Told by the Dead

Spectral terrors abound, and monsters who might live next door or in our own heads. We learn why we should never play cards with strangers, and the peril of attending press shows of films. We glimpse a book that may render all others redundant, and encounter another that is too full of ghosts. A roadside mirror contains more than a reflection, and a bedroom mirror shows what may be in store for us all. Telephone advertising gives rise to a nightmare, and so does a Mediterranean holiday. A nostalgic train journey ends in dread, but leaving a train leads there too. Two street musicians may make the reader anxious to placate such entertainers with at least a coin. The author's wife exerts a calming influence in a collaboration, but his delirium is irrepressible, and readers with recherché preferences will be rewarded by a troupe of rampant midgets.