Tales of Terror

Dr Peter Haslar breaks a long silence to record a tragedy that still troubles him in old age. He wants to correct misleading public accounts and preserve the case for science. His recollections begin with the wedding of Jack Redcar and Maude Tremlett, a couple whose apparent happiness makes his warnings of later trouble especially unsettling. This opening to Dick Donovan's collection builds suspense through the contrast between an admired friend's early character and the change the doctor promises to explain.

Published in 1899, the volume gathers English horror stories with titles suggesting strange lights, hidden treasure, an abbey spectre and mysterious powers. A later excerpt describes the desperate defence of military stores at Delhi, bringing the fear of approaching disaster into a battlefield setting. Readers interested in older horror fiction can follow how personal testimony, ominous expectations and scenes of danger create tension before the causes of that fear become clear.