Stefan DziemianowiczReviews

Read some years ago - can't recall much except that a large chunk is taken up by a very striking novella by Joyce Carol Oates, "The Virgin in the Rose Bower". My main 'take' from this collection was a determination to follow up other fiction by Oates, which I have, at the time of writing, began to read.

A great story for the young mystery lover. Good life lessons and adorable characters.

Got this book to read Nina's story but I'll pick out some more. Most of these are really, really, really old stories. I have a hard time with old dialect so I often stick to stories from 1970 unless something convinces me to break that rule like a good recommendation or a familiar name.

Read:
~Nina Kiriki Hoffman - Coming Home 1990 - 2* - This author must have had something bad happen to her as a kid :/ This one stayed with me a bit after reading. The ghost was her 9 year old self. She "died" after an incident when she was 9. As an adult she moves back into the house where it happened. That is where the ghost is. :(

~Fred Chappell - Miss Prue 1981 1* I got to the end but I don't really get it.

~Alan Brennert - Ghost Story 1977 DNF disjointed, not a story

~Steve Rasnic Tem (3)
1. Daddy 1986 2*,
2. Her New Parents 1988 2* unreliable narrator I think,
3. Shadows in the Grass 1983 2*

~William F. Nolan - Gibbler's Ghost 1974 - 3* - haha the irony. He solves his first problem just to have it happen again.

~Jessica Amanda Salmonson Harmless Ghosts 1990 3*

~August W. Derleth (2)
1. The Metronome 1934 3*,
2. Pacific 421 1944 4*

~M.R. James - Rats 1929 - 2* - I did struggle with the dialect. I didn't really understand the ending and all the reviews on GRs don't tell you the ending. Instead they say "read it for yourself". So I found this http://literature.wikia.com/wiki/Rats which puts it in modern English. That was helpful and brought the story up to a 2*.

~The Night Wire (1926) by Henry Ferris (AKA H. F. Arnold) - ppl seem to highly recommend but I didn't enjoy. - 1* - A classic "weird tale". I'm sure in the 1920s it was great but at this point I'm at saturation and ready to move on. A bit of the Orson Wells aliens are landing combined with a Twilight Zone ending.

This is a 613 page anthology of very short mystery stories, all featuring cats in one way or another. Cats being mysteries themselves are very good at solving mysteries created by we imperfect humans:) Each of the 100 little stories here, by different authors, take only minutes to read and all feature cats either as the good guys… or in some cases the bad. Of course everyone who is, or has ever been, owned by a cat knows that there is no such thing as a “bad” cat...simply misunderstood. Some of the stories are deadly serious while others are absolutely hilarious. Even if you are a “dog” person you will find these little stories delightfully entertaining…and for “cat” people…they are diffidently recommended by your cat.½

For my review of this book, visit my Youtube Vlog at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krTKUrAgCXc

Enjoy!

Just a quick breakdown based on the table of contents;

1. Behind the Curtain by Francis Stevens 4/5
2. Pegasus by Henry Kuttner 3/5
3.The Face in the Abyss by A. Merritt 4/5
4. Fungus Isle by Philip M. Fisher 4/5
5. John Ovington Returns by Max Brand 4/5
6. Fishhead by Irvin S. Cobb 4/5
7. The Outcast by E.F. Benson 3/5
8. The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers 5/5
9.The Derelict by William Hope Hodgson 5/5
10. The Novel of the White Powder by Arthur Machen 5/5
11. The Highwayman by Lord Dunsany 5/5
12. Daemon by C. L Moore 4/5
13. The Burial of the Rats by Bram Stoker 3/5
14.The Day of the Deepies by Murray Leinster 2/5
15. The Horror of the Heights by Arthur Conan Doyle 4/5
16. The Lonesome Place by August Derleth 4/5
17. The Shadow and the Flash by Jack London 4/5
18. That Low by Theodore Sturgeon 3/5
19. The Human Angle by William Tenn 4/5
20. The Toys of Fate by Tod Robbins 4/5
21. The Counter Charm by Margaret St. Clair 4/5
22. Guardian Angel by Authur C. Clarke 4/5
23. Mimic Donald A. Wollheim 5/5
24. The Music of Erich Zann by H. P. Lovecraft 4/5
25. The Dancing Partner by Jerome Lucas White 5/5
26. Lukundoo by Edward Lucas White 3/5
27. The Man Who Collected Poe by Robert Bloch 5/5
28. Thus I Refute Beelzy by John Collier 4/5
29. Homecoming by Ray Bradbury 4/5
30. Worms of the Earth by Robert E. Howard 4/5

Overall a pretty damn good collection of later pulp-era stuff. Not everyone was an absolute gem, but a lot of them were stories I hadn't read before that I ended up liking a lot, and there were some big-name classics in the mix as well.

This one is great, it got me really started looking around at other crime anthologies besides Sherlock Holmes. A must have for the crime lover

See full review here - Reviews for each story still in progress
https://gszengarden.wixsite.com/bakerstreetlibrary/book-the-rivals-of-sherlock-h...

You know the nights when you're wanting something to read just before you drop off? Something that's not TOO engaging, just interesting enough to keep your attention and complete in a very short span of time? How about a hundred short stories in a 570 page volume? Would that work for you?

Chances are you've seen these titles before. Barnes & Noble marketed them in the 90s and mid 00s. There were at least a half-dozen different titles I can remember, all horror related. Apparently someone was trying to ride the great wave of horror genre enthusiasm and JUST missed. But that's okay; the books were mass-produced and sold fairly cheaply, even the hardcovers were under $10. If you're lucky, you can find them at used book stores for $5 or less now…this one I got for $1. And it's worth that for one story alone: "The Thing In The Cellar" by David Keller. Wow! I read that one when I was in grade school and never forgot it…that's how powerful it is, to this day. Anyone who's ever ranked on their child for being afraid of something, read this and be shamed. Yes, I'm looking at YOU, Dad.

Now, in a collection this broad there are bound to be a few clunkers. But never mind! It's a hundred stories and at most they're 15 pages or so long. Or less. It'll be over soon, enjoy the one you're laboring through for what it is and expect that the next one will be better. And it probably will be. Any collection with entries from Joe Lansdale, Hugh Cave and Chet Williamson cheek-by-jowl with Frank Belknap Long, Ambrose Bierce, and Guy de Maupassant is worth it just for the novelty. I think the stories (besides the classic Keller) that struck me the firmest were L. A. Lewis's "Haunted Air", Saki's incomparable "The Interlopers", and a jewel of a tale, "Told In The Desert" by Clark Ashton Smith which is bittersweet defined. Not scary by any means but sad and touching. I loved it.

I have several more volumes of these "hundreds" from B&N on my shelf yet to be read, and with any luck I'll be reviewing another in the next few months. Uneven or not, they're still keepers. Get 'em while you can!

Weird Tales is remembered as the great fantasy/horror (predominantly horror) magazine of the pulp era which published work by H. P. Lovecraft, Robert Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, C. L. Moore, Manly Wade Wellman, Seabury Quinn and many more writers from that period, some now widely reprinted and read, others now nearly forgotten (though since this anthology was compiled, a number of the ones its introduction describes as forgotten have been revived.) The book's format is a bit unusual in that it includes one story from each of the 32 years the magazine was published, providing a much wider chronological range, and a wider variety of authors, than other anthologies based on similar material. The overall tendency of the collection (like the magazine itself) tends toward the darker horror end of the horror/fantasy spectrum, and I tend to prefer the lighter fantasy side, or at least tales in which the heroes defeat the horrors. Nonetheless, there are a number of good and unfamiliar stories here.

This is an anthology or collection of stories where the cat is the main character. Mystery oriented and short in length they are really enjoyable and varied. Detective, felon, observer...the variety is there but the main character is the Cat.
They are sharp and observant and ca be protective or self sufficient...whatever it takes to survive.
Each story is a compact story that thakes just afew pages. A Great read if you just have short bursts of time to read or justwant a short recess from life.
The author list is from well known to those that are just good writers. Pronzini,Collins, Jance and more, the stories are all funa nd interesting to read. A book that is good to take your time with and enjoy the short crimes within...

Good anthology for those who like non-traditional vampire stories.

"Although it is the nature of dreams that they can never come true, it is the nature of nightmares that they will always seem true." - Stefan Dziemianowicz

Finally finished the book! Got stuck on some of the earlier stories but the pace finally picked up for me later on. My favorite is the last piece, Clive Barker's In the Flesh, which was as horrifying as when I first read it. He really quite terrifies me, a master of the macabre!

On that note, good night and pleasant dreams!½

I highly recommend skipping the legends that inspired the stories when they appear first -- at least until after the stories have been read. They contain major spoilers and you might not have heard any versions of some of these tales before.

These retellings are in seven groups: for the campfire, after dinner, urban legends, slumber parties, long car rides, Christmas, and Halloween. (I'd be wary of telling scary stories during long car rides if it's going to be dark on the way back. Imagine being the responsible adult stuck in a traffic jam on a desert highway at night with two teen passengers with whom you'd been gleefully sharing such horror stories. I kept thinking about how easily a serial killer could go from car to car. There weren't any street lights and the nearest houses were miles away....)

'Campfire Story': one young man tells about the time he and two friends went exploring in a cave system known as the site where half of a group of pioneers disappeared without a trace 100 years ago.

'Initiation Into Terror': the local haunted house is chosen for a fraternity initiation.

'Funhouse of Fear': a foolish boy wants to steal the new attraction from a carnival funhouse.

'Body Snatched': Although set in London at the end of the 19th century, when the days of the resurrection men were over, this is still a good story about a doctor demanding a truly fresh corpse.

'The Summer of Cropsey': John Cropsey is more than a little upset about the injustices done to him. (Why did no one involved with this book notice that the camp is called 'Beechside' in the first paragraph and 'Beechwood' for the rest of the story? How about saying that a flower shined with a special light instead of shone?)

'The Doom of the House of Gaskell': for ten generations the curse has struck them down -- is there no hope?

'Secret Ingredient': it's definitely not FDA approved.

'Just Desserts': it'll be a Christmas to remember.

'Brainy type': a promise is a promise.

'Cocoon': it seemed a foolproof plan...

'Mule': a man who makes his living doing dirty work finds the job just got dirtier.

'Coat Carrier': Susan made an unwise purchase.

'The Giving Kind': a cautionary tale about picking up a stranger in a bar.

'Crazy Sally': Sally's just crazy about her man.

'Don't Turn on the Light!': Should this college student be worried about the 'Campus Creeper'?

'Final Call': a babysitter is plagued with threatening phone calls. (At least this version of one of the most well known of such tales avoids a problem we didn't think about when I was a girl and heard/told it.)

'Why the Doctor Went Mad': I daresay I would have had it happened to me.

'Ginger Snaps': In this case, Ginger is a dog.

'Stay Away From Wilson Drive!': Our heroine is likely to need considerable therapy after her charitable deed.

'Backseat Driver': Why won't that dratted car behind her pass already? (I believe the movie our heroine is thinking of is 'Duel,' written by Richard Matheson, directed by Steven Spielberg, and starring Dennis Weaver. I don't recommend it for the faint of heart.)

'One More': a woman has a recurring nightmare.

'Death Takes Its Toll': a new tollbooth operator finds out why his predecessor left the job.

'Roadside Stop': have two women picked the wrong motel?

'Hook Ending': Terry has some groveling to do.

'He Sees You When You're Sleeping': it's a Christmas that's likely to make front page news.

'Yule Love Him': this season a woman remembers her former boyfriend whom she hasn't seen in years.

'O Christmas Tree!': Jeff Tyler should have bought himself an artificial tree.

'...In Small Packages': No one is admitting to buying or sending that last gift.

'Hearth of Horror': one almost hopes it's a rat making those scratching noises...

'Tricks and Treats': why is one child being allowed to go trick or treating by himself?

'Masquerade': it's a good costume -- perhaps too good.

'Scarecrow' -- at Halloween, scarecrows are more popular than jack o' lanterns in this hardly rural town.

'Sweets to the Sweet': Esther is determined to make the kind of Halloween treats available when she was a girl.

'Bloody Mary': will anyone at the party accept the dare?

Some of these legends I'd heard or read or seen adapted on TV before, some not. Mr. Dziemianowicz did a good job of putting in details, often adding a twist or two. I salute him for the way he successfully combined two golden oldies into one story. The main introduction and those for each section are well worth reading because they mention other legends. I'd be rather unhappy about that Christmas tradition about eating mince pies, but it says nothing about mince tarts or cookies, all the better for a mincemeat fan, heh heh.

It's a good book either for reading to yourself or reading aloud to an audience wanting to be scared. I'm a bit sorry that it contains two variations instead of the exact details of my favorite escaped homicidal maniac story, but not sorry enough to be disappointed in the book overall.

This is a clever little collection, although I admit, after a while, I was rather tired to the theme and ready to set the book down. That's what I get, I suppose, for trying to read all 100 in a weekend. Some stories where hum-drum, some clever, one was even funny. Only one, however, left a chill in my spine and a dread in my heart - The Witness by Mike Ashley. Creeping-ass story, if ever there was one.
Overall, this is a good collection of vampire tales, with a wide range of proses, style, story-lines and lore. I recommend to anyone interested in Vampires or the like. But don't try to read them all at once - it's gets a little tedious.

This is a collection of short crime stories. Most of the stories were humourous and a surprise twist at the end. I found it hard to put down, telling myself, "only one more story". It was usually a lot more than just "one more".½

As the introduction confirms, this book particularly set out to collect the "short-short" or "compact" ghost story. Snagging the list of stories from this review (so glad not to have to type them all out!), I'll make notes on the ones that interested me most, that I'd read before, etc. Also will attempt to avoid spoilers, but since stories are so short this means that I'll have a lot of cryptic sounding commentary. Meanwhile when an author is particularly good you really do notice it, because of the brevity of the stories - to pull you in, quickly set and tell the tale, and then make you like or at least think about it - well, in the short length that's all the more impressive.

100 stories:

Across the Moors by William Fryer Harvey
[Let's make the governess do this! Poor governess. Good story. Note to self, check out more by this author. Can read his short story online: The Beast with Five Fingers.]

Attorney of the Damned by Renier Wyers
[Gangsters, lawyer, and revenge.]

Away by Barry Malzberg
Behind the Screen by Dale Clark

Black Gold by Thorp McClusky
[Past trade in slavery and revenge.]

Bone to His Bone by E.G. Swain
[A past Vicar's library, loved the book descriptions. Also mentions The Compleat Gard'ner of de la Quintinye, which I believe is an actual book. Reading this, and looking up Swain, reminded me that I have a book of his stories (which I should reread) and that he was a friend of M. R. James.]

p 29 "...The books there are arranged as he arranged and ticketed them. Little slips of paper, sometimes bearing interesting fragments of writing, still mark his places. His marginal comments still give life to pages from which all other interest has faded, and he would have but a dull imagination who could sit in the chamber amidst these books without ever being carried back 180 years into the past, to the time when the newest of them left the printer's hands."

The Burned House by Vincent O'Sullivan
[A sort of pre-vision-ish ghost story]

Clocks by Darrell Schweitzer
[Sad. Also still trying to figure out image of room in basement at the end.]

The Closed Door by Harold Ward

The Coat by A.E.D. Smith
[Very creepy for some reason.]

The Cold Embrace by Mary E. Braddon
Coming Home by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Concert to Death by Paul Ernst
The Considerate Hosts by Thorp McClusky

Daddy by Steve Rasnic Tem
[I think you could put together an entire book on "ghosts that are way too creepy with children." Creepy in an uncomfortable way, also spouse abuse.]

Dark Mummery by Thorp McClusky
[Problem for me was that final reveal was sorta what I thought had happened so wasn't sure if I'd read that earlier bit wrong or just jumped to reveal without it being revealed. In my brain I was expecting more deaths, which could mean I've been reading too many ghost stories and should maybe rest a bit.]

Date in the City Room by Talbot Johns
[Makes a nice one to read alongside the previous story Behind the Screen, to ponder differences/similarities.]

A Dead Secret by Lafcadio Hearn
[I like how we don't get full details on the letter. Have had Hearn recommended for ghost stories, haven't gotten around to reading what I found at Gutenberg and elsewhere.]

The Door by Henry S. Whitehead

Drowned Argosies by J. Wilmer Benjamin
[I rather liked the idea of what happens to sailors in the afterlife here.]

Dust by Edna Goit Brintnall
Edge of the Cliff by Dorothy Quick

Faces by Arthur J. Burks
[Creepy realism in its seeming accuracy of injury-related hallucinations. ...or are they? (Well, it's supposed to be a ghost story, so I have to add that, right?)]

Fancy That by J.N. Williamson
Father Macclesfield's Tale by R.H. Benson

The Furnished Room by O. Henry
[Much anthologixed]

The Garret of Madame Lemoyne by Kirk W. Mashburn, Jr.
[Story uses some of facts/folklore from historical person of Delphine LaLaurie. (I'm a New Orleans history buff, so this kind of hops out at me.) Note appearance of words/sentences like "I've seen buck niggers working on the wharves with arms as big as my thighs, and knotted with muscles until they looked like limbs of an oak." Author, who also went by name of W. K. Mashburn, Jr. (1900-1968) was born in Mississippi and published this story in 1928 (source).]

The Ghost and the Bone-setter by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
[Humorous-ish. Sort of.]

A Ghost-Child by Bernard Capes
[Lots of symbolism frolicking about in this one.]

The Ghost Farm by Susan Andrews Rice

Ghost Story by Alan Brennert
[Post apocalyptic future. I think. Very sci fi and fascinating for trying to figure out exactly what might be going on, past and present.]

The Ghosts at Haddon-le-Green by Alfred I. Tooke

Ghosts of the Air by J.M. Hiatt and Moye W. Stephens
[Story of wing walking in a flying circus. I think it's the only ghost story I've read with that setting. Interesting to read the bio of Stephens - now I need to track down their other coauthored story: "The Assault Upon Miracle Castle".]

Gibbler's Ghost by William F. Nolan
[Hollywood setting. Vaguely humorous.]

A Grammatical Ghost by Elia W. Peattie
[A ghost with very particular priorities.]

The Grey Room by Stephen Grabinski
Guarded by Mearle Prout

Harmless Ghosts by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
[Harmless is a matter of opinion]

The Haunted Burglar by W.C. Morrow
[There's actually a real medical symptom in this story, sort of.]

He Walked by Day by Julius Long
[He tells them he's a ghost but at first no one quite believes...]

Her New Parents by Steve Rasnic Tem
[Psychological]

Highwaymen by W. Benson Dooling
The Honor of Don Pedro by Wallace J. Knapp
The House of Shadows by Mary Elizabeth Counselman

How He Left the Hotel by Louisa Baldwin
[A ghost and an elevator. Seems reminiscent of the old "Room for One More" legend, around since 1906, that link is the Snopes version with history. Which is also the year E. F. Benson wrote of it in the story "The Bus-Conductor" (full text here, if you're curious).]

Jerry Bundler by W.W. Jacobs
[A joke goes wrong]

John Charrington's Wedding by Edith Nesbit
Much anthologized. As always, still think this is too harsh on the bride - it's not like she did anything to deserve the ending. Seems unfair.]

Kharu Knows it All by Renier Wyers
[Revenge and a fake medium]

The Last of Squire Ennismore by Mrs. J.H. Riddell
[I'm left wondering who the dead and living folk from the shipwreck were - or at least where they were from. Author also known as Charlotte Riddell, another one who I have multiple books on my ereader thanks to Gutenberg, etc.]

The Light was Green by John Rawson Speer
[Train/railroad setting]

McGill's Appointment by Elsie Ellis
[Story told from prison, mainly via phone call. Extremely short.]

The Man on B-17 by Stephen Grendon
[Ghost story with train/railroad setting. Told as a sort of deposition/interrogation.]

Mandolin by Will Charles Oursler
[Ghost or not? Author gives us an explanation, which is annoying depending on whether you like the idea of the ghost more or the other spin.]

The Metronome by August W. Derleth
[Sad tale of revenge, yet no sympathy (from me anyway) for the one revenge is aimed at.]

Miss Prue by Fred Chappell
[The living are much more clueless than the ghost.]

Monsieur De Guise by Perley Poore Sheehan
[Swamp setting. Good wistful, other worldly feel to this one. Author was novelist and film writer.]

Mordecai's Pipe by A.V. Milyer
[Note: do not use stuff that was owned by evil dead person. This sounds like an obvious thing not to do, right?!]

The Murderer's Violin by Erckmann-Chatrian
[Sometimes you can't tell whether the old fashioned feel to a story is because it is actually old or because the author has a wonderful way of making you feel that. Or in this case authors - this is a writing team. Multiple copies of their work available online for free, I have several waiting on my ereader for me to get around to reading.]

The Night Caller by G.L. Raisor
[Sad story of loss. I always dislike these too modern/too real sorts of stories.]

The Night Wire by H.F. Arnold
[Set in office of news wire service on the night shift - and I must love this for the outdated technology, always fun to see that documented in fiction. And second, the story is nicely creepy with a good "not entirely sure what happened" sort of ending. Can't seem to find any biography on Arnold - except for the bit here with the full text of this story. And also this line at the end of the info about the author/story segment:

"Astute fans of horror will also find some similarities between this story "The Mist" by Stephen King and the film, John Carpenter's The Fog, but any comparisons I will leave to the reader..."

- and yes, I couldn't help but think of those other fog-related stories.]

O Come Little Children... by Chet Williamson
[Unexpected Christmas ghost, yet somehow we should have expected it, right?]

On the Brighton Road by Richard Middleton
[Memorable one I've read before. Tramps on the road, possibly for eternity. For some reason reminded me of themes in Waiting for Godot, though style is nothing like it.]

Our Late Visitor by Marvin Kaye
[Sometimes the dead are completely clueless.]

Out of Copyright by Ramsey Campbell
[Completely delicious story about author's revenge, plural. Though one author specifically. You very much feel this is a revenge story written on behalf of all authors.]

Pacific 421 by August W. Derleth
[Ghost of a train]

The Pedicab by Donald R. Burleson
[Ghost of the pedicab? Maybe? Hmm. Ghost could be multiple things.]

The Phantom Express by H. Thompson Rich
[Ghost of a train.]

The Piper from Bhutan by David Bernard
[About-to-be-expelled student attempts to explain his remarks to a professor. Voices of the dead.]

Rats by M.R. James
[It's not just rats under that bedsheet....]

The Readjustment by Mary Austin
[Actually it's the title of this that made me stop and ponder the story again. Multiple things readjusted.]

Rebels' Rest by Seabury Quinn
[Homesick Irishfolk and love.]

Relationships by Robert Sampson
[I was going to say that this is a story of an old man, but I looked back and he's 48, so let's just say that he acts as though he's in his 90s (and worries about having mental problems), which is indeed the issue at hand. A bit I found amusing, probably because I was a long time owner of a pet cat, til recently:

p 384 "...He lived with two cats, Gloria and Bill. He had developed the habit of reading aloud to them: selections from news magazines, the poems of Emily Dickinson. The cats were unconcerned by his choices."

Those aren't the important sentences in that paragraph plot-wise, but they are wonderful in setting the scene.]

Rendezvous by Richard H. Hart
[New Orleans area setting]

The Return by R. Murray Gilchrist
[Usually a good idea to propose first, then go on the journey to make your fortune. Guys, stop doing this without stating your intentions first. Not that it definitely would have helped in this case, but still.]

The Return by G.G. Pendarves
[Revenge when a lost traveler finally tracks down his foe... I'm totally getting flashbacks to Tom Hood's The Shadow of a Shade in 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural. Very different setups, and yet there are parallels.]

Rose Rose by Barry Pain
[Artist's model]

Safety Zone by Barry Malzberg
[You never know when H. P. Lovecraft will come up in conversation...and elsewhere...]

Shadows Cast Behind by Otto E.A. Schmidt
[Customs guard on a ship discovers a "who shot first" ghost story.]

Shadows in the Grass by Steve Rasnic Tem
[A man tries to take on other's griefs, because he somehow can't find out what his own causes of depression are.]

The Sixth Tree by Edith Lichty Stewart
[Geologist narrator/main character. Trying to "out-science" ghosts is probably always a bad idea.]

The Soul of Laploshka by Saki

The Sphinx Without a Secret by Oscar Wilde
[And do we know what that secret is? Er, not exactly, not that I can tell...]

The Splendid Lane by S.B.H. Hurst

A Sprig of Rosemary by H. Warner Munn
[The scenario of "child/children in ghost stories," if written in just the right way, has a high probability that I will become maudlin and tearful. Dammit, ghost story, stop that. Sooo yeah, this is one of those.]

The Stone Coffin by "B"
[I had two years of high school Latin which is just enough for me to think I might know what something might say yet still not get it exactly right. Thankfully there are now online translation sites - Google's is usually best. But it didn't like "Quare inquietasti me ut suscitarer." - something about the word inquietasti wasn't checking out in the database. Thankfully this entire story can be found online here - with the footnote:

A quote from the Vulgate, 1 Samuel 28, v.15 - given in the King James Bible as: "Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?". This is what the ghost of Samuel says to King Saul after it has been raised by the Witch of Endor.

And it's moments like this that make me wonder how I can ever read again without the internet handy. Also I should just go look up a latin copy of that whole chapter of Samuel because the Witch of Endor is always popping up here and there, where you'd least expect her. Prior to the story on the webpage containing The Stone Coffin is this note:

"This neat little story, set in Magdalene College, Cambridge, is firmly in the tradition of M.R. James. It was published in the December 1913 edition of the Magdalene College Magazine, where it was simply signed 'B'. The mystery of 'B's' identity remains unsolved, although it must have been known to M.R. James, for a proof copy of the story exists among his papers at King's College. The most likely candidate seems to be A.C. Benson, who had close connections with Magdalene and became Master of the College in 1915. However, "The Stone Coffin" is not written in his usual style, and the author may yet prove to have been someone else entirely. Five other supernatural tales by the mysterious 'B' have been collected together and published under the title When the Door is Shut, and other ghost stories (Haunted Library, 1986). [All of the 'B' stories can be found in the G&S Archive]"

Because of course you have to wonder who an author only known as B really is, right? G&S stands for Ghosts and Scholars, and often the scholar Rosemary Pardoe's name can be found as well. She's sort of like the Kevin Bacon of M. R. James and James-esque ghost story research. I'm always rather pleased when I bump into her name again.

Five more stories by B can be found here.]

A Strange Goldfield by Guy Boothby
[Setting: Australian gold fields of "Gurunya." I really must track down a more comprehensive history book on Australia than what I've read so far... someday. Because I'm fuzzy on Aussie geography I'm not sure which gold rush this one's referring to. Here's this same story at Gutenberg Austrailia.]

The Stranger by Ambrose Bierce
[Four ghosts from the Arizona desert. Bierce always does this sort of story well.

p 464 -465 "...We were not so new to the county as not to know the solitary life of many a plainsman had a tendency to develop eccentricities of conduct and character not always easily distinguishable from mental aberration. A man is like a tree: in a forest of his fellows he will grow as straight as his generic and individual nature permits; alone in the open, he yields to the deforming stresses and tortions that environ him."

]

Summerland by Avram Davidson
[Spiritualists. Revenge, but not entirely sure what manages enact that vengeance. (Nature? God? Spirits? Justice?) Definitely a just deserts story.]

The Terrible Old Man by H.P. Lovecraft
[Multiple creepy details, like the jars that can somehow communicate.]

The Terror by Night by E.F. Benson
[Not sure why this particular terror visits whom it does - I mean yes, reasons, but purpose not entirely clear to me, certainly not vengeance.]

The Theater Upstairs by Manly Wade Wellman
[Movie theater showing a talking picture of de Maupassant's The Horla starring Valentino (who didn't live to make a talking film), among others. Revenge by film. Author wrote a long list of books and screenplays.]

Thirteen Phantasms by Clark Ashton Smith
[Which is the ghost of the true love?]

Three Gentlemen in Black by August W. Derleth
[Not those Men in Black, but these are operatives of revenge/justice.]

The Tree-Man Ghost by Percy B. Prior
[It's not nice to steal from the dead/the church/]

The True Story of Anthony Ffryar by Arthur Gray
[Not entirely sure why Ffryar is the one to have the incident happen to him - doesn't seem any more or less deserving of it.]

Two by Al Sarrantonio
[Realistic and sad and I suppose well written but I really hate this sort of thing. Parents, child, death, misery, hopelessness. Psychological trauma, nowhere and no one to turn to for help, and no way to escape - anything - in the end. It's the horror of depression and not a ghost tale, and thus I don't see how it can be anything but deeply depressing to read. Not at all close to anything I find enjoyable. I'm also tired of reading this kind of story.]

Under the Eaves by Helen M. Reid
[Unhappy marriage]

A Visitor from Far Away by Loretta Burrough
{Evil husband, woman in jeopardy scenario in snowbound house]

Waiter Number 34 by Paul Ernst
[Rich, greedy men plan another war, however their waiter has actually been in the last one.]

The Woman in Gray by Walker G. Everett
[What if you could command a ghost to kill...]

The Word of Bentley by E. Hoffman Price
[Wall street investor makes promise to one of his clients]

A collection of 30 iconic short stories that would have been difficult to find otherwise.

A collection of 30 iconic short stories that would have been difficult to find otherwise.

This is an anthology of very short horror stories. Most are about five or six pages, with a few even shorter than that. They span several decades, from the 1920s to the late 1990s, when the collection was published, so there's a fair variety of styles. Despite the title, most of these are really not particularly frightening. A surprising number seem to just describe some random, not necessarily horrific, encounter with the supernatural -- often involving ghosts -- and are, at most, vaguely creepy in their intimation that the world is full of strange and unexplained things. Many of the best of them are interesting mainly because they feature some clever Twilight Zone-style twist that, despite the dark subject matter, I often found myself thinking of as "cute."

They're decent stories, generally speaking. Out of all one hundred of them, there were probably only a handful that I really disliked, which isn't bad, especially since horror tends to be something of a hit-and-miss genre for me. On the other hand, there weren't many more than a handful that I thought were especially memorable and effective, either. Which unfortunately means that it adds up to a mildly unsatisfying whole. It's all perfectly readable, but it lacks, well, punch. And if there's one thing very short horror stories should have, it's punch.

I will admit, though, that the fact that I tended to read these in large gulps probably didn't help much. I'd recommend spreading them out, otherwise you run the risk of becoming jaded, and at some point you'll likely find yourself going, "Yeah, yeah, something horrific is going to happen now. I bet I can guess what it is. Yup, I was right. Well... on to the next one." And that doesn't do anybody any favors.½

It's title really says it all. Its a good read FOR vampire lovers.

A fun collection of short stories - mostly about crimes, mysteries or horrible happenings. These are all old, and the plots are clever - even when we've heard them before (these are usually the originals!!) in some recent movie or story.

Publisher info:
From the puzzle tale in Alexandre Dumas’s “The Man of the Knife” to Gerald Tollesfrud’s police procedural “Switch,” this richly varied collection spans more than 200 years and encompasses virtually every kind of crime story. Ernest Leong’s “Incense Sticks” offers a taste of the noir thriller. Allen Beack’s “Always Together” features dark, bloody fratricide. Ferenc Molnar’s “The Best Policy” tells a fascinating tale of embezzlement, while Gary Lovisi’s “New Blood” stars a compelling serial killer. There’s kidnapping in Edgar Wallace’s “The Slavemaker,” bigamy in Joyce Kilmer’s “Whitemail,” drive-by shootings in Dane Gregory’s “Jackie Won’t Be Home,” and a crime so bizarre in Geoggrey Vace’s “The Hard-Luck Kid” that it simply defies classification. Each one will get the blood racing and the mind working in overdrive

Above average collection of horror stories, featuring children as principle characters.

Some standouts are Brenda (Margaret St. Clair) written in 1953 and featuring a Romero-type zombie, The Idol of the Flies (Jane Rice) about a young boy wholly given to evil, The Interloper (Ramsay Campbell) about two British school boys who find a secret tunnel, Ray Bradbury’s horrifying The October Game, and The Doll Maker by Sarban, more of a dark fantasy and originally published in London by William H. Heinemann (a highly regarded firm with a catalog of books sought out by collectors), and others by Matheson, Derleth, and Bloch. One good story by Stephen Gallagher (Magpie), a writer I’ve never heard of before. Nursery Crimes was published in 1993; there are no duds and two or three fizzles, all copyrighted in the 1980s and written by the usual internecine suspects.

Reading through this, I can't say I'm thrilled. It mostly delivers what's on the label, 100 short short stories, though there's been a number of them I wouldn't have classified as detective stories. I don't believe any of them are translations, and most of them apparently were written in the 20th century, though there's a few, like the Lincoln story, that were 19th century. The copyright page lists 25 stories that were printed by Frank A. Munsey Co in 1934-41, and another 22 that were printed by Popular Publications Inc in 1939-1952, 10 published between 1963-1979 and 23 published in 1980-1993, and the remaining twenty apparently without date or copyright notice.

Once you've dredged the history of mystery for short short stories--and I bet the complete set exhausted pretty much all of them--you really start to hit the dregs, and there's too many of these stories that flop completely. Not all of them; it pretty much covers the range from top to bottom.

Besides the contents, an anthology also rises or fails based on its structure, and this one fails. The stories are alphabetical order, which is as bad as random, breaking one pair of stories with the same characters up, and reversing their chronologically order. There's no biography on the author, not even birth & death dates, nor dates of writing or first publication. It leaves everything a little context-less and hard to place.

Okay, so it will continue to sit by my bedstand until I'll read the last 50 stories. It has value to me as a large collection of short-short stories in one volume. But I feel after I've read every last sentence, I will still be mildly disappointed.½

It's a really interesting collection of short stories. Some of them are a little lame, but more than one made me want to look over my shoulder. Delightful to read in a dimly lit room right before you go to sleep. 4/5 times the cat scared the hell out of me by jumping onto my bed while I was reading this book.

Gems from the golden age of pulp fiction (1920's - 1950's), including "Stragella" by Hugh B. Cave, "The Cloak" by Robert Bloch, "Asylum" by A.E. van Vogt, and many more. Most of these short stories have been unavailable for years; it's a treat to have them collected under one cover.