Showing results by author "J. H. Riddell" in All Categories

River Hall, the uninhabited house in question, is a place of ghosts and secrets, and it simply cannot keep a tenant. Inherited by the too-young Miss Helena Elmsdale after her father’s death, it falls to her aunt, Miss Susannah Blake, to attend to the house. In order to see that it remains rented out, Miss Blake brings the property to Messrs. Craven and Son for management. The lawyers do their best, but there is something sinister at River Hall, and the tenants cannot seem to leave fast enough, threatening to leave Miss Blake and her orphaned niece in dire financial straits. 

Fifty short stories by women writers who broke the mould.

While a door that just won’t stay closed may not seem like the most terrifying of hauntings, being alone in a silent manor for days on end certainly adds to the atmosphere. A request to discover the reason for the obstinate door includes a cash motivation and newly unemployed Theophilus Edlyd readily accepts the challenge.

First appearing in 1882, this collection by Mrs. J.H. Riddell established her as a leading Victorian author of supernatural fiction. She achieved her effect by using commonplace settings into which the horrors crept.

Seven contrasting short stories, all set at Christmastime: 'Mr. Huffam' by Hugh Walpole, 'A Strange Christmas Game' by J. H. Riddell, 'The Christmas Tree and the Wedding' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 'The Snow' by Hugh Walpole, 'The Gift of the Magi' by O. Henry, 'The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 'The Cop and the Anthem' by O. Henry.

Charlotte Riddell (1832-1906), who wrote as Mrs J. H. Riddel, was one of the most popular and influential writers of the Victorian period. 'A Strange Christmas Game' is a brilliantly constructed ghost story with a strange twist at the end.