•→ G.K. Chesterton in Sight & Sound ← [1874 – 1936]
¤ The Oracle of the Dog →
[included in Gerald Durrell‘s 1990 anthology «Best Dog Stories»]→
The Oracle of the Dog story is what is known as a locked-room puzzle. A murder is committed with out a way in or out of the room. In this case, the room isn’t locked but it is under the observation of many witnesses so the murderer is sure to be seen.
•→»The Song of Quoodle⇐[poem]
¤ The Secret Garden ⇓ [read]
The Secret Garden is an absolutely brilliant mystery. In the previous story in the anthology, we are introduced to the great detective Valentin, and the clever priest Father Brown. In that story Valentin is a good guy.
In «The Secret Garden», a man is found beheaded in the garden. The problem: Why would someone hack off someone’s head when he could just stab him or something? How did the dead man get into the garden in the first place? (A high wall surounds the garden). One guest, Brayne, is nowhere to be found after the body is discovered, leading the guests to believe Brayne was the culprit.
But then a surprise turns up- on the other side of the wall, in the river, a head without a body is found- Brayne’s!
Father Brown finally comes up with a solution- The beheaded «body» found in the garden was not really what it seemed. It was Brayne’s body but the head was that of a man who had been guillotined as a criminal. The murderer had beheaded Brayne and thrown Brayne’s head over the wall where it fell into the river; hence, the discovery of the second head.
He had then placed the head of the random guillotined man’s head by Brayne’s body to make it look like one beheaded person.
The culprit? Valentin, who feared that Brayne, a millionaire, would provide funding to the Nationalistic party, of which he was a political enemy.
¤ M R James ↓ [1862 – 1936]
Celebrated cult horror novelist and story writer H.P. Lovecraft was a fan, and wrote a review on Montague Rhodes James’ work: «…gifted with an almost diabolic power of calling horror by gentle steps from the midst of prosaic daily life.» he says, also adding: «Dr. James has, it is clear, an intelligent and scientific knowledge of human nerves and feelings; and knows just how to apportion statement, imagery, and subtle suggestions in order to secure the best results with his readers.»
Although largely ignored by filmmakers, [Curse of the Demon (1957) is one exception], his work has a dedicated fan base, and the BBC filmed several of his stories in the 1970s, wisely titling them under the series «A Ghost Story for Christmas». In 2000, horror legend Christopher Lee jumped at the chance to read four of James’ stories in another Christmas special screened on BBC2.
¤→ Casting the Runes ⇓
A rather arrogant man is submitting a paper to be published by a whole host of journals and when it does not get published but rejected, the man takes matters into his own sorcerous hands. People that somehow had something to do with the rejection end up dying, which understandably has our protagonist nervous – he is the latest person to reject the academic paper from publication. But armed with the foreknowledge of what might happen to him, he goes on the offensive and gives the paper’s author a dose of his own medicine . . .
¤→ The Ash Tree ⇓
The story documents the tale of Sir Richard Castringham, who has just inherited a country seat with an unfortunate history. The house has been cursed since the day his ancestor, Sir Matthew, condemned a woman to death for witchcraft . . .
¤→ A View From A Hill ←[read]
Fanshawe (Mark Letheren) visits the home of Squire Richards (Pip Torrens), an impoverished landowner, to catalogue his archaeological collection. While being escorted around Richards’ lands, Fanshawe borrows an old pair of field glasses that had belonged to a local amateur archaologist, Baxter, who had died in mysterious circumstances. While using them to look at Gallows Hill, Fanshawe sees different things through the glasses than he does with the naked eye, and he falls deeper down the rabbit hole of the urban legend mystery that surrounds that area ⇓
Deja un comentario