John Gawsworth (ed.) - Thrills, Crimes & Mysteries (Associated Newspapers, n.d., 1935)
Illustrations: Norman Keene John Gawsworth - Foreword
Frederick Carter - The Skeleton
Sir Ronald Ross - The Vivisector Vivisected
Arthur Machen - The Gift Of Tongues
M. P. Shiel - The Purchester Instrument
Hubert Crackanthorpe - A Fellside Tragedy
Nugent Barker - The Invalid
Richard Middleton - The Wrong Turning
M. P. Shiel - The Flying Cat
Charles Duff - The Old Lawyer's Tale
E. H. Visiak - Rescued
Arthur Machen - Torture
Richard Middleton - The Last Adventure
E. H. W. Meyerstein - A Woman A Dog And A Walnut Tree
M. P. Shiel - The Death-Dance
Francis Marsden - The Mask
Richard Middleton & Edgar Jepson - The Cry Of A Century
M. P. Shiel - At The Eleventh Hour
Anthony M. Ludovici - What The East Wind Brought
E. H. Visiak & A. Vesselo - "I Am A Murderer"
Eimar O'Duffy - The Mystery Of The Octagon Room
Frederick Carter - Gold Like Glass
M. P. Shiel - The Place Of Pain
Herbert De Hamel - The Mills Of Hell
Stephen Graham - Kitchener At Archangel
Francis Marsden - The Captain
Arthur Machen - Drake's Drum
Frederick Carter - The Harrying Of The Dead
E. H. W. Meyerstein - The Bath
Eimar O'Duffy - The Glass Panel
T. F. Powys - A Suet Pudding
Oswell Blakeston - Superintendent Deering's Dilemma
Edgar Wallace - The Strangeness Of Joab Lashmere
R. L. Megroz - December
Malachi Whitaker - The Flying Pig
Dorothy L. Sayers - A Shot At Goal
R. L. Megroz - The Disappearance Of George Wake
Nugent Barker - The Six
Stephen Graham - A Document: From The Russian
Louis Golding - The Haunted Cinema
Stephen Graham - Aha
E. H. W. Meyerstein - The Triptych
Thomas Burke - The Funspot Street Affair
John Lindsey - You Wouldn't Understand
Oswell Blakeston -Superintendent Deering Puts A Question
E. H. W. Meyerstein - Statement Of A Scholar
M. R. James - There Was A Man Dwelt By A Churchyard
Simon Dewes - Mr Parsons' Revenge
Eimar O'Duffy - Miss Kitten's Case
Oswell Blakeston - The Fear From The Lake
Agatha Christie - The Second Gong
E. H. W. Meyerstein - The Pageant
Nugent Barker - Whessoe
L. A. G. Strong - Orpheus
Hugh MacDiarmid - Tam Mackie's Trial
Mary Francis McHugh - Encounters At Night
Caradoc Evans - The Coffin
R. L. Megroz - The Fluke Cannon
E. H. Visiak - The Legacy
Oswell Blakeston -The Solution
G. R. Malloch - The Shopwalker's Wife
Marcus Magill - Flat To Let
E. H. W. Meyerstein - The Rival Poets
Rhys Davies - The Friendly Creature A mere 864 pages, much harder for the ghoul to digest than the
Centuries ... , and i admit to loathing them for years due to Gawsworth's insistence on including at least as many straight thrillers as he did horror stories in each volume. Then, not so long after we started Vault, i got proper stuck into
Crimes, Creeps & Thrills, and had a rare old time with it. John Gawsworth (1912-1970) edited at least another five of these "superdreadnought class horror anthologies" (utilizing many of the same authors);
Strange Assembly (1932),
Full Score (1933),
New Tales Of Horror (1934),
Thrills (aka
Crimes, Creeps And Thrills) and
Masterpiece Of Thrills (both 1936). Hugh Lamb and Richard Dalby have revived some choice items from the series - by Nugent Barker, Oswell Blakestone and Charles Duff among others - and you could compile a great 25-30 story horror anthology from the pick of the stories, and, quite possibly, a second, amusing-for-all-the-wrong-reasons one, too.
Hubert Crackanthorpe - A Fellside Tragedy: A
Terror Tales From The Lake District contender. Jenny King is to wed 'Long Joe' the surly farmhand until his temper gets the better of him and he runs a colleague through with a pitchfork. Joe goes into hiding in the local woods, and Jenny, desperate that her lover should escape, filches her kindly mistress's life savings to finance his flight. Beside herself with guilt and haunted by a photograph of a female convict, Jenny runs off into the Pennines. After sharing a rock with the skeleton of a sheep, she decides it's better to live in chains than die of starvation and, bruised and bleeding, makes the arduous trek back to Langley's farm to confess her theft. She arrives during the night and collapses in a hayrick. She's still asleep the following morning when the farmers get to work ....
E. H. W. Meyerstein - The Bath: It's a big, deep one, and the main reason our narrator, an author, agrees to rent the dingy flat in a rough London district. Two years ago, troubled Miss Bray drowned in the tub, and very soon she's making her presence known to him. Comes the night when the lights fuse as he's enjoying a relaxing soak ...
This next has a mid-late Pan Horror vibe before it short-circuits. It's still pointlessly spiteful, just not in the way you probably hope.
Arthur Machen - Torture: Ugly, pasty-faced Robert, fifteen, drives his father and teachers to distraction. Not only is he thick, but he detests cricket! Actually, Robert detests everything and everyone most of the time, but today he's excited because he's thought of a brill new game to try out. A box of sharp, home-made tools under his arm, he leads pretty twelve year old Charlotte Emery into the woods ....
Nugent Barker - The Invalid: Ann, a manipulative so-and-so, bullies her elder sister Mary into waiting on her hand and foot while she lies bedridden with acute hypochondria. The invalid is insistent that DEATH is lurking outside the house, and Mary must pile the furniture against the door to bar his entry. No, better remove it, because now she thinks of it, Ann would prefer she could hear him creeping about out there. On second thoughts, it might be safer if Mary put it all back again. But then again ....
When Dr. Lassie calls to check on the malingerer, you can bet there'll be a corpse awaiting him, but whose?
More late-Victorian sex comedy than horror is:
Charles Duff - The Old Lawyer's Tale: . John Holzing, well-to-do Rhyllport wine merchant, is an unlikely Romeo, what with his just having the one eye *in addition to other blemishes nature had stamped upon him." His wife dies young, worn down by his multiple infidelities, leaving a vacancy that her beautiful sister Christine is quick to to fill. Now Holzing genuinely loves Christine but, while she's happy to share his bed, she declines his increasingly desperate marriage proposals, leaving him no option but to devise a plan B: he'll take local widow Joan as his second bride but continue to carry on with his bit of fluff on a fortnightly basis. Christine's willing acceptance of this proposal, however, only sparks his homicidal jealousy, and the Wedding reception is far from dull.
At his trial, Holzing pleads temporary insanity and wins his life in exchange for six years penal servitude. On his release, with Joan having passed away, he's soon sniffing around another floozy, Rose Otter, and off we go again!
Some i made earlier: have re-read both and still rate them as best-in-book contenders.
Norman Keene Richard Middleton -The Wrong Turning: George finds himself stranded on treacherous marshland at night. Despite his misgivings, he stops at a cheerless homestead in the middle of nowhere, worryingly named 'The House of Woe'. Therein he finds two men, a mother and her baby, the woman, Mary, being the girl George deserted when she fell pregnant. Finding the atmosphere unbearable, George decides to leave. Mary kindly offers to show him the path through the bog.
Middleton is probably best known for
The Ghost Ship and
On The Brighton Road, but if it's horror you're after, this is the one.
Oswell Blakeston - The Fear From The Lake: Helga has been married to Ronnie for three years now and, much to his fury, still refuses to bow to his will in all things so, sure enough, when his old chum Martin offers them the run of his country house and grounds if he can stay at their place in London, that's it, they're going whether wifey fancies it or not! Helga isn't concerned for herself, but begs Ronnie to let her leave their three year old daughter, Christine at home with nurse as Martin's estate is reputedly haunted by the ghost of a wailing infant. Naturally, Ronnie won't hear of such "ridiculous old maid's yarns".
Deliciously grim and the thoroughly satisfying, nasty-minded ending is worthy of cheerful Charles Birkin.