Herbert Van Thal (ed.) - 20th Pan Book Of Horror Stories (1979)
Carolyn L. Bird - The Leather Ottoman
A. G. J. Rough - The Materialist
Edwin Brown - Round Every Corner
Rosemary Timperley - Hell on Both Sides of the Gate
John Arthur - Don’t Go Down in the Woods
Alan Temperley - The Victorian Conservatory
Harry E. Turner - The Lion’s Cradle
Francis King - School Crossing
Norman P. Kaufman - Contents
Sheryl Stuart - The Law: Its Administrators
Carl Schiffman - A Smell of Fresh Paint
Thomas Muirson - A Country TaleCarolyn L. Bird - The Leather Ottoman: Gold-digger Susannah cheats on her far older, sex-starved husband with the ghosts of Casanova and Don Juan who she summons by renting items of their clothing from the museum. He bribes the curator to help him teach her a lesson she won't live to forget by throwing a garment that once belonged to Gaston Desgrades, the Paris strangler, into the mix.
Norman P. Kaufman - Contents: Pedro de los Espanitos, womaniser and embezzler, masquerades as a doctor to seduce Julia, the daughter of an eminent surgeon. Julia falls pregnant, he scarpers, Julia throws herself into the sea, and father vows to track down and punish the heartless fraudster. And when he does: "You've heard of taxidermy, yes? I'm going to
un-stuff you!" Needless to say, this being a Kaufman story, he first administers a drug that ensures de los Espanitos is conscious throughout the entire process (see his sick classic
Lady On Display in #19). Don't look in that bucket! Don't look ... Euw ...
Harry E. Turner - The Lion’s Cradle: Audacious cat-burglar Eddie is caught breaking into the Villa Louvigny, home to Saudi oil-Sheik Hosien and his priceless art collection. Back at home, the Sheik explains, Harry would have his hand chopped off for his crime, and he sees no reason why he shouldn't suffer the same fate now, even if they are in Cannes. But he is a sportsman and the thief will given a chance to retain limb and liberty should he successfully withdraw his hand from
The Lion's Cradle, a miniature guillotine. Of course, there is an additional obstacle to make the challenge more interesting ....
Sheryl Stuart - The Law: Its Administrators: Teenage thugs carve up "unassuming and inoffensive" members of the public - or, at least, that's the way the newspapers report it. Hubert, a 39 year old retard, discovers for himself that their attacks are far from motiveless after he rapes and kills a runaway in Hyde Park.
Thomas Muirson - A Country Tale: Grenville's Copse, once the haunt of witches and druids, refuses to be levelled and woe betide any man who attempts to chop down a solitary tree. Narrated by a gnarled old man in the pub who is as expert on local legend as he is cadging pints. He's not quite what he seems ....
Some minor gore, but this would have been at home in one of the Chetwynd-Hayes edited
Fontana Book Of Great Ghost Stories.
Francis King - School Crossing: An embittered, sacked headmaster is tormented by visions of ghostly schoolchildren suddenly appearing on the crossing just as he's fast approaching in his Aston Martin. An Optathologist assures him that the best way to confront these "mild hallucinations" as to drive through them. You've guessed the rest, but that harms this grim and unrelenting story not at all ...
Alan Temperley - The Victorian Conservatory: University student Colin Rowell is distraught after his girlfriend Bronwen disappears after a late-night visit to the Hothouse in the Botanical Gardens where she's been expertly sketching the plants as part of her course work. Together with his skirt-chasing pal Barry he investigates the Conservatory. What is the significance of that statue of a negroid satyr, and why are so many small, dead animals placed before it each night? It's obvious, really. Devil-worshipping tropical plants!
Carl Schiffman - A Smell of Fresh Paint: George and Helen buy the long-vacant house in Moorthorn Road at a knock-down price. It's not been exactly
des res since Mr. Simons was carted off to a mental institution in 1958. But who is that filthy old hag creeping about in the garden and why has Helen changed something awful since they moved in, like she's possessed or something? When his wife serves up their pet cat as a "chicken" dinner, George finally acts. When he discovers a cupboard concealed underneath a layer of wallpaper, he seals his doom ....
John Arthur - Don’t Go Down in the Woods: Precocious seventeen-year-old schoolgirl Susie fancies the mysterious thirty-something hunk who's just pitched a tent in the woods. He's only recently been released from 'Broadheath' maximum security psychiatric hospital, having strangled a girl with her tights in his youth and has chosen to live in isolation, knowing that, whatever the "experts" have decided, he's far from cured. A young man was recently brutally murdered five miles away in Draybridge and he's terrified the police will try and pin that one on him. And now this girl has crept into his tent and began stripping off .....
A. G. J. Rough - The Materialist: Sheila Parker, dying of cancer, turns to 'psychic surgery' as her final hope of beating the disease. Caring husband Giles flies with her to Manila to meet Mr. Tony Parmeo of the Spiritualist Movement and detests him on sight, believing his prowess as a "miracle worker" to be vastly over-rated. But Parmeo is no fraud and cures Sheila. Unfortunately, he's taken great exception to Giles' accusations ....
Edwin Brown - Round Every Corner: Tom Clayton, a junior partner at the engineering factory, is haunted by his dead boss. Tom was sleeping with Sam Bradshaw's wife Celia for several months before he was run down in the road, and could have saved his life had he not decided against shouting a warning. Now Clayton has learned from a fortune-teller that the vengeful ghost wants a quiet word with him ...
Rosemary Timperley - Hell on Both Sides of the Gate: Gordon Sleight, seventy, is released from an asylum for the criminally insane having served twenty-five years of a life sentence for murdering his slatternly wife. He considered it his duty to new-born daughter Astrid to ensure she had the best chance in life, and her mother certainly wasn't going to be allowed to drag her down.
Now Astrid, happily married, is to meet him for the first time and is less than thrilled at the prospect. Sleight will be staying with he and her husband Cyril, a lighthouse-keeper who spends one month at home, two months away on duty. The domineering Sleight soon makes clear his loathing for Cyril, alienates him from his exhausted daughter and then instigates his death. He takes her husband's place in Astrid's bedroom and soon she's pregnant with his daughter. You can bet he'll see to it that she has the best chance in life ....
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