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THE SHADOW CAGE by Philippa Pearee

THE SHADOW CAGE

By

Pub Date: Sept. 14th, 1977
Publisher: T. Y. Crowell

Ten short stories, each one told in a reasonable matter-of-fact tone, each one firmly (and invitingly) set in the everyday surroundings of a British family, and each centering on a suggestive brush with the supernatural. Some of the ghosts are clearly psychological: a lonely man's hatred for his brother becomes a separate self that turns on him after he's killed the brother; and the shrieks and sobs that disturb Lisa's sleep in her loving Grandmother's cozy home come from a haunted biscuit tin filled with Gram's memories of childhood mistreatment. The eeriest story involves little Betsy's observations of a neighbor's African ""curio"" which can be sent out for blood; in a lighter vein, a dead alcoholic uncle's DTs remain to haunt the family; and the last and longest is simply a good mystery with a benign solution: the newly purchased haunted house that seems to be destroying Judy's father lets up when Judy persuades Dad to care for the late owner's prized garden. Though without the unified force of Tom's Midnight Garden, it's an in-triguing series of encounters.