ABANDONED. Horror / Suspense - Edwardian London time frame

[Pearl]

This one is driving me crazy.

When I was younger I read a short story that was horror and I am trying to remember the name of it or the author.

The story is about a man who is able to have his spirit leave his body and roam about. He then decides to kill someone (wife or friend, can't remember) to receive an inheritance. Anyway, his (spirit) is walking down the hallway and ends up getting confused (a storm or power outage) and enters the wrong room. He ends up making a terrible mistake and killing the wrong person

Does anyone else ever remember reading this or something like it?

I believe I read it about 30 years ago in high school and I believe that one of the contemporaries of the author was Edgar Allen Poe. It might even be one of Poe's short stories.

[Andria]

It sounds a little like HG Wells' The Stolen Body, although not all the details match.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

When you say Edwardian London time frame does that mean it was also set there?

Other writers it might be: Wilkie Collins, M.R. James, Edith Wharton wrote ghost stories too.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Pearl, are you still looking for this short story?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

It couldn't be Edgar Allan Poe if it was set in Edwardian London. Poe died in 1849.

Victorian covers the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837-1901. Edwardian covers the reign of King Edward VII from 1901-1910.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

I wonder if it could be The Haunted Hotel, which is a novella. I've forgotten most of the details.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Melinda wrote: "Thanks Everyone. The search continues though. When I read it in the mid 80s' my sense is that it was recently written ie. maybe just a few years earlier. So definitely a more recent author. The boo..."

Are you Pearl?

[Rachel]

The bit about the spirit leaving the body is often called astral projection, so you might have some luck using that phrase while you are searching.

There is a goodreads list of astral projection books here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/as...

[Rachel]

Oh, just realised a lot of the books in that list are non fiction, but I suppose there might still be something useful in it!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Pearl, are you still looking for this short story?"

No response in 3+ years. Moving to Abandoned.

[SamSpayedPI]

The Horsehair Trunk by Davis Grubb for the link. It's a short story in Twelve Tales of Suspense and the Supernatural and was made into a Night Gallery episode ("The Last Laurel") in the seventies.

I just read it, and while it's very similar to Pearl's description, such that it's very possibly the same book misremembered after thirty years, I wouldn't call it a "slam dunk":

1. It does not take place in "Edwardian London" but in the U.S., somewhere along the Ohio River, as the characters are traveling by riverboat to Louisville (Kentucky). Also, it's sometime before 1885, because there is a short discussion of the upcoming election; the MC predicts Cleveland [presumably Grover] will win.
(view spoiler)[
2. There's no inheritance and he's not trying to kill his wife or a friend. His wife is running away with a traveling salesman and that's who he's trying to kill.
3. While there is a storm, it's not what caused the MC to mistake the room he was going to. He just screws up.
and 4. (view spoiler)[Double spoiler: The person he accidentally kills is himself!. You'd think Pearl would have mentioned it. (hide spoiler)]
(hide spoiler)]

[SamSpayedPI]

The rockabilly werewolf from Mars wrote: "It does seem rather unlikely that there are very many stories with this plot, though."

Granted. The issue is, though, whether the story matches closely enough to the OP's description to mark it "solved" without their input. This is at the discretion of the moderators.