The Empty House

Ruskin's Bond's stories are enchanting. They possess a unique combination of thrill, innocence, poignancy set in the picturesque Himalayan mountain towns and villages. His character sketches make you fall in love with them. Surprisingly supernatural occurrences too predominantly feature in his stories. So when he pick choses supernatural stories written by other authors it is treat for his readers, particularly for those who love supernaturals.

The Empty House is collection of such stories hand picked by the famous writer on the hills. In the title story The Empty House the writer's aunt calls him to explore the empty house which is said to be haunted. This story is the crest jewel of this collection. The way the writer creates thrill with every line with just two characters around is simply amazing. I haven't yet read any piece like this story before. Chuniya Ayah is the story of how the ghost of a young girl continues to haunt the Ayah responsible for her death.

The White Wolf of the Hartz Moutains is a long story with interesting twists and turns. It is a tragic tale of sorts, but will satisfy the loves of vampire genre. Mrs. Raeburn's Waxwork again is a nail biting thriller where the murderer enters the wax museum, were her own wax statue is kept. Did I mention that the murderer was executed to death for the gruesome act of hers, that too before her visit to the museum. Some Australian Ghosts contains nuggets of early ghosts in the Australia. Gone Fishing by Bond comes last in this collection. It has appeared in other collections of Bond and has all the quintessential elements of a Ruskin Bond story.

Though I thoroughly enjoyed these stories, the other stories are too verbose and difficult to understand.

All Ruskin Bond collections recently brought out by Rupa publications were ridden with typographical errors. Thankfully this time there aren't any. I am sure Bond fans would love to read the favourite stories of their favourite author.