The Crimson Blind and Other Ghost Stories (Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural)

The rear cover calls Mrs. Everett a "Victorian novelist"; I'll note that the stories in this collection touch a later period -- almost all the stories are set in the English homefront in the World War I years. I found this little collection a delight. Everett's writing style is clean and rich, the stories develop with a nice air of suspense and proceed to appropriately supernatural-tinged resolutions. The narrative tone varies, as Everett offers us the voice of a petty snob in "A Water Witch," a fragile but self-assertive young woman in "The Pipers of Mallory," and a male narrator in "Anne's Little Ghost." I will not say every story is a masterwork. A few of the later stories are a bit too sentimental, and the resolution of "A Perplexing Case" is a bit silly. I will say, without reservation, that the collection is a pleasure.