Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

'Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea' is the tale of two enemies abandoned on a deserted island. Pierre Rochelle, a convict escaped from a French penal colony, has been living alone on a remote Pacific island for the past three years, with no means of escape. Then one day he finds a man asleep on the beach on the far side of the island. The new arrival has just been marooned by his mutineering shipmates. Even as he still sleeps, Rochelle recognizes him as Gaston Charette - his own mortal enemy, the man whose false testimony had sent him to the penal colony in the first place.

Eimar Ultan O'Duffy (1893 – 1935) was an Irish writer, economist and satirist. The Mystery of the Octagonal Room is a story about a man who is invited to a remote country house, recently inherited by friends of his. Many of the rooms in the house are rumoured to be haunted. But an unassuming octagonal room in the tower hides a particularly gruesome and terrifying secret. Nobody can stay there overnight - and those who have tried it were insane by morning.

The Last Adventure is the bizarre tale of a young rake who regularly suffers from amnesia while out having adventures. He wakes up with no memory of how he got into his current predicament, nor of what went before it. In this story, he discovers himself in the company of an attractive woman and gradually becomes aware that something very terrible has happened...something that shocks him to the very core....

'The Influence Fails' is a mystery story involving a dastardly plot. A young man finds himself suddenly and unexpectedly in a strange dining room in a house he has never been to before, with no memory of how he came to be there. A moment later, the owner of the house enters the room...and is naturally suspicious about the man's motives. But how did he get there? Why did he come? What can it all mean?

'The Umbrella-Mender' is a disturbing tale about an eccentric man who runs a repair shop for umbrellas. One evening he is surprised by a knock at the door. Outside is a man who tells the umbrella-mender that his son is on his deathbed and wishes to see his father. The umbrella-mender sets off at once with the stranger. In the course of their conversation on the journey, the stranger explains that he himself has murdered the umbrella-mender's son.

The Secret of the Schwarztal is a mystery story. An English traveller had gone missing in the remote valley of Schwarztal in the Alps and was presumed dead. But three years later his brother arrived determined to solve the mystery of what happened to his brother - and what he discovered was very deeply disturbing.

Winifred Holtby (1898-1935) was an English novelist, short story writer and journalist. 'Why Herbert Killed His Mother' is the story of a perfect baby who wins a beautiful baby contest and becomes a tiny celebrity, bringing fame and fortune to his family. When Herbert grows up, he spends most of his life trying to leave 'Baby Herbert' behind him...but his mother cannot quite relinquish the glory days when she was hailed as the perfect mother.

'Green Ink' is a classic Victorian detective story. Carsdale the solicitor receives a mysterious visit from Mr. Flapp, an old Wrychester resident who has just returned from years of travel overseas. The purpose of the visit remains mysterious, although Grice, the clerk, believes that Mr. Flapp left something with Carsdale. When next day Mr. Flapp is found drowned in the canal, Carsdale is surprisingly silent on the subject of his business with Flapp.

'Escape - Three and Sixpence' is a haunting short story which opens with a Yorkshire housewife putting her head into the gas oven to commit suicide to escape her unbearable life of drudgery. We are swept along with the thoughts and emotions which go through her mind...and the roller coaster of emotions as events unfold.

'Dream Life and Real Life' is a haunting short story about a little orphan girl in servitude to a cruel Boer family. One night, following a beating, she runs away and hides in a cave. But there she overhears three men plotting to rob and burn down the Boer's farm and kill the family. What should she do? Warn them, or let them burn to death?

May Sinclair was the nom de plume of Mary Amelia St. Clair (1863-1946), a British writer who wrote novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragette and a spiritualist. 'The Nature of the Evidence' is a ghost story about a first wife who returns to this world when her husband remarries, to protest her disapproval of his choice of second wife and prevent the two of them from ever sharing a bed.

'The Registered Packet' is the story of Martineau, a young man returning home by ship after a two-year absence. On the ship he meets a stranger and volunteers to deliver a small parcel for him to the nearest post office, in order that his fellow traveller might catch his train. But on arrival in Hull, Martineau inadvertently leaves his bag in the cab. He is able to track down the vehicle and find his bag again, but to his horror the packet which was entrusted to him has disappeared.

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.

Ella Hepworth Dixon (1855-1932) was a British short story writer, journalist and novelist. 'The World's Slow Stain' is the story of a reconciliation which goes catastrophically wrong. Adela Buller and Anthony Mellingham, whose love affair ended badly 10 years earlier meet again and agree to marry. But after they broke up the first time, Adela published a bitter novel under a pseudonym in which she modelled the lead character - a dreadful cad - on Mellingham.

'The Man Who Missed the Bus' is a creepy horror story about a lonely and eccentric man who finds himself unable to see other human faces. Worse still, gradually he also loses the ability to see his own reflection in the mirror. But this is only the beginning of the horror story. Far worse is to come....

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884-1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist famous for his skill at scene setting and vivid plots. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s and remains popular to this day. 'Mr. Huffam' is a heartwarming story about a delightful stranger who, on account of his personal bonhomie and his wonderful ability to tell stories, charms the household of Sir Roderick Winslow, from the haughty aristocratic relatives to the domestics.

The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Never more so than in this collection of 30 weird and macabre tales.

Neil Munro (1863-1930) was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author and literary critic - a serious writer but now known mainly for his humorous short stories. 'Treasure Trove' is an amusing tale of a time when a whale was beached on a Scottish island just off the coast by Tobermory. The crew of a passing ship, led by the enterprising Sunny Jim, came up with a cunning plan to charge visitors to see the whale. The plan worked brilliantly - until the whale began to decay....

Amyas Northcote (1864-1923) was an English writer and contemporary of M. R. James who was best known for his ghost stories. 'The Downs' is a classic ghost story which demonstrates Northcote's understated genius. The story starts out as a regular tale, but with a few understated clues as to the nature of the horror that is to come - perfectly setting the atmosphere of creepy tension.

Arthur George Morrison (1863-1945) was an English writer and journalist known for his realistic novels and stories about working-class life in London's East End. 'Dobbs' Parrot' is a cleverly constructed humorous story about a con artist who manages to swindle four people simultaneously by selling them all a parrot in a cage, despite the fact that he has neither parrot nor cage at the start of the story.