Today, October 19, marks the birth of R. H. Malden (1879-1951). Malden was a friend of M. R. James. He only published one collection of stories, Nine Ghosts, in 1943, but it was a popular seller, even with World War II raging.
Tonight’s story is a little chiller about a group who rent an old Irish house. The owner is an officer in the army who is single.
The sitting room, dining room, and billiard room compose the rooms on the south side of the house. Portraits of family members going back a couple of centuries line the walls. In the dining room there is one picture over the fireplace that isn’t of a family member. It’s a menacing picture showing a man astride a chair with his back to the viewer and facing the fireplace. He’s turning to look over his shoulder, but it looks like his neck is twisted more that is should be. The man’s neck doesn’t appear to be broken because in the painting, he’s very much alive.
There are dark family secrets, strange winds coming from and blowing into the fireplace, a mysterious figure in a dream, and a secret society that came to a bad end in some way.
If that sounds like a lot, it is, although when I read the story, it didn’t seem that way. Malden did an excellent job with his tale, and I found reading it to be an entirely satisfying experience. I’ll be reading the rest of this book.
