In the title story of The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories, Jim Shorthouse accompanies his adventurous Aunt Julia into a notorious vacant house where hints of a past crime heighten the tension, yet the true horror arises less from visible apparitions than from the oppressive atmosphere and mounting psychological dread that pervade each room they explore, and throughout the collection Algernon Blackwood crafts tales in which subtle suggestion, inner fear, and heightened sensitivity to unseen forces create an immersive experience of the uncanny that lingers long after the story ends.
