J. B. Stamper - Tales for the Midnight Hour

[dem bones]

The Magic Vanishing Box: Ben, who is obsessed with magic tricks, buys the shiny black, two foot square, brass hinged box from the 'Curiosities of the Past' antique shop. An inscription of the lid warns against catching your hand inside. So he does, obviously.

Wait Till Max Comes: Dark, stormy night. Stranded stranger. Old dark house in the middle of nowhere, deserted but for a small grey kitten. He gets a fire going. How much better than sleeping rough in this filthy weather. A second, slightly larger kitten arrives. I liked the first book, the fashion victim pair in particular. Shame this one is becoming a grind.

The Old Beggar Woman: "Some day you will be like me, poor and ugly and starving." New England during a time of famine. Mrs Agatha Parry, wealthy widow, begrudges her dying neighbours the scraps from the dog bowl, even going so far as to tear a ring from her finger and throw it into the sea before a dying beggar woman. " I will never be like you. I can never be poor, just as this ring can never return from the sea."

The Masked Ball: The Halloween party turns to terror for Kate when she recognises a horrible face - the leering vampire of her recurring nightmare.

[dem bones]

Finally for Still More Tales For The Midnight Hour.

Skin-and-Bones: The lads at the Red Fox Inn warn Jacob Cooper against travelling the ten miles to Platkill on such a wretched night, but he'll not be dissuaded. In that case, under no circumstances must he stop for a woman by the roadside, as that will be Skin-and-bones, a living skeleton in distressed female guise whose sole desire is to get her sharp, bony hands around your neck. I liked this one. It reads like a cod-Victorian precursor of The Hook.

The Snake Charmer: Lucy Morris, whose father's research has uprooted the family to Kampur, insists that the decrepit fakir cease his infernal flute-playing. He agrees to do so if she'll cut off a lock of hair for his pet cobra to play with.

The Snipe Hunt: To attain full membership of the Campfire Club, four boys must each set off into the dark wood with a sack and attempt to catch a Snipe. And what exactly is a Snipe? They'll know when they see one. Oh, and this news just in. A murderer has escaped from the local asylum.