The Ghost Quartet

August 11, 2008
Kaye’s anthology of four new ghost novellas is a mixed bag at best. Brian Lumley builds suspense in the first half of “A Place of No Ending,” but in the end, a garrulous ghost nearly talks the protagonist to death. Orson Scott Card, in “Hamlet’s Father,” recasts Shakespeare’s tragedy as a gothic ghost thriller, but hobbles it with an anachronistic and absurd revisionist ending. Kaye (The Fair Folk
) represents himself with “The Haunted Single Malt,” a story that perhaps unwisely references ghost story master M.R. James while never rising to James’s level. Only Tanith Lee, in “Strindberg’s Ghost,” strikes the balance of atmosphere and romance crucial for the effective telling of her tale of betrayal and sacrifice. Though each story has its merits, readers will find them mostly dispiriting.

September 15, 2008
Kayes latest anthology adds another volume to an ongoing series that previously featured tales about vampires, dragons, and fairies. On offer here area quartet of ghost stories by leading artisans of speculative fiction. Brian Lumleys Place of Waiting recounts the fate of a painter who crosses paths with a tortured ghost on the desolate mounds of Dartmoor, England. Orson Scott Cards Hamlets Father gives Shakespeares tragedy of the gloomy Dane an alternate ending wherein his fathers murderer turns out to be someone much closer to Hamlet than his uncle. Kaye himself serves up a chilling brew in The Haunted Single Malt, eavesdropping on an assembly of ghost-story buffs at an Edinburgh pub who experience their own odd haunting by imbibing a previously unknown liquor. The final contribution, by Tanith Lee, visits an alternate-universe Russia and the denizens of an accursed tenement. All four tales showcase the authors at the peak of their narrative powers and make for satisfyingly spine-tingling reading on a stormy night.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)