The Call and Other Stories

By a fine, dependable British author whose fiction ranges from sf to WW II-set novels (The Kingdom by the Sea, 1991): six stories partaking of the supernatural. A truant is trapped in a house where the ghostly occupant tests his honesty while offering a deadly bargain; the outrage of an architectural historian provokes the mysterious resurgence of stately "Denswick Park," now converted to new homes. "Warren, Sharon and Darren" features a virgin birth of an extraterrestrial, who intriguingly does and doesn't resemble Jesus (he's so embarrassingly precocious that his parents are forced to change his school). "The Badger" rises from the dead to persecute the cruel hunter who killed him. Most interesting: the title story, in which the ghost of a murdered woman seeks companionship by telephone; and the intricately plotted "The Red House Clock," which wreaks vengeance on a truly despicable villain - but through the ironic intervention of the narrator's singularly dour father. Solidly spooky fare - well written and imaginative. (Kirkus Reviews)