Help in identifying three stories

[bazz]

Hi

I am looking for help in identifying three stories from anthology books that I owned many years ago. They are all British stories.

1. A story about a bet to stay in a haunted house for a night. A man accepts the bet, stays the night and I believe he falls asleep, only to be awoken by a pair of ghostly hands which are trying to strangle him. The hands are attached to a pair of long prosthetic arms worn by the guy who made the bet and who is hiding at the foot of the bed. The intention was not to actually kill, but to make the victim flee the house in terror and therefore lose the bet. The terrified man suffers a mental breakdown and his hair goes white.

2. A story which involves a man driving down into an underground car park. The roadway gets narrower and narrower until finally his car becomes stuck and he cannot get out. This was in an anthology book published in the 1980s, I would say. The cover features an illustration of this story.

3. A story where schoolkids torment a schoolteacher. Somehow, one of them ends up in climbing into the boot of the teacher's car as a prank, but the boot lid closes and he cannot get back out. The teacher drives off and the kid in the boot is never seen again.

Thanks for any help!

Bazz

[dem bones]

Hi Bazz,

It's a long shot as I don't have a copy, but re #2 (and possibly #3), does this cover ring any bells?

If so, you'll find the table of contents on this thread

Peter Haining - Death On Wheels (Souvenir Press, 1999)

[ramseycampbell]

The first tale is "The Gentleman from America" by Michael Arlen. Like much of his macabre work it derives from someone else, in this case Ambrose Bierce's "A Watcher by the Dead".

[dem bones]

Sept 1, 2015 9:45:56 GMT ramseycampbell said:

The first tale is "The Gentleman from America" by Michael Arlen. Like much of his macabre work it derives from someone else, in this case Ambrose Bierce's "A Watcher by the Dead".

Well done, Mr. C! You know, I thought of that one, dismissed it because I couldn't remember the elongated hands. But ...

Gentleman From America

I ought to read my own rubbish.

Well, that's one of three solved.

[Dr Strange]

Sept 1, 2015 0:51:42 GMT bazz said:

2. A story which involves a man driving down into an underground car park. The roadway gets narrower and narrower until finally his car becomes stuck and he cannot get out. This was in an anthology book published in the 1980s, I would say. The cover features an illustration of this story.

Could this be "Left Hand Drive" by Christopher Fowler? It was in his first collection, "City Jitters", which came out in the 1980s.

And maybe this is the cover you remember -

Attachments:

[Dr Terror]

I think 3 is Joan Aiken - Dead Language Master.

[bazz]

Outstanding! Thank you for the replies.

The story about the underground is definitely from City Jitters, so thanks to Dr Strange.

The other two are 'The Gentleman from America' and 'Dead Language Master'. Thank you ramseycampbell and Dr Terror. A quick search brought me to another link on this site: The First Panther Book of Horror. This is the book I had.

[Shrink Proof]

These "can anybody identify (complete in not more than 12 words)?" threads amaze me. By the time I get to see and read them for the first time they're answered...

[ohthehorror]

I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking the same. The sheer knowledge of members here really amazes me. If I manage to assimilate a fraction of such minutiae in the future I'll be very pleased.