The Short Ghost Story Collection contains ten classic spooky tales written by such master craftsmen as Algernon Blackwood, Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker and Saki among others. The stories range from haunted houses to reincarnation (as a predatory otter), ancient curses in which marble statues come alive and wreak a horrible revenge and a long narrative poem that describes a dialog between a ghost and a human being. This anthology features authors like Lewis Carroll and E Nesbit who are traditionally regarded as children's writers and other practitioners of the paranormal like American writer Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. Ghost stories generally deal with anything that's considered “scary.” However, each writer has his or her own style of telling the tale. Some like Saki bring in their trademark irony, while Lewis Carroll ensures that the fantastic finds its way in. Algernon Blackwood bends the ghost story to its most classic level, as he spins out this subtle and truly chilling tale "The Empty House". Charles Dickens weighs in with a gothic tale of a jury member being haunted by the ghost of the person whose trial he is called upon to judge. "The Trial For Murder" finds Dickens in an unusually crisp, rapier-like mode with none of his elaborate and often distracting details.