Open at Your Own Risk

by Joan Kahn (Editor)

extremely rare,very good condition

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery, Horror

506 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1975

Reviews

[Abbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

BOTTOM LINE: Suspensers, scary stories, and a few bits of crime-related nonfiction from 1975 has a nice mix of classics and current-day authors, from one of the most prolific anthologists of the 1960s and 1970s.

My favorites were “Stay of Execution”, Michael Gilbert; “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, Charlotte Gilman; “The Beast with Five Fingers”, William Fryer Harvey; “A Time for Hyacinth”, Julian Symons. Also includes stories and articles by E.F. Benson, Stella Benson, Jorge Luis Borges, Gerald Bullet, Janet Flanner, Elizabeth Gaskell, Violet Hunt, Shirley Jackson, W.W. Jacobs, Alister Kershaw, Christopher Lazare, Edgar Lustgarten, W. Somerset Maugham, Maurice Moisewitsch, Lenore Glen Offord, Sir Walter Scott, Osbert Sitwell, Jan Gerhard Toonder, Oscar Wilde, Henry Wilson, P.G. Wodehouse.

E.F. Benson, “Mrs Amworth”, 1924
— wonderfully creepy “take” on vampirism
Stella Benson, “The Man Who Missed the Bus”, 1929
— odd little bon mot about a lonely man with an identity problem
Jorge Luis Borges, “Death and the Compass”, 1968
— stilted bit of legerdemain with a decent ending twist
Gerald Bullet, “The Mole”, 1923
— dull story about a dull, if hellish, marriage
Janet Flanner, “Murder Among the Lovebirds”, 1935, NF
— nifty, trendy tale of two murderesses
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, “The Squire’s Story
— 18th century Highwayman-esque tale of cruelty and murder
Michael Gilbert, “Stay of Execution”, 1963
— superb novella about a miscarriage of justice
Charlotte Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”
— classic creeper still grabs ya
William Fryer Harvey, “The Beast with Five Fingers”, 1947
— a classic, and deservedly so; far better than the fun 40s movie
Violet Hunt, “The Coach”, 1911
— moody Victoriana, “with a moral”, I think...
Shirley Jackson, “The Daemon Lover”, 1949
— dated but scary tale of love lost
W.W. Jacobs, “The Toll-House”,
— horrors in an old house, nicely calibrated
Alister Kershaw, “Murder in Solitude”, 1955, NF
— French Ripper Joseph Vacher, long-winded yet fascinating grisly Victoriana
Christopher Lazare, “Last Visit”, 1944
— madness, in the old style
Edgar Lustgarten, “Elvira Barney”, 1958, NF
— very good rendition of a sensational society murder case circa 1930
W. Somerset Maugham, “A Man From Glasgow”, 1947
— lunacy, beyond measure
Maurice Moisewitsch, “Steinie Morrison”, 1962, NF
— nicely wrought tale of ugly murder circa 1911
Lenore Glen Offord, “Eleven Days Wonder”, 1947, NF
— murder in Oakland, for profit, unrealized, circa 1925
Sir Walter Scott, “The Fortunes of Martin Waldeck”
— Grimm-ish tale of a forest demon up to old tricks
Osbert Sitwell, “A Place of One’s Own”, 1953
— genteel hauntings at an Edwardian spa, edgily funny
Julian Symons, “A Time for Hyacinth”, 1967
— creepy classic about old love, and new lovers
Jan Gerhard Toonder, “The Spider”, 1961
— a marriage gone really bad, gruesome
Oscar Wilde, “Pen, Pencil, and Poison”, NF
— Regency poisoner Wainwright, his lives and loves
Henry Wilson, “Miss Parsons”, NF
— dry account of 18th century hauntings that may, or may not, have been real
P.G. Wodehouse, “Sensational Occurrence at a Poetry Reading”, 1943
—

[Bill Borre]

The Squire's Story is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror