F. Marion Crawford for Halloween

For tonight's (third) countdown to Halloween post, a reading suggestion: the stories of F. Marion Crawford. One of my favourite, I must say, as Crawford is not shy of using gory effects and violence, but never to the detriment of atmosphere and suspense. It is never gratuitous. The one I first discovered is The Upper Berth, which is about a drowned corpse haunting the cabin of a ship, but you also have For the Blood is the Life, which is a classic vampire story and The Screaming Skull which is a ghost story about a... well, a skull that screams. And bites. And kills. Deliciously dark stuff. Now, I must confess, I haven't read The Witch of Prague yet. Because it's more magical realism and fantasy than proper horror, or so I have been told, and because I was kind of hoping to read it the city where it is set one day. We did discuss taking holiday there last year and before. That said, I might make it part of next year's countdown TBR, early in the season.

The Screaming Skull

No, this is not this one. What you see on the picture is a very normal, silent, not haunted one which you can find in The Golden Fleece Inn in York. The most haunted pub in England, apparently. But it does not have a screaming skull. It does accompany very well my post on the topic of one great scary story of F. Marion Crawford called... The Screaming Skull. With a bit fo research, I found it on PDF at this link. Crawford based his story on an old legend and it is a perfectly scary read for Halloween. Therefore I suggest it for tonight's countdown to Halloween post. Please tell me what you think of it in the comments.