Customer Reviews

Warning Whispers: New Weird Tales

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Ash Tree Press is one of today's finest purveyors of supernatural fiction, and many if not most of their titles come from the golden age of ghost stories (Victorian and Edwardian England). "Warning Whispers" is a collection of twenty-five stories which have moldered in the depths of weekly periodicals that were popular back at the beginning of the twentieth century (1915 - 1931).

A.M. Burrage, who also published under the pseudonym "Ex-private X" was primarily a writer of gently humorous love stories, but is now chiefly known for his supernatural fiction. Many of his stories were republished in that great series, "The Nth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories" (I believe they made it all the up to N = 20 -- If you're a ghost story fanatic, collect these titles wherever you can, especially those edited by R Chetwynd-Hayes). "Smee" is probably his most collected title and nothing in this book rises to quite that level, although "The Green Bungalow," "Warning Whispers (from which the book's title is derived)," and "The Witch of Oxshott" will all send a few tremors down your spine.

At his best, Burrage wraps the terror-meter needle to the level of fellow British supernatural writer, E. F. Benson. At his most insipid, he combines the ghostly with a touch of humor ("The Imperturbable Tucker") or romance ("Fellow Travellers"). These two stories will probably make you smile rather than shiver, but they are well worth reading.

"Warning Whispers" is a good, ghostly collection in the pre-WWII British manner. I wouldn't recommend it for the Stephen King 'smash their eyeballs' fans.