That Other Evil

The Return of Andrew Bentley  by August W. Derleth and Mark Schorer (1933)

Tuesday’s Tale of Terror   June 18, 2013

May I invite you in … to listen. Can you hear the peet peet from the nighthawk? Can you recognize the gasping and gurgling cries from the river? What’s that movement in the shadowy distance of the trees? A caped, dark and hunched creature flattens itself against the vaulted doors of your uncle’s gravesite. Gleaming white fingers spread out.

You dash to your uncle’s vault. Who would dare tamper with the dead? Who!

Uncle Amos is a dabbler of the dark arts and a believer … of evil demons lured to earth by man’s ignorance, of souls isolated in space, and of an ever-present evil wrath. Uncle Amos lives in the rustic village of Sac Prairie, in an old homestead on the banks of the Wisconsin River, until his sudden death, at which time his nephew, Ellis, inherits house and properties—and must agree to the old man’s single demand.

Uncle Amos instructs Ellis, “Let no day go by during which you do not examine the vault behind the house. My body will lie there, and the vault will be sealed. If at any time you discover that someone has been tampering, you will find written instructions for your further procedure in my library desk.”

Written instructions. This is where it really gets good. The Return of Andrew Bentley is not just a ghost story as you might expect. This is quite a thrilling story with young Ellis struggling to protect his dead uncle’s body, maintain his own sanity and safety, and avoid dipping himself into the blackest of arts.

I wish I could provide you with a direct link to the actual short story, but I could not locate a single online read anywhere, which means the copyright is not in public domain.

I did locate a video from Boris Karloff’s Thriller Theater made in 1961, vintage black-and-white and with a bit of melodrama that is so charming of that time, complete with sinister organ music. The script is written by the talented and famous Richard Matheson. And you might enjoy some of the amazing outdoor photography with horse and carriage scenes.

If you want to read this short story (I found my copy in an old anthology from 1941), 25 Modern Stories of Mystery and Imagination, Editor Phil Stong, Garden City Publishing Co., Inc. The story is also in Famous Ghost Stories by Editor Christopher Cerf, published by Vintage NY.  Both books are on AbeBooks.com or try your local library.

Watch the video here at Karloff’s Thriller Theater:

http://archive.org/details/KarloffThriller

And I found this commentary by Peter Enfantino and John Scoleri that might be an interesting addition to your evening with The Return of Andrew Bentley.

http://athrilleraday.blogspot.com/2010/10/return-of-andrew-bentley-season-2.html

A quick word about the author August Derleth who collaborated with Mark Schorer to write this shortie. Derleth, a prolific and versatile writer (over 3000 works published in 350 magazines) co-founded  Arkham House, publisher of Lovecraft’s stories, Blackwood’s and others. Some of his literary influences were not only Lovecraft but also Thoreau, Emerson, A.C. Doyle, and Robert Frost. Derleth invented the term “Cthulhu Mythos” for Lovecraft’s fictional universe.

Art Credit: A Thriller A Day Blogspot.

NOTE:  Just in case you missed this announcement, my supernatural novel, The Dazzling Darkness won Joel Friedlander’s Ebook Cover Award for Fiction, cover designer Gina Casey. Many thanks to  Gina for an award-winning cover.

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2013/06/e-book-cover-design-awards-may-2013/

http://www.hellhorror.com/links/

The Dazzling Darkness Wins Book Cover Award, First Place

Book designer GINA CASEY won First Place  in Joel Friedlander’s Book Cover Design Competition for her design of  The Dazzling Darkness. Please take a look at Friedlander’s web site and join this celebration by leaving a comment for Gina Casey at bottom of site.

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2013/06/e-book-cover-design-awards-may-2013/

 

 

 

 

Of Rats and Men

The Graveyard Rats  by Henry Kuttner (1936)

Tuesday’s Tale of Terror   June 11, 2013

We are in witch-haunted Salem, in a most dark and neglected cemetery. Our host is Old Masson the caretaker. Rats! Rats! Rats! And of extraordinary size, scabrous, ragged whiskers, fanged with dull orange teeth and claws that … well, need I say more?

While greed is a pretty ugly characteristic in most fictional characters, our dear Old Masson’s greed is nothing compared to what these rats are capable of doing to the dead lying in their coffins. And when Old Masson finds this shoe, a shoe that … I can’t say anymore.

Want shivers? Want chills? How are you with subterranean evil?

The Graveyard Rats was Henry Kuttner’s first publication in 1936 in Weird Tales. His fame soared with The Secret of Kralitz, The Eater of Souls, The Salem Horror. Today Kuttner is a forgotten author of horror/sci-fi. He wrote under various pen names with his wife C.L. Moore. If you’re fond of Lovecraftian horror, this one has all the elements. Kuttner corresponded with Lovecraft about his stories, so the inspiration is first hand.

And after reading this tale of terror, if you still want more, The Salem Horror will satisfy your hunger for horror.

Read The Graveyard Rats at WikiSource:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Graveyard_Rats

Read The Salem Horror at  
http://www.donaldcorrell.com/kuttner/shorror.html

Want audio? I love being read to. How about The Secret of Kralitz? (YouTube 18-minute narration) A haunted house, family curse, mad laughter,  and the chill gleam of evil.

 Follow Me on Twitter

http://www.hellhorror.com/links/

Watching A Dead Body in White Linen

A Dead Body  by Anton Chekhov (1886)

Tuesday’s Tale of Terror  June 4, 2013

 

How many stories have you read where the dead body is the main character? This short-short (really a snapshot of a moment in fiction, a 15-minute read) by Chekhov is probably not one his most praised pieces of work. We know Chekhov for his brilliant plays, for his literary and spiritual intelligence, but he’s not well known for his tales of terror. Most would be surprised to hear that his first short story sold to Dragonfly in 1880; thus began his career as a crime and mystery writer.

I liked A Dead Body because the story does not really “develop” for the reader, but more “envelopes” the reader. It’s highly mysterious and a puzzle that still haunts me with its drama and symbolism. In fact, everything here is emblematic and makes for a fascinating attempt to draw connections. Dan Brown could learn something from Chekhov’s subtle and elusive prose.

The scene opens on an August night in the misty forest. A dead man is shrouded  in white linen on the ground. A wooden cross is upon his chest. Two peasant men are sitting by “watching.”  One man is smart. The other man, Syoma, is not so smart and doesn’t really understand; he is told to “Think!”

There is perfect stillness.

There is sleepiness.  A small camp fire is burning down. There is mention of an owl … a crane … three minutes … three days. A soul.

The “watch” is silent.

And then a stranger in a monk’s cassock, a pilgrim, comes by. There is talk of outer darkness, murder, and suicide. There is an offer of money, five kopecks. The monk makes a movement of five steps.

There is the fear of the dead.

Chekhov weaves us into a moment of pure suspension. Don’t miss it because the ending will cause you to say, What? What happened here? Typical of Chekhovian endings, which often just suddenly stop or hit you with the unexpected. In fact, the absolute last image still has me captured … as it will you.

Take fifteen minutes to read this story that is likely a forgotten and puzzling tale. And if you have any insight as to the meaning of the last line, do post your thoughts in the Comments. I’m starving for opinions on this one!

 

Read the full text at The Literature Network

http://www.online-literature.com/anton_chekhov/1134/

 

 
http://www.hellhorror.com/links/

Adventures in Death: Poe’s Maelström

A Descent Into the Maelström  by Edgar Allan Poe (1841)

Tuesday’s Tale of Terror  May 28,2013

If you like sea adventures, this one is an absolute must read … Picture yourself high upon a cliff on the mountain of Helseggen the Cloudy above a raging sea on the Norwegian coastline.

Some say death comes in installments offering us choices. When Edgar Allan Poe wrote A Descent into the Maelström, he presents a unique question. Is it worth it to succumb to death, hang on desperately to your life, or defy it and figure your way out? In this story, Poe takes us a step further. He tempts us into the darkness of death and opens us up to the wild beauty of nature.

We had now reached the summit of the loftiest crag.

This opening line is from an old man with shocking white hair, but not old because of age. This man is weakened, unstrung, and shaky because of “six hours of deadly terror.”

Three brothers are on a fishing trip on a schooner-rigged smack. A maelström, you probably know, is a violent whirlwind, a frenzied convulsive vortex of water. The depth of the maelstrom’s violent water might go to forty fathoms. If you were trapped inside this gyrating vortex, would you wait for death and spiral down into the abyss?

Or keep your eyes open in search of a rainbow?

Read it at Classic Literature:

http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/eapoe/bl-eapoe-descent.htm

If you prefer a narration, you might enjoy this two-part story (30 minutes total) on YOUTUBE:

Part I: 

Part 2:

http://www.hellhorror.com/links/

The Lashing Dangers of Miss Northcott

John Barrington Cowles by A.C. Doyle (1890)   This week May 22 is Doyle’s birth date.

Tuesday’s Tale of Terror   May 22, 2013

What is it about a beautiful woman that hints of danger?  And why is this danger so irresistible to men?  Maybe it’s the Greek myths embedded in our subconscious, the sirens (part human, part bird) who lured men by their rippling and mesmerizing song. We are reminded that a man can easily succumb to the purple-darkened seduction of a woman.  Maybe some men love to play the victim to great beauty and obsession. Maybe some women love to play the siren. Sirens were not just luring men for sexual pleasure, they were man-eating beasts. Doyle certainly loved to play with this theory and he wrote with a rich haunting effect in John Barrington Cowles.

Our central character is a dreamy sort of man, highly strung, a professional in anatomy and physics, and lives a rather solitary life. In an art gallery, Cowles meets a ravishing woman, “white as marble,” in a dark dress and white fur. Miss Kate Northcott is described as a “real Greek type.” Ah-hem, Greek? When Odysseus found he couldn’t resist the siren’s song, in order to prevent jumping to his death into the water, he tied himself to the mast of the ship! Perhaps Cowles should have done the same.

Not only does this story produce supernatural intrigue, romance, and mystery, but there’s just the slightest hint of erotica (a whip and a Scottish terrier)–at least as much as Doyle could sensibly write in the Victorian 1890s, but it’s there if you like to read between the lines as I do.

Miss Northcott is quite feminine, clever, even a dash masculine for flavor, but more to the point Miss Northcott can switch on a steely gaze. Does Cowles become bewitched? Does he become her obsessed victim? Meet Miss Northcott with “white fingers” and “lips inclined to thinness.”

Read the full text at Readbookonline:

http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2659/

As a bonus for A.C. Doyle’s birth date, I’ve added a podcast. Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles is most famous, but there are other stories about hounds.  How about  Lovecraft’s The Hound. This short story is narrated by Lawrence Santoro at Tales to Terrify. Lawrence has a five-minute introduction and then reads this exciting story that has a werewolf, vampire, giant bats, a dead wizard and more …

http://talestoterrify.com/tales-to-terrify-no-37-h-p-lovecraft-conrad-williams/

ONE MORE THING …

I’ll be on The Author’s Corner for a radio interview, Roxboro, North Carolina on May 23, Thursday night at 9:30 pm EASTERN time, with host Elaine Raco Chase. Call in and chat on blog talk radio:

www.trianglevarietyradio.com

 

 

 

I Have Often Heard It Scream

The Screaming Skull by Francis Marion Crawford (1908)

Tuesday’s Tale of Terror   May 14, 2013

[In addition, see below for the **MYSTERY BONUS Short Story** … new podcast!]

Consider this: a murder, a haunting, a tinned iron ladle, and a hatbox containing a skull. If the tinned ladle isn’t sinister enough for you, I promise, it will be.

The Screaming Skull is not about reading a horror story. The Screaming Skull is about listening, and listening not just with your ears, but with your imagination. As we avid supernatural readers know, ghosts are never only about ghosts.

Captain Charles Braddock, our narrator, is a rational man who absolutely does not believe in the supernatural or in ghosts. When he inherits a house by the sea from his cousin Luke Pratt (a country doctor who is found dead with a wicked bite in the throat by some unknown creature), Braddock is repeatedly tested in his beliefs.

Captain Braddock narrates this story while sitting in Luke’s chair, by Luke’s hearth, in Luke’s house. Braddock explains the events to a “friend” sitting opposite him in Luke’s wife’s chair.  This friend is quite mysterious because he’s not only anonymous but doesn’t ever speak a single word. We learn his reactions only through Braddock. What an odd literary technique, to say the least, for our author to create a character so mute, so passive, so nondescript that he’s practically a ghost himself. This technique, though,  is highly effective if you the reader, if you the “listener” sit in the wife’s chair and listen as if YOU are the friend.  [I admit I’m in the realm of speculation here, but I do think the author intended his reader to be the friend to fully experience this little horror.]

To tell you more of this story would ruin the unfolding of the narrative method. The title tells you enough. Yes, there is unidentified shrieking in the house. Yes, there is a mysterious skull (I’m partial to skulls as some of you know who have read The Dazzling Darkness).

The question for Braddock is … is the screaming truly supernatural? Or is the screaming the effect of the wind, the gloomy tides, or even Braddock’s own psychological shrieking? The ending answers this explicitly!

“Hush!—if you don’t speak, you will hear it now.”

Read it at Gaslight etexts.

http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/scremskl.htm

**MYSTERY BONUS SHORT STORY**

I’m thrilled to announce that my latest short story Abasteron House is now a narration by Folly Blaine, podcast at Every Day Fiction. And just in time for May National Short Story Month—my first literary podcast. And only 9 minutes long at the link below.  If you like the story, I’d so appreciate a comment and a star rating on their Web site. Many thanks!

http://www.everydayfiction.com/podcast-edf117-abasteron-house-by-paula-cappa-read-by-folly-blaine/

http://www.hellhorror.com/links/

Next Week, A.C. Doyle in honor of his birth date on May 22nd.