Valancourt Books
He Arrived at Dusk by R.C. Ashby
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With a new introduction by Mark Valentine
From the moment William Mertoun arrives to catalogue the library at Colonel Barr’s old mansion on the desolate Northumbrian moors, he senses something is terribly wrong. Barr’s brother Ian has just died, mysteriously and violently, and the Colonel himself is hidden away in a locked room, to which his sinister nurse denies all access.
From the moment William Mertoun arrives to catalogue the library at Colonel Barr’s old mansion on the desolate Northumbrian moors, he senses something is terribly wrong. Barr’s brother Ian has just died, mysteriously and violently, and the Colonel himself is hidden away in a locked room, to which his sinister nurse denies all access.
As strange and supernatural events begin to unfold, Mertoun learns the local legend of a ghostly Roman centurion, slain on the site sixteen centuries earlier, who is said to haunt the estate. Mertoun is sceptical at first, but after another murder, a harrowing séance, and an actual sighting of the spectre one lonely night on the moor, he realizes that he and everyone at Barr’s mansion are in mortal danger.
What does the ghost want, and can it be stopped? This long-awaited new edition of He Arrived at Dusk (1933), R. C. Ashby’s classic tale of mystery and the supernatural, features a new introduction by Mark Valentine and a reproduction of the original jacket art.
reviews
“In reading it I had several splendid shudders. . . . It is a piece of living literature, not merely an evening’s entertainment.” - E.B. Osborn, Morning Post
“A bang-up ghost-murder-detective story with a background of bleak Northumberland moors, an old house full of haunts, [and] a Roman Centurion who appears . . . with death in his wake.” - Scribner’s Magazine
“A well-nigh perfect admixture of eerie horror, romance and good detecting.” - Saturday Review
“Truly a little masterpiece of a book. Reminiscent of Christie at the height of her powers in its brilliant use of misdirection. . . . Really a classic of its kind.” - J. F. Norris, Mystery File
“A bang-up ghost-murder-detective story with a background of bleak Northumberland moors, an old house full of haunts, [and] a Roman Centurion who appears . . . with death in his wake.” - Scribner’s Magazine
“A well-nigh perfect admixture of eerie horror, romance and good detecting.” - Saturday Review
“Truly a little masterpiece of a book. Reminiscent of Christie at the height of her powers in its brilliant use of misdirection. . . . Really a classic of its kind.” - J. F. Norris, Mystery File