Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.

I've never heard of this author before but I'm always interested in ghost and supernatural stories.

The short stories in this collection are old-fashioned; the writing style and tone is indicative of the time period it was written in.

I respect the author and his stories was groundbreaking at the time, but these stories weren't scary or thrilling to me.

I do recommend readers to give this a try if you're interested in stories with a spooky element, especially if you haven't heard of the author before.

I had previously read only "Oh Whistlen and I'll Come To You My Lad", which of course is a classic; I quite enjoyed the other stories included in this collection, although many do end quite abruptly. Standouts include "The Ash-Tree", "The Mezzotint", and "Number 13". A solid collection of an author who should be more widely read these days.

I knew I had to request this handsome new edition of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary as soon as I saw it, even though I've read it a few times before. M.R. James was a true master of the ghost story and his characters and settings did much to move the genre beyond the stereotypical chain rattling of some of the early days. With narrators that are generally some sort of skeptical scholar forced into a strange situation through the discovery of a lost object, James was the master of the sort of slow burn horror that has now come into vogue in many of our most popular shows, cinema, and literature.

This would already be a heavyweight collection if it only had stories such as "The Mezzotint", "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book," and "Lost Hearts", but it also contains one of the definitive ghost stories in the canon, "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad." Ergo, I can't rate this anything less than five stars.

**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Poisoned Pen Press**