This book starts its journey with BookCrossing from Delphi, Greece
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" Scotland has a notoriously rich and diverse cultural tradition when it comes to the supernatural. Many of her greatest writers from Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg to Robert Louis Stevenson and John Buchan have explored the country's unique folkloric heritage to spine-chilling effect. From Highlands to Lowlands, from blasted heath or remote glen to wretched hovel or austere castle, the very topography lends itself somehow to the strange and unexplainable.
Leading off Edinburgh's colourful Royal Mile, which runs from the Palace of Holyrood to the gaunt castle on the rock, there are many narrow 'wynds' - passages ancient and mysterious. As soon as you leave the sunshine and enter these dark and reeking ways you know that you are in a city full of ghosts and spirits - unhappy souls condemned for ever to roam this antique city.
Tormented spectres like them throng the pages of this disquieting collection. Lock your door, turn up the lights, put extra logs on the fire and as you start to read, utter a fervent prayer: From ghoulies and ghosties And long-leggety beasties And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us! If this plea fails to work and they choose to come for you, despair; there is no hope; there is no escape. In truth, dear reader, if you are of a nervous disposition and liable to fearings and fantasies we are not sure this book is entirely suitable for you. You have been warned. "


~~~~~~To the person who found this book:~~~~~~

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I hope you enjoy the book!

I liked this collection. I found some stories better than others and some of them more fitting to the theme than others, but there is something for everyone here. Most of them were stories I've read before, but I enjoyed re-reading them.
Some of them are written on a strong Scottish dialect and there is use of much local terminology, but luckily I've come across to this style of writting before, so it wasn't too hard for me to read and understand what I'm reading. This added on the "ambiance" . Don't ask me to read anything aloud though!


The Watcher by the Threshold 6/10 There is a decent built-up of curiosity and ambiance on this story, but it doesn't come to much at the end. The awe with which people used to face insanity or question its nature would have produce a stronger impact when the story was written, but I think a modern audience isn't so easily impressed...

The Outgoing of the Tide 6+/10 This story featured some action and took a somehow unexpected turn towards the end and I guess there is lots going on on a spititual/religion level, but there is not a very satisfying conclusion on more earthly plains.

Skule Skerry 7/10 Not that much scary, but this was a story with a modern feeling to it and a logical explanation at the end. Not really a supernatural story to be honest.

No Man's Land 7+/10 A bit more long-winded than necessary, not that much original and a bit over the top on some points, but this was a very decent adventure. Again not the kind of story I would see very fitting on a book titled Ghost Stories, Tales of Mystery and The Supernatural, but it seems the editor applied this term, Mystery , on a very broad sense...

Summer Weather 6/10 This was kind of a weird story and again not sure if it has a place on this collection, other than if taken in the light of the fascination towards behaviors other than the expected ones from people or animals back when the story was written.

The Oasis in the Snow 6/10 Decent little story but a little dull too.

The Far Islands 6+/10 Not sure how exacty to take this story or its end, it was well-written but "tame" as many stories in this book.

A Cry across the Black Water 7/10 Not your most original and a bit weird in parts, but this was a very decent read.

The Story of Euphemia Hewit 7+/10 I liked the vibrant pace and writting style of this one. You can see where everything is going if you've read a few such stories in the past, but it's still nice.

The Brownie of the Black Haggs 7+/10 Interesting and well-written story. I'm not sure if it's based on a specific earlier story or just on the more generic folklore tradition of this type, because upon finishing I had an impression that it was familiar and that I had read a more detailed account of the Lady's troubles after following the brownie away from her castle.

The Mysterious Bride 7/10 Finally the book starts to touch somehow on the more typical apparition/ghost story genre. I liked the pace of the story too.

Mary Burnet 6+/10 This started as a promissing story, but while in theory it features a happy-ish end, there is lots left unexplained.

Ticonderoga 7/10 This story is based on a legend circulating in Scotland for many decades. Duncan Campbell is a real historical figure and he did die on Ticonderoga seige that took place on 1758. I would love a more detailed narration, but I liked it.

The Old Nurse's Story 7/10 Interesting little story. You'd think it would come to some more creepy conclusion or something, but it was still fun.

The Haunted Major 7+/10 This was a very amusing story. It could be slightly shorter at parts, but it was really funny and very visual. Picture in your mind a golf-maniac ghost of a cardinal, standing and pirouetting on his head on a railway shed, out of excitement! What more to ask?

Old Lady Mary 7/10 A decent and sober story which I think could be shorter or made more interesting under another author's pen.

The Open Door 7+/10 Again an interesting story and builds an ambiance, but the end left something to be desired.

The Library Window 6+/10 Well, I guess the narration is a nice psychograph and depicts the tension of the main character, but it gets a bit boring for a modern audience too. The end left lots of lose threads.

The Portrait 7/10 An interesting core story, made longer than needed on my opinion. The whole haunting thing is of the eleptical, subtle type here.

The Tapestried Chamber 7/10 This is a story usually included in most collections of antique ghost stories and is very decent, although not that much happens and the weird events are recalled afterwards rather than described on the time they happened.

Wandering Willie's Tale 7+/10 A very decent tale, told on an excellent pace and style for this kind of story. Highly enjoyable.

My Aunt Margaret's Mirror 7+/10 This story had a really unnecessary introduction, following the tradition of framing the main story in another story. But it was interesting in its own right.

Ticonderoga: A Legend of the West Highlands 6+/10 Now, I'm not the best judge of poetry, nor it's much my thing, but this sounded decent. It's written from one of my favorite authors too! But let's be honest, if I didn't have prior knowledge of the story it refers to, I wouldn't have a clue what this is all about.

Markheim 6+/10 The author touches on the duality of man's nature here, while it's still a stream of consience type of read and one that touches on the human soul, what's good or bad, who sets the rules and who holds the responsibility for one's actions and so on and so on... A decent read but not the best of this collection or this author...

Thrawn Janet 7/10 A bit weird at some points, but a very typical and well-written story.

The Body-Snatcher 8/10 One of the best stories of this collection and always a pleasure to re-read. I would prefer a less sharp end and I would like to have a bit more feedback on Fettes' story afterwards, but very well-written and provides lots of food for thought. Of course the more remarkable thing is that it's based on true facts. Not only on the practice of digging up dead bodies to use them on anatomical lessons, but on the very notorious and very real crimes commited on 1828 by William Burke and William Hare, who killed people to sell the corpses to Robert Knox, K- in the story.

Olalla 6/10 Some of those stories have aged better than others. This is often famous for featuring some "vampirism" and possibly been inspiration for Dracula that was published a decate after Olalla, but it's among my least favorite stories of this book and this author. There premise is so much based on the ideas about noble characteristics of aristocracy passing down through "blood", generation after generation, noble qualities deteriorating due to inbreeding or due to aristocrats coupled with people of "lesser" origins etc, that I can't really connect or sympathise much with this story. I never can quite get into the psyche of the main characters because of this and furthermore, there are some sub-plots and hints that remain unanswered. The end of the story is not completely satisfactory either.

The Ghost of Craig-Aulnaic 6+/10 A decent legend, but it feels a bit like been told by someone who knows the main elements of the story, but lacks the charisma of story-telling.

The Doomed Rider 6/10 Again this feels like someone recalling a strange incident/old story s/he once heard without been skilled enought to provide a captivating narration.

The Weird of the Three Arrows 6+/10 Interesting story which could have develop on a more engaging read.

The Laird of the Balmachie's Wife 6/10 Ditto.

Michael Scott 6+/10 There was a real Micheal Scott back on the late 12th/early 13th century, who was a scholar on various subjects and was rumored to be a wizzard too. There were and are many people with this name in Scotland (and Ireland) and the legends surrounding one or another from differenr eras miggle, reproduce and expand all the time. This story seems to be an amagalm of shorts for one of them or maybe just a very common name chosen at random, but after a promissing start it just accelarates to the end without much substance.

The Haunted Ships 6+/10 There is a very captivating ambiance at first, but then this is a story that refuses to settle in one direction. It feels like the narrator couldn't much decide which axis to build his premise on, so s/he decided to include all kind of elements and versions of a plot and then just finish the narration abrupt without an end.

Glamis Castle 6/10 Not so much a short story than a fact sheet summarising some legends and incidents.

The book got itchy feet and wants to explore the whole wide wild world! So for a start off to the Akron Family Reading Festival in Ohio, USA it goes!
And then... Who knows?

Good Luck and Don't forget to write your news from time to time!

Arrived in plenty of time for release at the Akron Family Reading Festival!

Look for the Rubber City Book Posse tables!