Shadow Publishing
New edition of the author's only book, first published in 1934 by Philip Allan as part of their "Creeps" series. This edition adds an eleventh story, "The Author's Tale," and introduction, "The Quest For Lewis," by Richard Dalby.
Somehow I'd managed to completely miss out on the limited output of L.A, Lewis, the author of 11 stories that more than live up to the title they were given
Squadron Leader Leslie Allin Lewis was a veteran of both the first and second world wars flying Sopwith Camels in WWI and Hurricanes in WWII before being invalided out in the early 1940s. In the time between the wars he wrote the 10 stories that were published in 1934 under this title with anthologist and ghost story expert Richard Dalby tracking down and adding the 11th some 60 years later having discovered it published in a 1935 anthology.
It's a very - and I really do mean very - fine collection. Unsurprisingly, some stories work better than others and Lewis' aviation background makes several appearances which were of the least interest to me mostly due to my indifference - bordering on antipathy - to stories of flying which I sure goes a long way towards my feeling that they were the weakest stories here.
Lewis is perhaps best remembered - if he's remembered at all - for his story 'The Tower of Moab', a tale - based on a real building - of Heaven and Hell and of obsession and madness which is a sublime piece of writing. The rest of the book tells stories of ghostly revenge ('The Dirk'), astral music ('The Chords of Chaos'), possession ('The Meerschaum Pipe') and demonic children ('The Child') that show an imagination willing to travel to the darkest limits and show what a shame it was that he destroyed his later stories in a fit of manic depression as he deserves to be far more widely read.
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