Megan Donahue Donahue itibaren Devarayanadurga, Karnataka 572140, Hindistan itibaren Devarayanadurga, Karnataka 572140, Hindistan

I'm having the hardest time getting through this book!

This book--which presents the individual works of two distinct late Victorian authors of supernatural fiction--is a package deal, and, like most package deals, it is hard to evaluate. Louisa Baldwin--better known as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's mother and Rudyard Kipling's aunt--is not a very good writer. Her ghost story plots are hackneyed, their developments unoriginal, and she narrates them in a style stuffed with unnecessary adjectives that tell the reader what to feel and when to be scared. Her tone is that of a kindly grandmother who wishes to entertain the young children in her care with ghost stories, but must continually assure them that all this stuff is "nothing but make-believe." I have the feeling I would have liked the lady if I had met her, but I have no wish to read anything else she has written--ever. "The Real and the Counterfeit"--a story about a group of public school boys vacationing in a haunted abbey turned manor house--is the best of a bad lot. Lettice Galbraith--probably a pseudonym, since nothing else whatsoever is known about her--is something else entirely. Her stories are well written, filled with more than a few terrors and an even greater amount of action and suspense. She seems to understand the professions and milieu she writes about (the clergy, the law, painters and their models, horse racing)and wastes few words in telling her taut tales. "The Case of Lady Lukestan," "The Trainer's Ghost" and "A Ghosts Revenge" are all excellent ghost stories, and I wouldn't minding reading them again. (1 star for Louisa plus 3 stars for Lettice divided by 2 equals 2 stars.)