by Walter, Adam
But all is not lost. It’s still a damn good collection. Keir Cross is likened to John Collier on the blurb, and I can see why. He has the same knack for writing quirky plots and creating interesting characters. Among British authors I think he is in the same league as Nigel Kneale, whose sole collection
Tomato Cain was published around the same time as TOP. Keir Cross is, if anything, a bit weirder than Kneale, and perhaps a little more urbane – a tad decadent, in fact. ‘The Last of the Romantics’ is a grim tale using the familiar idea of a couple discussing a fellow diner in a restaurant. ‘The Glass Eye’ is a cracking bit of oddness about a woman who – in modern terms – is the stalker of a minor celebrity. The ghost story ‘Clair de Lune’ is equally good, striking a balance between revelation and mystery, and making a few points about fashionable ideas along the way. All in all, a good read.
So, seek out The Other Passenger and The Shadowy Thing, and let us all know what you think. And if you have a neglected classic to share, don’t be shy. We are all friends here. But not over-friendly. That might be disturbing…
REVIEWS BY THE EDITOR
Haunted History!
The Get Carter car park is being demolished. Indeed, by the time you read this it will probably be a hole in the ground, which to my mind will be a vast improvement. This huge concrete structure dominated the centre of Gateshead from the late Sixties. To describe it is difficult. Suffice to say that Stalin might well have rejected it as too oppressive. All of which may seem a tad peripheral to the topic of supernatural fiction; but when Brian J. Showers sent me a sheaf of his Haunted History booklets to review, the first one that I perused was an account of ghostly happenings in… You guessed it. Coincidence, or something more sinister?
Charles Urban’s Brutal Spirits, edited by Gary McMahon, is an interesting account of supposed supernatural activity in the undeniably horrific structure. It’s a convincing locale for that sort of thing, in a Ramsey Campbellish sort of way. Whether you accept Urban’s account as more than (ahem) another Urban myth is up to you, of course. But it’s an intriguing read – in Urban we had a genuine modern with a feel for the strange and eldritch.
The same can be said for the authors of the other Haunted History booklets. I was particularly taken by The Nanri Papers, which deals with another public building. As a lover of Japanese ghost/horror movies I found Edward Crandall’s account of strange doings at a primary school in Saga City. As with all ‘true’ hauntings, there is no easy solution. But much is suggested, and more is possible.
Blind Man’s Box has already appeared in Reggie Oliver’s recent collection of (otherwise fictional) ghost stories. The fate of diarist George Vilier, while it would a tad melodramatic in a story, is a salutary reminder that too much curiosity can be dangerous. A fact Dr Peter Bell might bear in mind, as his booklet On the Apparitions at Gray’s Court suggests a certain enthusiasm for probing where more cautious historians would turn back.
Rather different is The Seer of Trieste. This is the text of a private lecture given to the Kama Shastra Society by Mark Valentine, author of In Violet Veils (which I can’t recommend too highly). The subject of the lecture is Sir Richard Burton, the celebrated explorer, author and translator of The Perfumed Garden, among other works. It seems that Burton was, rather briefly, British Vice Consul in Trieste. Did he encounter a mystic visionary there? Valentine makes a good case.
Most ambitious, perhaps, in the series is The Red House at Munstereifel, a work translated by Helen Grant. Here the editor and translator attempts to untangle an account of strange events occurring over centuries in a small German town. What is the secret of the Red Rathaus? Grant wisely leaves the reader to form their own view. I, for one, am always doubtful about conspiracy theories, especially those as outlandish as the one implied here. But again, where there is doubt there is also darkness, and in the darkness much that is outlandish can flourish. The Haunted History series is an interesting addition to the relatively small genre of credible, ‘true life’ ghost stories. Confronted by such diverse examples of properly researched evidence, even a sceptic like myself can permit myself an occasional shudder and ‘What if…?’
The Haunted History series is published by the Swan River Press in Dublin. Bryan J. Showers assures me that, while some booklets are sold out, in most cases the editors can provide copies for those who seek the… let us not say truth. The facts as they presented themselves to the researchers are compelling, and we must leave it at that.
http://www.brianjshowers.com/swanriverpress.html
Cheap DVD Choice – Night of the Eagle
This 1962 film is based fairly closely on Fritz Leiber’s novel Conjure Wife. Leiber’s premise is a clever one – magic works, but it seems like pointless superstition because so many people are at it that the forces cancel each other out. This is not quite adhered to in the movie; however, there’s still enough of Leiber’s story left to make for an entertaining 92 minutes.
Peter Wyngarde stars as Norman Taylor, a sociology lecturer at an English medical college. He and his wife Tansy (Janet Blair) seem to be quite the golden couple, especially as he’s in life for promotion. But all is not well.
Norman finds that Tansy has been hiding various voodooesque items around their lovely home. It turns out that Tansy is convinced that, when they were in Jamaica, her plea to a local sorcerer saved Norman’s life after a serious accident. Ever since she has been ‘protecting’ his with various charms. Norman – who we first see lecturing on superstition, chalking ‘I do not believe’ on the board – is understandably dismayed. He forces Tansy to destroy the charms, dried spiders and all. During this fraught scene Norman accidentally throws a picture of himself from Tansy’s locket onto the flames.
Oops. The moment the ‘magic’ is dispelled, Norman gets a disturbing phone call from a mystery woman who claims they are having a sexual relationship. When he returns to college a veritable hail of misfortune descends upon him.
An infatuated female student accuses him of rape and her (American) boyfriend comes looking for him with a gun. Surely this can’t be down to black magic? And if it is, who is responsible? Night of the Eagle, while not a great horror movie, is certainly a competent and unpretentious venture into shadowy realms. There’s an excellent supporting cast, allowing you to play the game of spot the British actor. Especially notable is Reginald Beckwith, who played Mr Meek the medium in Night of the Demon.
The script by Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont (who were also working on The Twilight Zone at the time) is well above average. There are some very good set pieces; one of Norman’s lectures on superstition is turned against him by imprinting a recording with some unspecified but potent spooky noises. Perhaps the only weakness is that the special effects of the day weren’t up to realising one major scene in Leiber’s novel. I picked the DVD up for a fiver. Seek it out – it passes the time enjoyably, and time passed enjoyably is never wasted!
PUTTING THE PIECES IN PLACE
R.B. Russell
Ex Occidente Press
My first encounter with R(ay) B. Russell was at a Ghost Story Society gathering in Chester. He and Rosalie Parker had just launched Tartarus Press with the anthology Tales from Tartarus. I recall him saying that many of the stories rejected for the book were about people watching EastEnders while eating beans on toast. As a lover of beans on toast I felt slighted, but it became obvious that what he meant was that has no affection for gritty urban horror stories.
This is still the case, as this new collection from Ex Occidente demonstrates. In all five stories (this is a slim volume) there is a doubt-shaped door through which something uncanny can enter. Sometimes it is obsession that opens the door. The title story concerns a man obsessed with a dead violinist who not only obtains her rarest recording but also inhabits her former home. His desperate need to be with her, if only for a moment leads to a strange epiphany. Perhaps. In 'Eleanor' there is an altogether happier revelation in store for an elderly author who created an imm
ensely popular female character and becomes convinced that he has met her in real life.
The theme of the man obsessed is also central to 'There's Nothing That I Wouldn't Do'. Here a young British woman in Eastern Europe finds herself in a problematic relationship with a younger man who loves her unconditionally. Beyond reason, in fact. Is a shockingly bloody sacrifice really, as she says, 'all a horrible joke', or is it prove that love can conquer any physical obstacle, whether we want it to or not?
'Dispossessed' is also about a young woman with a complicated personal life. The story - like all in this collection - is written in a spare, efficient style that is (to me, at least) reminiscent of Ruth Rendell, as is the plot. A series of seemingly random events apparently lead a young woman (another one) to kill a man. Or do they? A cool detachment is evident throughout, so that the final revelation is all the more effective.
Rather different is 'In Hiding', with its ever-credible protagonist of a disgraced MP. fleeing the country. Our politician finds a small Greek island inhabited by a retired Fleet Street hack who is haunted by a terrible and stupid accident. The ghost as a symptom of mental illness is worked through with a twist that wrong-footed your humble reviewer.
In a perceptive afterword, Elizabeth Brown remarks that in these stories 'Russell leaves the door open to the supernatural and his characters are forced to question what has happened to them, and in turn they start to doubt themselves'. One thing that is in no doubt, however, is the author's gift for a finely-turned sentence and a well-crafted tale.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Louis Marvick teaches French at the University of Nevada, Reno. His scholarly work centres on the relationship of music to poetry.
Rosalie Parker grew up on a farm in Buckinghamshire, but has lived subsequently in Stockholm, Oxford, Dorset, Somerset, Sheffield, Sussex and North Yorkshire. She took degrees in English Literature and History, and Archaeology, working first as an archaeologist before returning to her first love of books. Rosalie is co-proprietor and editor of the independent publishing house, Tartarus Press, and lives in the Yorkshire Dales with her partner, the writer and publisher Ray Russell, their son and two cats.
Adam Walter is a native of the Pacific Northwest and lives with his wife and daughter in Washington state’s Puget Sound area. He credits as inspiration for his story the artwork of Dominic Kulcsar and the writing of American National Book Award nominee Mark Smith, whose ghostly novel The Moon Lamp belongs on the bookshelves of all weird tale devotees.
Two of Mark Patrick Lynch's tales have appeared in previous issues of Supernatural Tales. "Buried Beneath" in ST10 and "Lies We Tell the Trojans" in ST12. Both received Honourable Mentions in respective Year's Best anthologies. He divides his time between Kent and Yorkshire, with his girlfriend Michelle, and the mint-eating dog, Millie. Of 'Help Pass the Night', he says, "This is a story that probably reflects how much enjoyment I took from reading F Scott Fitzgerald's Gatsby and Arthur C Clarke's collection Tales From the White Hart, as both those books feature near-passive narrators, as does "Help Pass the Night". Sadly all comparisons with those particular writers and their work must end there. But a guy can dream."
Huw Langridge has been writing a mixture of weird tales and ghost stories since the early nineties, and has more recently been published in a number of UK and US magazines. He has been working on a collection of train-related shorts which he hopes to compile into a book somewhere down the line (pun intended). Huw is married and lives in Surrey, and he suffers the commute into Waterloo on a daily basis. Huw runs his own author website at www.huwlangridge.co.uk