fly at Dusk                 C. A. A. Fair Mary Roberts Rinehart

2. The Bat                               A. Mary Roberts Rinehart

3. The Bat Flies Low               B. Sax Rohmer

Devils

1. The Devil Loves Me            G. Margaret Millar 

2. The Devil's Stronghold        E. Leslie Ford 

3. The Devil to Pay                  B. Ellery Queen Louis Malley

4. The Devil in the Bush          F. Matthew Head 

5. The Devil Man                     A. Edgar Wallace

6. Horns for the Devil              C. Louis Malley

7. The Devil & the C.I.D.         D. E. C. R. Lorac

Midnight (the witching hour!)

1. Before Midnight                         A. Rex Stout

2. The Midnight Plumber               C. Maurice Proctor 

3. Prelude to a Certain Midnight    D. Gerald Kersch

4. Midnight Sailing                         B. Laurence G. Blochman

Friday Fright Night: Halloween-Themed Titles

At the beginning of the month Curtis Evans from the The Passing Tramp put out the call to his fellow bloggers to take part in a month-long event to get us ready for Halloween. Friday Fright Night has found bloggers across the internet as well as familiar faces from the Tuesday Night Blogger crew serving up ghastly delights These are being gathered on up on the Golden Age of Detection Facebook page, but if any of my readers would like to join the fun you are welcome to leave a link in the comments and I'll see that Curtis gets it.

I missed last week and wasn't sure I would be able to put together one today, but I decided to try and squeeze one in under the wire. So...I ransacked my Goodreads book list (the easiest to sort) and will present you a sampling of Halloween-Themed Titles from my read and/or read lists. For most of the categories I have at least two titles, so I am challenging you to match the title to the correct author.  But I'll lead with Dwight V. Babcock's (The) Gorgeous Ghoul Case. There are no other ghouls among my books--unless you count the fact that I own two different pocket-size, pulp-era editions.

I haven't read this one yet, but the blurb for Babcock's book promises: You'll Shudder, You'll Groan, You'll Laugh--You'll Sit Up All Night to Read The Gorgeous Ghoul Murder Case! ...the intriguing, contrasting combinations that crows the pages include: A phone call from a dead man! A romantic moon that shines on a bitter fight in an open grave! A sweet-smelling gardenia crushed under the beautiful nude body of a throttled woman! A trumpet that serves as a doorbell! And a skunk that is a house pet! If you're badly in need of sleep, DON'T start this story--because you won't close your eyes until you've read the last action-packed line of this definitely superiour "whodunit"!

Of course, in honor of Halloween itself, there is Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie. Leo Bruce also tried his hand at a Halloween mystery with Death on Allhallowe'en. And, coincidentally, each story revolves around the murder of a young person who saw more than s/he should have.

But...on with our ghoulish games. In each category, your challenge is to match up the author with the appropriate title. Please--no peeking in Google. Answers will be posted next Friday so you can see how you did.

Ghosts

1. Ghost of a Chance                 A. Timothy Fuller

2. Death of a Ghost                    B. Leslie Ford

3. Old Lover's Ghost                  C. Kelley Roos

4. What Beckoning Ghost          D. Margery Allingham

5. Three-Thirds of a Ghost         E. Douglas G. Browne

Skeletons

1. (The) Mystery of the Skeleton Key     A. A. B. Cunningham

2. The Skeleton in the Clock                  B. Lenore Glen Offord

3. The Long Skeleton                             C. Francis & Richard Lockridge

4. Skeleton Key                                      D. Bernard Capes

5. Skeleton in the Closet                        E. Carter Dickson

Skulls & Monsters 

(I had fewer of these, so I combined)

1. The Riddle of the Traveling Skull     A. Robert Finnegan

2. The Monster of Lazy Hook               B. John Dickson Carr

3. Castle Skull                                      C. Thorne Lee

4. Many a Monster                               D. Harry Stephen Keeler

Witches

1. The Witch of the Low Tide            A. Charlotte Armstrong

2. Brood of the Witch-Queen             B. John Dickson Carr

3. The Witch's House                        C. Sax Rohmer

Bats

1. Bats Fly at Dusk                 A. Mary Roberts Rinehart

2. The Bat                               B. Sax Rohmer

3. The Bat Flies Low              C. A. A. Fair 

Devils

1. The Devil Loves Me            A. Edgar Wallace

2. The Devil's Stronghold        B. Ellery Queen

3. The Devil to Pay                  C. Louis Malley

4. The Devil in the Bush          D. E. C. R. Lorac

5. The Devil Man                     E. Leslie Ford

6. Horns for the Devil              F. Matthew Head

7. The Devil & the C.I.D.        G. Margaret Millar

Midnight (the witching hour!)

1. Before Midnight                         A. Rex Stout

2. The Midnight Plumber               B. Laurence G. Blochman

3. Prelude to a Certain Midnight    C. Maurice Proctor

4. Midnight Sailing                         D. Gerald Kersh

Friday Fright Night: The Spiral Staircase

  Recently Curtis Evans of The Passing Tramp fame put out the call to fellow bloggers to take part in a month-long event sure to prepare us for Halloween. Friday Fright Night will find us serving up spooky, spirited reads at the end of each week throughout October. You'll see familiar faces from the Tuesday Night Blogger crew but all bloggers are welcome to serve up ghastly delights. These are being gathered up on the Golden Age of Detection Facebook page, but if any of my readers would like to join the fun you are welcome to leave a link in the comments and I'll link you up. 

In 2016, I read Ethel Lina White's The Spiral Staircase and I definitely think this qualifies as Friday Fright Night-worth and tailor-made for Halloween reading.

As  Helen opened the door of Miss Warren's room, a small incident occurred which was fraught with future significance.

It was a dark and stormy night....no, really, it was. Fortunately, Ethel Lina White was a much better author than the potboiler creators who are generally credited  with starting their books in such fashion. The Spiral Staircase (1933; originally titled Some Must Watch) is a suspense thriller with a damsel in distress that makes excellent use of the dramatic storm-tossed night to provide a top-notch novel filled with Had-I-But-Known moments.  
She was visited by no prescience to warn her that--since her return--there had been certain trivial incidents which were the first cracks in the walls of her fortress. Once they were started, nothing could stop the process of disintegration; and each future development would act as a wedge, to force the fissures into ever-widening breaches letting in the night.

Things start off calmly enough. Helen Capel is over-joyed to find a position as lady's help at the Summit, Professor Warren's remote estate on the Welsh border. After all, apart from the loneliness of the locale, the post is a very good one--offering her a very nice room and sitting room of her own, good food, and she's even allowed to take her meals with the family. It is a bit worrisome that there is a murderer loose in the countryside. A mysterious killer who has chosen as his prey young women who work for their living. Some think he may be a man who believes these women have taken jobs away from men. 

But, reasons Helen, all the girls who have been killed have been alone.  And the murders have taken place at a good distance from the Summit. Surely she, and the others in the house, will be safe if they keep the place shuttered and bolted at night and they all stay inside. Yes, she's sure of it. Until a victim is strangled in a house just five miles away. Until the next victim is found murdered just on the other side of the estate. Death and terror creep closer to the Summit, but still Helen feels safe...until the stormy night when she bolts herself in the house only to find that the danger was somewhere inside and had chosen her as the next target.

White also provides the typical suspense-thriller heroine in Helen Capel, a self-identified independent-minded young woman who none-the-less does remarkably silly things for someone who suspects she's in danger. Through various plausible-sounding means, several of the inmates leave the house, a few of them are drugged, drunk or otherwise incapacitated, and Helen promptly goes about alienating one of the few people who couldn't possibly be the killer--thereby setting herself up to slip into the maniac's clutches. 

White manages to bring about a quite nifty ending--I won't spoil it by giving even a hint of what I mean. The book is a classic example of good suspense done right without blood and gore or explicit scenes. It is also a terrific character study with plenty of misdirection to allow the reader to question each person's motives and whether they are really what they seem. A very good read for a dark and stormy night of your own. Just make sure to lock all the doors. You might want to check under all the beds first, though.

Friday Fright Night

 Recently Curtis Evans of The Passing Tramp fame put out the call to fellow bloggers to take part in a month-long event sure to prepare us for Halloween. Friday Fright Night will find us serving up spooky, spirited reads at the end of each week throughout October. You'll see familiar faces from the Tuesday Night Blogger crew but all bloggers are welcome to serve up ghastly delights. Curtis is gathering these up on the Golden Age of Detection Facebook page, but if any of my readers would like to join the fun you are welcome to leave a link in the comments and I'll link you up.

Like Kate over at crossexaminingcrime, I'm not a huge horror fan (in fact, I'm a big weenie when it comes to such things), so my postings may be a bit tame, but I definitely want to try for the spirit of the thing. This week, I'm going to feature a few of the spooky covers from my collection. For full reviews of those I've served up on the Block over the years, just click on the relevant title. First up, the inspiration for our Friday Fright Night logo: the Avon Ghost Reader. This short story collection features the likes of H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, A. Merritt, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Bram Stoker and the stories range from a Southern ghost appealing for help to a stalking mother cat exacting revenge on her kitten's killer. 

 Another creepy cover from Avon is found on the Avon Mystery Storyteller. This is another short story collection with stories from Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, John Dickson Carr, and Mignon G. Eberhart as well as lesser known authors. It includes stories of murder and mayhem as well as spine-tingling adventure. Of the two Avon collections, I found that this one contained the most even selection of stories--rating it as an overall fine collection.

Next up from Avon: Seven Footprints to Satan. A. Merritt's story has been billed as mystery, horror, and thriller--and I'd say it's quite a mix of all three, leaning more towards thriller with bits of mystery and horror thrown in for flavor. The super-villain reminds me of Fu Manchu mixed with Moriarty. I was surprised at the time of reading at how much fun and how engaging this trip in to a fantastic pseudo-cult could be Satan really is quite nasty and the delight he takes in destroying those who fail him is really diabolical--and all without the blood and gore that is prevalent in more recent thrillers. There are also interesting questions to consider is Satan as supernatural as he claims or is he just an incredibly intelligent and persuasive human master criminal.

 Moving on from Avon to Bartholomew House, we have D. B. Olsen's The Clue in the Clay. Olsen's story reminded me of many B-mystery movies that I watched on Saturday and Sunday afternoons in the days of yore (before the American Movie Channel and Netflix...and even before DVDs). It's a delightfully fun kind of spooky mystery rather than the "I'm gonna have nightmares about this" creepy book. There are so many people in and out of the "murder house," there's the creepy druid statue, there's the long-abandoned mine, there's the mysterious private eye that no one can lay hands on, and there's more people popping in and out of the bushes than several rounds of "Pop Goes the Weasel."

4 Feet in the Grave by Amelia Reynolds Long is another Bart House selection. This one is even more appropriate for our Friday Fright Night extravaganza because the action takes place at the end of October and includes a ghost sighting. Katherine "Peter" Piper, a mystery writer by trade and amateur detective by inclination, is invited to Ghost Walk, the home of a fellow author, for a little Halloween get-together--an ordinary Halloween party with "Materialization and other psychic phenomena guaranteed." Of course, it turns out to be not-so-ordinary with murder an mayhem as well as a ghostly appearance.

 The Seventh Mourner by Dorothy Gardiner is an unusual mystery. The cover has a somewhat somber, somewhat Gothic look--but the flavor is more comic than mysterious. Following Moss Magill through his adventures in Scotland and discovering the murderer in their midst is more fun than puzzling, more entertaining than mystifying. But it's good solid entertainment and if you're looking for light mystery fare this Halloween, then this is just the thing. If you don't expect complex plotting and serious sleight-of-hand with clues, then you'll be ready to settle down for a pleasant read.

 

The last of the covers already reviewed on the blog, The Mystery of Hunting's End is a book that I've had a long love affair with. It was a gift from a beloved grandma and it was the very first locked room mystery I ever read. I first read it in the Crime Club hard back edition (no dust jacket) which came from Grandma. Then, somehow mysteriously, that edition disappeared and when I went looking for another copy I found the paperback edition pictured here. I spent many (re-)reading hours in that creepy, isolated hunting lodge being spooked (along with Nurse Keate) by the dog that seemed to see ghosts.