Night-Pieces — Thomas Burke

Perhaps no writer of the early 20th century had a better knowledge of London than Thomas Burke (1886-1945), and his collection Night-Pieces (1935) contains eighteen of his most haunting tales of that immense city's dark back alleys, shadowy courts, and mysterious houses. In Burke's London, anything might happen. You might turn round a corner and find yourself back in your childhood. A casual drink with a stranger might end with you - quite literally - losing your head. That pale, slightly sinister-looking man sitting across the restaurant might be a murdered corpse, returned from the dead. And those footsteps you hear following you as you walk along a foggy street, faintly lit by gaslight ... well, let's just say you had better not look behind you ... A groundbreaking and undeservedly neglected volume, Night-Pieces contains a wide variety of weird and outré tales, ranging from stories of crime and murder to tales of ghosts, zombies, and the supernatural. This is the first unabridged reprint of Burke's collection since its original appearance and reproduces the jacket art of the first British edition. An artist for whom I have always entertained a great admiration ... This is a volume of really good short stories. - Gerald Gould, Observer A master of the psychology of fear, of the torments of the crime-burdened conscience ... 'The Lonely Inn' is close to a masterpiece. - The American Mercury His talent is as great as ever ... in even the eeriest of them there is more fascination than horror ... excellent. - Guardian