The Taste of Fear

Nine of the thirteen stories in Mr. Lamb's new anthology have not been published before and the four stories by Erckmann-Chatrian, A. C. Benson, William Hope Hodgson, and H. F. W. Tatham would be hard to find elsewhere. E. F. Benson's brother A. C.'s work was only discovered posthumously and we particularly commend his "The Uttermost Farthing," a literate, leisurely novella of evil incarnated and perpetuated. Editor Lamb is an enthusiastic entrepreneur of the recherche - sometimes too much so. Frederick Cowles' "Three Shall Meet" creaks and clanks; is John Blackburn, you know him, today's "master of horror"? But try Michael Sims' first published story where a young man inherits the old house, "Benjamin's Shadow," which he becomes, or Roger Parkes' Alfred Hitchcock blood-typed "Interim Report." A nice assortment of something old, something new, something borrowed, and something black. (Kirkus Reviews)