‘As a matter of fact,’ he went on to say, ‘I believe in vampires myself.’

‘You do?’ I felt the hair on the back of my neck commence to irritate. It is one thing to write about a horror, but quite another to begin to see it assume definite shape. ‘Yes,’ said Father R—. ‘I am forced to believe in vampires for the very good but terrible reason that I have met one!’

Tales of vampires, ghouls, werewolves and spirits rub shoulders with shikar stories and thrillers from all over the world in this eclectic collection. Selected by Ruskin Bond, these are stories by Bram Stoker, Sydney Horler, Alice Perrin, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Saki, and Amelia Edwards, and many others.

Read about a precarious journey in a haunted coach; a seemingly supernatural man-eater; Sherlock Holmes investigating a locked room mystery; and an Englishman who spends a night of horror in a long-deserted village before traveling on to Transylvania as the guest of Count Dracula.