Bithia Mary Croker (1849–1920)

These ghost stories by B.M. Croker are mainly distinguished by their setting–the classic Victorian ghost story is transplanted to India and other places based on the author’s time abroad as the wife of a military officer. In general, the stories were reasonably entertaining and suspenseful, but some were too short to make an impact and, although the introduction noted the author’s unusually sympathetic view of Indians for the time, there were still some cringeworthy descriptions of the Indian characters (and black slaves in the stories set in America).

“‘Number Ninety’” is a standard haunted house story set in London. It was interesting to have this one as the first story because it set up a comparison to the various haunted house stories set in India, as well as providing a pattern for the other stories. The narrator or the main character learns of a supposedly haunted house but is skeptical and laughs at or dismisses those who try to warn them. They stay at the house, and things seem fine for a while, but eventually the haunting starts. The endings vary–sometimes the characters right past wrongs or are just scared and humbled, but other stories end in tragedy. Of all the haunted house stories, my favorites were “The Red Bungalow” and “‘To Let’”, which were longer and more detailed than some of the others. The later stories were set in other places–America, Australia, France. The supernatural elements also tended to be different–ghosts revealing their burial location, cases of spirit possession and a prophetic dream. Of the shorter stories, “The First Comer” was nicely creepy, having an unexpected and unexplained supernatural event when the narrator goes to get her sick sister a cup of tea in the middle of the night. Enjoyable enough, but unlike some collections I’ve read recently, I didn’t feel motivated to seek out more of the author’s work.… (mehr)