The Parasite and Other Tales of Terror

January 4, 2021
The fifth release in the Horror Writer Association’s Haunted Library of Horror Classics series collects nine chilling shorts from Sherlock Holmes creator Doyle and serves as a remarkable reminder of the author’s dark imagination and influence on the horror genre. In the mystical title novelette, professor Austin Gilroy, a young skeptic, is swayed by the strange powers of a mesmerist. “The Mystery of Sasassa Valley” follows two Englishmen as they investigate rumors of a demon living in a South African valley. An injured soldier is protected by a mysterious black stone on a perilous sea voyage in “J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement,” and in “The Ring of Thoth” an Egyptologist gets trapped in the Louvre where he encounters a strange man who tells him an ancient story. Questionable depictions of African characters and a strain of Orientalism date the collection, but there’s no denying Doyle’s powerful storytelling abilities. Horror enthusiasts will delight in these classic tales of the macabre, and those primarily familiar with Doyle from his detective fiction will be fascinated to explore his darker side.

May 14, 2021
A novella and short stories from Arthur Conan Doyle are the newest addition to the Haunted Library of Horror Classics series, which is an undertaking by the Horror Writers Association to compile and republish forgotten classic horror stories. Readers know and love Conan Doyle for Sherlock Holmes, but his horror stories, written at various stages of his life, are impressive and chilling reads. "The Mystery of Sasassa Valley" is a ghost story set in South Africa involving two young men and a Spector light in the distance. This story and "Selecting a Ghost: The Ghosts of Goresthorpe Grange" have twists or turns at the end that are both fun and almost steer the stories into thriller territory. The atmosphere and setting of the stories, from the middle of the Arctic Sea to an old manor house, are effective, carefully drawn, and just scream classic horror. Each is a bit scary in a different way, which allows Conan Doyle to show off his understanding of humanity and what terrifies us.

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