H. D. Thomson – Great Book Of Thrillers

H. Douglas Thomson (ed.) – The Great Book Of Thrillers (Odhams, n.d.)

Introduction

Stories Of Mystery And Adventure

A. J. Alan – H2, Etc.
Michael Arlen – The Smell In The Library
W. E. Aytoun – The Man In The Bell
Honore De Balzac – The Mysterious Mansion
Marjorie Bowen – The Folding Doors
Wilkie Collins – The Lady Of Glenwith Grange
J. S. Fletcher – The New Sun
Val Gielgud – Hot Water
L. P. Hartley – The Island
Nathaniel Hawthorne – Edward Randolph’s Portrait
Washington Irving – The Spectre Bridegroom
Frederick Marryat – The Story Of The Greek Slave
Prosper Merimee – The Blue Room
E. Phillips Oppenheim – The Cafe Of Terror
Edgar Allan Poe – The Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar
Hugh Walpole – The Tarn
Samuel Warren – The Resurrectionist

Stories Of Crime And Detection

Anthony Berkeley – The Avenging Chance
Agatha Christie – The Witness For The Prosecution
G. D. H. & M. Cole – A Lesson In Crime
Freeman Wills Croft – Mr. Pembleton’s Commission
Gilbert Frankau – Who Killed Castelvetri
R. Austin Freeman – The Aluminium Dagger
Herbert Jenkins – The Gylston Slander
Maurice LeBlanc – Arsene Lupin In Paris
Baroness Orczy – The Fenchurch Street Mystery
Eden Phillpotts – Peacock House
John Rhode – The Vanishing Dagger
Dorothy L. Sayes – Bitter Almonds

Stories Of The Supernatural

E. F. Benson – The Gardener
Anon – A Spanish Ghost Story
Ambrose Bierce – Staley Fleming’s Hallucination
Catherine Crowe – The Italian’s Story
Daniel Defoe – The Ghost Of Dorothy Dingley
Charles Dickens – To Be Taken With A Grain Of Salt
Amelia B. Edwards – The Phantom Coach
Sheridan Le Fanu – Madam Crowl’s Ghost
Jeffrey Farnol – Black Coffee
John Galt – The Black Ferry
Theophile Gautier – The Dreamland Bride
Gerald Griffin – The Dilemma Of Phadrig
James Hogg – Mary Burnet
W. W. Jacobs – The Three Sisters
Arthur Machen – The Bowmen
Norman MacLeod – The Doctor’s Ghost
Walter De La Mare – Mr. Kempe
Sir Walter Scott – The Tapestried Chamber
H. Russell Wakefield – The Frontier Guards
H. G. Wells – The Red Room
Oscar Wilde – The Spinx Without A Secret

Despite that inexcusable dip in the middle, an enterprising selection. Something I adore about these are the little plot outlines against each story on the contents pages.

To prove that Man has a soul – that was Mr. Kempe’s terrifying problem. And there was danger for the stranger on the cliffside where he lived.

The frightful ordeal of a man at the mercy of an iron-tongued monster in a belfry.

How a respectable young medical student became for one night a body-stealer, and what fears and horrors assailed him during his gruesome adventure in a moonlit graveyard

Saves me the job!

Stephen Jones – Keep Out The Night

Stephen Jones (ed.) – Keep Out The Night (PS Publishing, Oct. 2002)

Hugh B. Cave – Invasion From Inferno
Brian Lumley – The Viaduct
Sidney J. Bounds – Homecoming
Dennis Etchison – One Of Us
Caitlin R. Kiernan – Spindleshanks
Poppy Z. Brite – Nothing Of Him That Doth Fade
Neil Gaiman – Feeders And Eaters
Tim Lebbon – The Unfortunate
Kim Newman – Is There Anybody There?
Michael Marshall Smith – Dear Alison
Basil Copper – The Gossips
Ramsey Campbell – Needing Ghosts

Stephen Jones – By Moonlight Only

Stephen Jones (ed.) – By Moonlight Only (PS Publishing, Sept. 2003)

Harlan Ellison – In the Fourth Year Of The War
Hugh B. Cave – The Crystal Doll Killings
Christopher Fowler – The Art Nouveau Fireplace
Tanith Lee – These Beast
Joe Landsdale – Tight Little Stitches In A Dead Man’s Back
Lisa Tuttle – Replacements
Marc Laidlaw – Cell Call
Terry Lamsley – The Walls
Peter Straub – The Buffalo Hunter
David Case – Jimmy

Stephen Jones – Don’t Turn Out The Light

Stephen Jones (ed.) – Don’t Turn Out The Light (PS Publishing, Apr. 2005)

Introduction – Stephen Jones

Ray Bradbury – Fever Dream
David J. Schow – Expanding Your Capabilities Using Frame/Shift TM Mode
John Glasby – Shirley’s Ghost
Lisa Tuttle & Steven Utley – Flies By Night
Garry Kilworth – Phoenix Man
Charles L. Grant – Are You Afraid Of The Dark?
Mark Samuels – Shallaballah
Peter Atkins – King Of Outer Space
Roberta Lannes – The Other Family
Richard Christian Matheson – City Of Dreams
John Burke – The Bite Of The Tawse
Paul McAuley – Inheritance
Basil Copper – Queen Bee
Jay Russell – Ding-Dong-Bell
Hugh B. Cave – The Cult Of The White Ape
Terry Lamsley – Sickhouse Hospitality
Richard Matheson – Dance Of The Dead

Boris Karloff Horror Anthology

Boris Karloff (ed) – Horror Anthology (Souvenir, 1965: Everest, 1975)

The most dreadful stories ever written – chosen by the master himself.

Introduction: Boris Karloff

Frank Gruber – The Thirteenth Floor
Edmond Hamilton – Child Of The Winds
Edgar Allan Poe – The Cask Of Amontillado
John Jakes – The Opener Of The Crypt
August Derleth – The Thing That Walked On The Wind
Evan Hunter – The Scarlet King
Theodore Sturgeon – The Graveyard Reader
C. M. Kornbluth – The Mind Worm
Robert Silverberg – Back From The Grave
Roald Dahl – Man From The South
Robert Bloch – The Opener Of The Way
H. P. Lovecraft – The Haunter Of The Dark

Stephen Jones – Mammoth Book of Werewolves

Stephen Jones (ed) – The Mammoth Book of Werewolves (Robinson, 1994)

Introduction: Even a Man Who is Pure in Heart – Stephen Jones

Clive Barker – Twilight at the Towers
Scott Bradfield – The Dream of the Wolf
Ramsey Campbell – Night Beat
Angus Campbell (R. Chetwynd-Hayes) -The Werewolf
Michael Marshall-Smith – Rain Falls
Stephen Laws – Guilty Party
Roberta Lannes – Essence of the Beast
Mark Morris – Immortal
Basil Copper – Cry Wolf
Graham Masterton – Rug
Justin Case (Hugh B. Cave) – The Whisperers
David Sutton – And I Shall Go in the Devil’s Name
Peter Tremayne – The Foxes of Fascoum
Karl Edward Wagner – One Paris Night
Brian Mooney – Soul of the Wolf
Gans T. Field (Manly Wade Wellman) – The Hairy Ones Shall Dance
Adrian Cole – Heart of the Beast
Les Daniels – Wereman (aka ‘By the Light of the Silvery Moon’)
Nicholas Royle – Anything But Your Kind
Dennis Etchison – The Nighthawk
David Case – The Cell
Suzy McKee Charnas – Boobs
Kim Newman – Out of the Night, When the Full Moon is Bright…

Jo Fletcher – Bright of Moon (verse)

Not got this one, but it looks fairly lively and I can certainly vouch for the excellence of “The Cell” and “Boobs”. The Wellman is an enjoyable pulp romp, almost as entertaining as it’s title, and “The Whisperers” is a good example of Hugh B. Cave’s work for “Spicy Mystery Stories.” Basil Copper’s story began life as a chapter in his “The Werewolf: In Legend, Fact And Art” and would’ve been ideal as a story in an Amicus anthology.

Thanks to Steve For the cover scan.

Mark Ronson – Beaver Book Of Horror Stories

Mark Ronson (ed.) – The Beaver Book Of Horror Stories (Beaver, 1981, 1984)

Cover photograph: John Knights

Introduction: ‘Not Of This World’ – Mark Ronson

Ray Bradbury – The Man Upstairs
William Hope Hodgson – The Voice In The Night
Joan Aiken – Who Goes Down This Dark Road?
John Buchan – The Wind In The Portico
R. E. Alexander – The Aerophobes
H. P. Lovecraft – Pickman’s Model
Paul Ernst – The Thing In The Pond
Fitz-James O’Brien – What Was It?
Clark Ashton Smith – The Seed From The Sepulchre
Mark Ronson – Changeling

What is the creeping grey horror that lurks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?

How can golden specks of dust turn men and women into ruthless killers?

Whose are the invisible bony hands that lock around a man’s throat as he lies in bed?

The Beaver imprint was aimed at children. This horror collection probably was too, although it says “for older readers” on the back. The pulps are well represented with the most pleasant surprise being a revival of Paul “Dr. Satan” Ernst’s slime-oozing classic, The Thing In The Pond.

Ronson, as we only recently discovered, is also Marc Alexander, author of several non-fiction ghost gazetteers.