Spectre 4 - ed Richard Davis

[noose]

Abelard (1977)

CONTENTS

The Understudies - Julia Birley
Free For Dinner - Tim Stout
The Ghost of Cottfield Village - Robin Smyth
Sea Change - Samantha Lee
The Skulls in the Belfry - Pamela Cleaver
Lamia - Paul Dorrell
The Boy with the Short Haircut - Robin Smyth
The Master of Blas Gwynedd - Joyce Marsh
Scriveners Inn - Guy Weiner
The House by the Tarn - Basil COpper
Magic Carpet - T.E.D. Klein

[dem bones]

John, hope you don't mind but i've shifted the Spectres here because, although they were marketed as for children, there was plenty more oomph to the stories than you'd find in, say The Armada Monster books. Like:

Paul Dorrell - Lamia: Mycenae, Greece. Prof. Fairfax's party excavate two bodies: "One was obviously that of a man, a mere skeleton with a few shanks of hair left on the skull, the other was a woman in a state of preservation which seemed impossible. It is true that the skin was dry and taut, but the whole of her form was in tact , even her red hair and green eyes, which were wide open and looked as though they might have done in life. Much more strange - unnerving was the fact that the woman's head was laid on the shoulder of the male skeleton, her mouth seemed to bite the bone itself."

The preserved corpse bears a striking resemblance to the Prof's daughter, Helen, (shades of Blood From The Mummy's Tomb), and, in the ensuing confusion, she and the Lamia exchange places. There are some neat touches - including an axe attack - and the Lamia's feeding habits are well described. Decent ending, too.

Victoria Wrote:

Thouroughly enjoyed "Spectre 4" travelling back on the bus- thanks so much, Dem- only "1" to go!! I agree that "Lamia" is probarbly the best crafted tale, through I enjoyed the black humour of the Klein (in which a frequent flyer type finds himself seated next to a young boy about to fly for the first time. The man's annoyance with the young lads incessant questions "How does it stay up?" etc is palpable, until, worn down, he begins to question the nature of his own faith in the machine, with disastrous consequences. The Stout is also pretty good in typically gory Stout style (a mysterious object which appears in Lascelle's kitchen turns out to be a cup made of the ground skull and teeth of the charming Corvin Croken, a man possessed of supernatural powers, bulimia so acute that at one point he ate part of his own face and who's decapitated body "refused to die". Now he's looking for something else to nibble on.) Great stuff.

[noose]

Ah bollocks - didn't think about putting it in this thread. Sorry Dem!

[dem bones]

Richard Davis [ed] - Spectre 4 (Abelard, 1977)

Richard Davis - introduction

Julia Birley - The Understudies
Tim Stout - Free For Dinner
Robin Smyth - The Ghost of Cottfield Village
Samantha Lee - Sea Change
Pamela Cleaver - The Skulls in the Belfry
Paul Dorrell - Lamia
Robin Smyth - The Boy with the Short Haircut
Joyce Marsh - The Master of Blas Gwynedd
Guy Weiner - Scriveners Inn
Basil Copper - The House by the Tarn
T.E.D. Klein - Magic Carpet

Blurb:
Spectre 4 is the fourth of Richard Davis's marvellous collections of tales of the supernatural. This volume contains a wide range covering a spinechilling gothic tale, a myth horrifically brought forward to modern times, horse-worship, and a stinging tail-piece which makes a horror out of a simple journey!


Julia Birley - The Understudies: "Delia could not manage her voice and burst into tears when the producer told her she sounded like a Head Girl with plums in her mouth.". Several years ago, a boy was killed mid-show when an acrobatic stunt went catastrophically wrong. Now the school production of the Scottish Play is beset by mounting problems, not least the too spirited performance of Banquo's ghost.

Basil Copper - The House By The Tarn: (August Derleth [ed.], Dark Things. 1971). Kemp, psychic detective and Poe fan, investigates the alleged multiple haunting at Four Minds, the derelict mansion by the tarn. No sooner has he arrived than a centuries dead girl rises from the murky pool in greeting while, and once inside, he braves a shower of fleshy, foul-smelling leprous spores to reach the upper floor, where .....

Robin Smyth - The Boy with the Short Haircut : East London, 1975. Jack and Angie befriend an unfashionably dressed boy in the cinema queue for House on Haunted Hill outside the Leytonstone Odeon. The boy, Freddie Perkins, invites them to tea at his home on Plessingham Road, Woodford. The trio stick together throughout the summer holiday, culminating in a day trip to Felixstowe - by charabanc. Jack and Angie realise something strange is going on when they note the posters for the event are dated 1934 ....

T.E.D. Klein - Magic Carpet: (Lawson W. Hill [ed.], Myrddin, #3, 1976). An inquisitive six-year-old disrupts businessman McAllister's flight to LA with infernal queries along "is it really safe to fly?" and "how can 16, 000 of metal remain airborne?" lines.

[dem bones]

Samantha Lee - Sea Change: Rosheen Finnegan, all red hair, golden eyes and buttermilk skin, rises from the grave to rescue a boy drowning off the Kerry coast. Short and sweet trad ghost story, reprinted in Worse Things Than Spiders, 2013,

Guy Weiner - Scriveners Inn: The solicitor's office that dripped blood. Affable old Mr. Grimshaw, keeps a skeleton in his wardrobe - or to be specific, beneath a tree in the yard. Long time client Mrs Hetty Springfield inadvertently brings about Grimshaw's downfall by disturbing the unquiet ghost of his victim.

Tim Stout - Two For Dinner: Tim's The Skull of the Marquis de Sade. Prim lawyer Martyn Lascalles inexplicably discovers a black urn-shaped cup decorated with human teeth among the washing up. It was crafted from the skull of eighteenth century warlock and cannibal Corvin Croken, whose truncated body refused to lie down when beheaded in a duel. Croken, hideously disfigured when his bulimia drove him to tear off his own face and devour it, is again up, about and still hungry after all these years ...

[dem bones]

Robin Smyth - The Ghost of Cottfield Village: When war is declared on the eve of the Edmunsbury & District Brass Band Championship, the Cottfield musicians enlist as one, save their mascot, Billy Chambers, who is too young at thirteen. Two years later, a delighted Billy greets his bandmates as they solemnly parade through the wood - but why is drummer Tom Everett shrouded in black? It is later confirmed that the Cottfield lads were gunned down that same day in the first Battle of the Somme.

Pamela Cleaver - The Skulls in the Belfry: Against his parishioners' wishes, John Cottingham, a young priest newly arrived at a Fenland church, removes nine horse skulls arranged in a circle on the bell-tower floor. There'll be no Pagan worship in God's house! Henceforth, phantom horses ride the night, spoiling crop, trampling small children beneath their thundering hooves, until the relics are returned.

Joyce Marsh - The Master of Blas Gwynedd: The grey wolfhound drowned in attempting rescue of his master from Bottom Pond. Now it's shaggy ghost has returned, it refuses to leave the hotel. Also available in Mary Danby's 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural.