The Call and Other Stories - Softcover

Westall, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140373454 ISBN 13: 9780140373455

Publisher: Puffin, 1995

Synopsis

Six spine-tingling stories of the supernatural include the experiences of a dead woman who calls an emergency hotline on every Christmas eve and a boy who discovers that he is involved in an alien experiment. Reprint.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

By a fine, dependable British author whose fiction ranges from sf to WW II-set novels (The Kingdom by the Sea, 1991): six stories partaking of the supernatural. A truant is trapped in a house where the ghostly occupant tests his honesty while offering a deadly bargain; the outrage of an architectural historian provokes the mysterious resurgence of stately ``Denswick Park,'' now converted to new homes. ``Warren, Sharon and Darren'' features a virgin birth of an extraterrestrial, who intriguingly does and doesn't resemble Jesus (he's so embarrassingly precocious that his parents are forced to change his school). ``The Badger'' rises from the dead to persecute the cruel hunter who killed him. Most interesting: the title story, in which the ghost of a murdered woman seeks companionship by telephone; and the intricately plotted ``The Red House Clock,'' which wreaks vengeance on a truly despicable villain--but through the ironic intervention of the narrator's singularly dour father. Solidly spooky fare--well written and imaginative. (Short stories. 12+) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

Accomplished author Westall is in top form with this collection of six spine-tinglers. Readers will be hard put to decide which they enjoy most: the decidedly spooky goings-on or the glimpse into a workaday English life far from the glamour of London. It is, in fact, the mingling of the commonplace with the eerie that gives these stories their clout. In "Uncle Otto at Denswick Park," the visit of an art historian with a passion for the past calls forth period-clad phantoms who do their best to restore the placid lawns of a luxury housing development to their former Georgian splendor. "Warren, Sharon and Darren" is the account of an out-of-work couple propelled by the arrival of a changeling son into the upper stratospheres of yuppiedom. An admonitory tale of greed and obsession, "The Red House Clock" manages to conjure up the coziness of 1920s village life while revealing its grimmer sides as well. Rich with detail and ingeniously constructed, these stories are as entertaining as they are evocative. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Puffin
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140373454
• ISBN 13: 9780140373455
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128