The Parasite and Other Tales of Terror

The Parasite and Other Tales of Terror. Arthur Conan Doyle. 2021. Poisoned Pen Press. 223 pages. [Source: Personal copy.]

Full disclosure – I only picked this book up because I really love Sherlock Holmes’ stories. If I love those so much, surely I’d feel the same about other works from the same author, Arthur Conan Doyle.

I have to admit this collection of short stories wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but I wasn’t upset about it. I was in the mood for scary like “I’m alone in the house and what was that sound?” “Run into the bedroom when you turn the lights off” scary. This didn’t deliver in that way for a few reasons. One, I think the sensibilities for what qualifies as scary is very different today than it would have been during Doyle’s time (late 19th/early 20th century). Two, the topics of the stories are more creepy than terror-inducing. There wasn’t anything about the stories to make my heart pound or palms sweat. My pulse never raced at all while reading this; I was just more intrigued than anything.

Despite it not meeting my scare factor, this book was an enjoyable collection of stories. Taking them for what they are, rather than what I expected, allowed me to just enjoy the exploration of the “macabre and supernatural.” The stories are well-written, at times humorous, and attention-holding. The collection has several ghost stories of varying veracity, as well as some incorporating science, voodoo, and spirits. The longest selection is the first and eponymous story. It’s entertaining, but felt a bit slow. The others, on the whole, were more enjoyable, with pacing that felt suited to the actual stories. Of these, standouts were “J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement,” “The Great Keinpaltz Experiment,” and “Selecting a Ghost: The Ghosts of Goresthrorpe Grange.”

All told, I did enjoy this collection. Doyle was able to lean into the mysterious and curious topics of his day while capturing so much in brief stories. This is actually a collection I can see myself rereading here and there over the years and am glad to have on my shelf.