The Black Reaper: Tales of Terror by Bernard Capes

The Black Reaper: Tales of Terror by Bernard Capes
Bernard Capes

Hugh Lamb

Bernard Capes was celebrated as one of the most prolific authors of the late Victorian period, producing dozens of short stories, articles, and more than forty novels across multiple genres, culminating in the first original crime novel published by Collins, The Skeleton Key.Bernard Capes was celebrated as one of the most prolific authors of the late Victorian period, producing dozens of short stories, articles, and more than forty novels across multiple genres, culminating in the first original crime novel published by Collins, The Skeleton Key. His greatest acclaim, however, came from penning some of the most terrifying ghost stories of the era. Yet following his death in 1918 his work all but slipped into oblivion until the 1980s, when veteran anthologist Hugh Lamb first collected Capes’s tales of terror as The Black Reaper.Every story bears the stamp of Capes’s fertile and deeply pessimistic imagination, from werewolf priests and haunted typewriters to marble hands that come to life and plague-stricken villagers haunted by a scythe-wielding ghost. Now expanded with eleven further stories, a revised introduction and a new foreword by Capes’s grandson, Ian Burns, this classic collection will thrill horror fans and restore Capes’s reputation as one of the best writers in the horror genre.

Copyright (#ueee37b72-d2a2-5530-8341-6e514af1dd11)

HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by Equation 1989

Foreword © Ian Burns 2017

Introduction © Hugh Lamb 2017

Cover design by Mike Topping © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017

Cover images © Shutterstock.com (https://www.shutterstock.com)

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008249076

Ebook Edition © October 2017 ISBN: 9780008249083

Version: 2017–09–07

Dedication (#ueee37b72-d2a2-5530-8341-6e514af1dd11)

To my good friends,

Steve Jones and Randy Broecker,

and happy times at the Shakespeare.

Table of Contents

Cover (#u55ef7935-1dc2-52a3-808c-80634eebb660)

Title Page (#u2ca9d679-d2a1-5b2d-98a3-845f79404e7b)

Copyright (#u5275e3ed-50d5-5013-a735-92ef4ca893c8)

Dedication (#u794044d6-1007-5f70-9890-476b2a13009e)

Foreword (#u285e23c7-e7c8-59a8-a0be-8f39a2f6445d)

Introduction (#u26dc5c4a-fb7e-5cd1-bb67-1c371012296b)

The Black Reaper (#u0f0db9cc-8462-5bdf-a701-fb1d944a191d)

The Vanishing House (#udfd8c361-c057-51a2-8507-6ece9d76b8ae)

The Thing in the Forest (#u1600e810-f4b0-519d-bd37-c8124da3c4f7)

The Accursed Cordonnier (#ua3461db7-7ca5-51b3-8409-b1a61bd97606)

The Shadow-Dance (#ue25d1dfe-6336-5b6b-8184-5015e784cebf)

William Tyrwhitt’s ‘Copy’ (#u95580d2c-77f3-5547-a3d1-6c01b816df61)

A Queer Cicerone (#litres_trial_promo)

A Gallows-Bird (#litres_trial_promo)

The Sword of Corporal Lacoste (#litres_trial_promo)

The Glass Ball (#litres_trial_promo)

Poor Lucy Rivers (#litres_trial_promo)

The Apothecary’s Revenge (#litres_trial_promo)

The Green Bottle (#litres_trial_promo)

The Closed Door (#litres_trial_promo)

The Dark Compartment (#litres_trial_promo)

The Marble Hands (#litres_trial_promo)

The Moon Stricken (#litres_trial_promo)

The Queer Picture (#litres_trial_promo)

Dark Dignum (#litres_trial_promo)

The Mask (#litres_trial_promo)