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Post #1659897

Author
Vultural
Parent topic
What are you reading?
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1659897/action/topic#1659897
Date created
18-Aug-2025, 11:52 AM

Blakeston, Oswell - The Hut And Other Stories Of Dread

Occult Press unearths a bit of obscurity here. Blakeston, pseudonym for Henry David Hasslacher, had a colorful career, starting out as a conjuror’s assistant. The stories in this range far and wide.

It’s the headache, beastly thing, that steered events. David leaves work early, races for the train, and lands himself in First Class. In “Adventure Without Asking” David finds his equilibrium worsening, along with the migraine. Then, there is persistently yawning, repellent, gnome-like man.

Was the death murder? Or something else? In a sealed room, by drowning, in “The Mysterious Fluid”. Houdini is not called, but the superintendent is well versed in magician trickery.

“The Hut” is a particularly nasty place. Perhaps not the dwelling, although it had been the site of hideous evil before. Such places always seem to attract the wrong element, as well a stream of fools.

Superintendent Deering features several times. “The Disappearance” follows him in pursuit of a criminal organizer. A receiver of stolen property, a fence to employ slang. This bears a touch of what might have passed for SciFi in the 1930’s.

“The Secret Of The Graves” is the longest, and the closest to Pulp. A child’s grave has been desecrated and the village newcomer is Suspect #1. The mystery, and not a harmless one, involves a hard-nosed village cop, a troubled medium, and an isolated manor.

There are also two extra pieces that skirt around Austin Osman Spare. Readers with knowledge of the London artist will appreciate these more.