The Real Deal

After Susan Hill's rather unsatisfying straightforward The Woman In Black (saw the ending coming a mile off) I had to give myself the willies properly with the daddy of them all: M R James. James is the master of place and detail and his suspenseful accrual of horror is second to none. His ghosts are rarely ghosts; more often agents of supernatural malevolence - things which should have been left well alone, but (fortunately for the reader) were not. The illustration on the jacket of this new Penguin reissue is from the creepy and horrifying "Oh Whistle and I'll Come To You My Lad", one of the high points of the genre. I cannot recommend enough spending 1/2 an hour in the eerie company of this skilled technician and frightmaster.