This was the last of this author's works on my shelves and promised to be an easier read, being a collection of short stories. They span a couple of decades in her career, judging by the foreword, and one story in particular, 'To Adam a Son', first published in the 1970s, deserved consignment to oblivion in my opinion as it returned to the 'Lady of Hay' idea of a woman loving her rapist even though he leaves her pregnant and returns years later wanting a wife to look after the child he has been "lumbered" with by the woman he married straight afterwards.

The quality of the stories in this collection are very uneven. Some seem unfinished such as the title story which sets up a situation but doesn't really deliver anything other than the usual haunted house cliches. I thought the better stories were those which did not deal with relationships between women and men but instead were told from a child's viewpoint, such as the little girl who is scared of a vicious cat that is a suitcase by day and lives on top of her wardrobe, or dealt with a young person setting out in life, such as the girl who is about to go for a music "interview" for a position of organist at a church. Those stories brought up the book's rating for me, so that it balanced out at a 3-star rating. ( )

Oh Dear this was bad! I stuck it out for as long as I could, but I got to the stage where if I had to listen to one more story with a woman unable to function without a man in her life I was going to scream.
Individually, each story was OK, there were some inventive ideas in here. But cumulatively the effect was entirely depressing. It is a bit like trying to eat an entire packet of marshmallows. One or two are OK, but after a while you start to feel a little bit ick. Don't bother yourselves with this one. I made it through ~ 3/4 before deciding to quit before I lost the will to live. ( )

I don't usually enjoy short stories but this collection changed my mind. ( )

A long time since I originally read this book, but picked it up over the weekend and enjoyed re-reading it. It has been a sufficiently long time that I came to the book with fresh eyes.

A collection of short stories, the writing is distinctly Erskine in style - enjoyed all the little plot twists and supernatural elements which popped up.

A good book to dip in and out of. ( )