...his haste had nothing to do with the man’s glinting eyes, or the way the shadows huddled and plotted on the wall behind him. [p. 9: 'A Study in Black and White', Bridget Collins]
A collection of eight ghost stories -- well, are they all ghost stories? They're all wintry, all chilling, and all quite different from one another. The stories are mostly by women (Andrew Michael Hurley being the exceptioon) and are all set in Britain: some are contemporary and, I think, none are set earlier than the nineteenth century.
I bought this for Natasha Pulley's 'The Eel Singers' (featuring characters from The Watchmaker of Filigree Street) and was not disappointed: this was the story that appealed most to me, with ancient lore and desolate Fens and quaint folk customs. I also found 'Monster' by Elizabeth Macneal (Victorian fossil-hunting with a dark twist) very effective, and Andrew Michael Hurley's 'The Hanging of the Greens' (Christmas, a vicar, an alcoholic and a desolate farmhouse), though it felt slight on first reading, has stuck in my head: more about the ritual than the ghost-flavoured wrapping.
This is not to say that the other stories are weak. The Haunting Season is very much the kind of anthology where one dips in between other reading, rather than reading start to finish: I think the stories I remember less about are the ones I did not read 'in isolation'. But I do remember images: a deadly game of chess, an out-of-control wheelchair, a woman crouched over a crib, a reflection in a blinded window ... Some splendid writing and deliciously chilling atmosphere: odd humour, Gothic tropes and several female protagonists. I bought this at full price and feel it was worth it.
For added entertainment, here's Amazon's categorisations for The Haunting Season, one of which is appropriate:
1 in Literary Victorian Criticism
2 in Historical Fiction Short Stories
2 in Religious Fiction Classics.
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