SOME THINGS STRANGE AND SINISTER

Anthologist Kahn dusts the cobwebs off another batch of doughty chillers. Even casual mystery readers may recognize H. G. Wells' ""Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham,"" Pamela Hansford Johnson's ""Empty Schoolroom"" and John B. L. Goodwin's ""The Cocoon."" The roster as a whole (Christie's ""The Lamp,"" Collier's ""Thus I Refute Beelzy,"" Collins' ""The Dream Woman,"" etc.) includes fewer real surprises than were unearthed in previous Kahn collections and lists noticeably in the direction of genteel Victorian enervation. All in all, Some Things are worth shivering over, even if the cumulative shock quotient is less Strange and Sinister than before.