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Post by dem bones on Jan 12, 2008 15:47:50 GMT
Jessica Amanda Salmonson - Harmless Ghosts: The Penelope Pettiweather Stories (Haunted Library, 1990)  Dallas Goffin
The Hounds Of The Hearth
Harmless Ghosts
JeremiahThe Hounds Of The Hearth: Happily, the flame fiends of the title are anything but harmless, torching the unfortunate Theo Elliott to a charred lump of meat when his finances dictate that he must sell off the family library. As the collection includes first editions of several Gothic classics including The Bravo Of Venice, Tales From The Convent and The Pleasures Derived From Objects Of Terror, you can understand them being upset. When antiquarian and psychic detective Penelope Pettiweather investigates the gruesome death she learns that the 'hounds' are the revenants of an Irish couple wronged by Theo's book-loving ancestor. The man hung himself in prison, the woman starved to death in the street. Can she set them at peace and end the haunting? Harmless Ghosts: "The old woman would be floating about four inches from the floor, generally in front of the stove and she would be making a stirring motion as though there were a pot of boiling stew. It quite unnerved my mother." Shortest in the book and told mainly in dialogue between Penelope and her friend Jerome. Is the ghost is that his mother often spoke to really benign, or was it responsible for the old girl breaking her neck? Jeremiah: Told in a letter to Penelope's friend and fellow antiquarian, Jane Bradshaw, the heroine of 'Mary Ann Allen's The Angry Dead. 85 year old Gretta Adamson has been visited by dead husband Jeremiah at midnight on Christmas Eve these past fifteen years. A victim of Alzheimer's, he died delirious and hallucinating, hating his wife who he accused of poisoning him. The truth of the matter, unknown to Penelope, is that Gretta did poison him, but it was a mercy killing, something the demented spectre is unable to comprehend.
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Post by ropardoe on Jun 17, 2016 9:05:45 GMT
Peter Coleborn's The Alchemy Press (https://alchemypress.wordpress.com/) is about to publish The Complete Weird Epistles of Penelope Pettiweather, Ghost Hunter, which reprints all three stories from Harmless Ghosts along with twelve others (two new): "Full of the rich history and landscape of Salmonson’s northwest USA, these quiet tales will appeal to the fan of the traditional ghost story".
A number of these stories are couched as letters written to Jane Bradshawe - the character created by Mary Ann Allen - so obviously I have a personal interest. They are very nice, atmospheric stories, set in what is the most beautiful part of the world (in my opinion - but then, I love rain!), and with a unique voice. But don't expect Jamesian nastiness - there's not a lot of that.
Here's the list of contents:
The Hounds of the Hearth
Serene Omen of Death in the
Pike Place Market
The Spirit Shaman
The Forest in the Lake
The Oval Dragon
The Woman Who Turned to Soap
Legend of the White Eagle Saloon
Sarah, the Ghost of Georgetown Castle
Fritz, the Gentle Ghost of Shaw Island
Ogopogo
Harmless Ghosts
The Burnley School Ghost
The Queen Mum
Jeremiah
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Post by dem bones on Jun 17, 2016 12:01:40 GMT
Here's the cover artwork.  Stephen CooneyHas the ever-mysterious Mary Ann Allen made further special guest appearances outside of her reluctant starring role in The Angry Dead? |
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Post by ropardoe on Jun 17, 2016 14:13:39 GMT
Has the ever-mysterious Mary Ann Allen made further special guest appearances outside of her reluctant starring role in The Angry Dead? Jane Bradshawe also puts in an appearance in David Rowlands' Father O'Connor story "Conkers", in which Fr O'Connor (literally) trips over her! |
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Post by dem bones on Jun 17, 2016 22:15:05 GMT
Has the ever-mysterious Mary Ann Allen made further special guest appearances outside of her reluctant starring role in The Angry Dead? Jane Bradshawe also puts in an appearance in David Rowlands' Father O'Connor story "Conkers", in which Fr O'Connor (literally) trips over her! Ah. I had a David G. Rowlands mini-season some months back, but not sure I revisited Conkers. Here's the esteemed Lurkio's analysis of the story in Ghosts & Scholars #5. |
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Post by jamesdoig on Jun 18, 2016 8:16:12 GMT
Here's the cover artwork. Stephen Cooney Nice cover. I also like this one:  |
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Sept 2, 2016 19:54:27 GMT
Has the ever-mysterious Mary Ann Allen made further special guest appearances outside of her reluctant starring role in The Angry Dead? A certain M.A. Allen - 'a researcher with a scholarly interest in... Dr. Grace's ghost stories' - appeared in my story, 'The Travelling Companion' as a nod of acknowledgement to Miss Allen's assistance in putting me in touch with Dr. H.S. Grace's estate to allow the reprinting of his story 'An Unwise Purchase' in the pages of my first collection. Whether or not this M.A. Allen and Mary Anne Allen are one in the same, I wouldn't care to hazard a guess. |
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