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The ghosts, criminals, and victims who tell their stories in this collection of short works attempt to set the record straight. In the first story, a captain, dead in an 1872 shipwreck, offers a factual account of that event—in contrast to fiction writers’ exaggerated tales spun about it. This is one of a handful of stories set on the sea. Other tales feature cemeteries or estates from bygone eras whose past inhabitants visit current occupants. More contemporary ones may be devoid of ghosts but are still haunting. In one story, while criminals are caught, the one punished knows his fate still beats that of his partner, who is permanently damaged by war trauma.
Set in different time periods and diverse geographic regions—the British Isles, Malaysia, Singapore, and Louisiana—and from socio-economic perspectives ranging from impoverished prostitutes to rogue millionaires, the stories paint accurate pictures spanning time and place. Readers may learn a crime’s machinations, a cemetery’s history, local folklore, or how Mormons proselytize. But these trivial details point to a deeper message. Like one tale’s description of a murderer’s cold, calculating responses to “why?” in his court hearing, this book’s straightforward text, graphic images of evil, and unsolved mysteries of the human heart are a brutally honest mirror that produces shivers when looked into.
Genies appear in a few stories, making dreams and wishes come true. These rare, happy outcomes are the most fantastical of the collection. Though this book captures eternal problems of the heart astutely and succinctly without fixes, Burgess’ characters still provide a tender hope in their misbegotten attempts to undo ills of the past.