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“Sagasta’s Last”

The mystery of a sister’s death becomes revealed through spectral images viewed through a telescope. Originally published in the August 1939 issue of Strange Stories.

“The Tomb From Beyond”

An excellent, Lovecraft-like tale of a lost civilization, sea monsters, and strange artifacts. There is a nod to a science-like explanation for the weirdness, but it’s minimal.

“The Last Drive”

A creepy short story about a delivery driver whose cargo is a casket and a dead man. Originally published in the June 1933 issue of Weird Tales.

“The Spectral Pistol”

An atmospheric werewolf tale set in England. Originally published in the May 1941 issue of Weird Tales.

“The Satanic Piano”

Kind of a mad scientist story, but including black magic, mesmerism, and telepathy. A piano that can register, play, and record the musical thoughts of a composer could be even better if it could compose music on its own. Originally published in the May 1934 issue of Weird Tales.

“Canal”

A sci-fi story! I didn’t know Jacobi also wrote sci-fi. This one is a pretty good mystery/Martian caper, involving an ancient Martian canal and a supposed valuable lode. Unfortunately, it ends rather abruptly and unsatisfyingly. Originally published in the Spring 1944 issue of Startling Stories.

“The Coach on the Ring”

A good, old European ghost story. It concerns a coach pulled by six horses, fashioned on the cameo of a ring. Originally published in the January 1932 issue of Ghost Stories.

“The Kite”

A black magic Tibetan curse story set in Borneo. Like a voodoo curse, but in Asia. Originally published in the June 1937 issue of Thrilling Mystery.

“Phantom Brass”

A supernatural railroad story involving spiritualism. Originally published in the August 1934 issue of Railroad Stories.

“The Cane”

Revenge delivered through a cursed cane, a gift to a wealthy Englishman from a Dayak witch doctor. Originally published in the April 1934 issue of Weird Tales.

The titular story in the collection. The danger of books and imagination. They can lead you to dark places that threaten your soul. An interesting addition to vampire lore. Originally published in Weird Tales in April 1933.

“The Sapphire Siren” by Nictzin Dyalhis

A portal fantasy beginning on Earth and then transporting to a weird and original fantasy world. Our narrator is actually a king in this fantastical land and undergoes a quest to gain back his kingship. Originally published in the February 1934 issue of Weird Tales. I really enjoyed this story!

“The Descent Into The Abyss” by Clark Ashton Smith and Lin Carter

A “posthumous collaboration” based on notes/outline by CAS. I’ve only read a small amount of CAS, but I thought this story really stretched in referencing many Mythos entities and ultimately ended with a really dissatisfying finale.

“Trick or Treat” by Ramsey Campbell

Weird story about a couple of girls and the sinister old lady in the flat across the street. The old lady gives the girls a treat on Halloween that scares them severely. One of the girls gets her back, though. Really creepy story!

“Liberation/The Guardian” by Robert A. W. Lowndes

A poem about Arkya

“Something in the Moonlight” by Lin Carter

A Lovecraftian tale, expanding on The Great Old Ones. The story focuses on a paranoid patient in a sanitorium. Told from the perspective of a young psychiatrist who finds his case fascinating, alternating with the ravings of the patient himself. This story manages to reference the Necronomicon, Von Junzt’s Unaussprechlichen Kulten, and The Book of Eibon.

“The Lamashtu Amulet” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman

A jeweler who doesn’t appreciate his pregnant wife and kid concocts a scheme to defraud a museum of an artifact. He’s hired to make a replica. But he soon learns to appreciate what he has. The story is set in Mosul, Iraq and features the Lamashtu demon. A story with a moral.

“The Feast in the Abbey” by Robert Bloch

This is a fairly short story about a mysterious monastery in the woods. Our unnamed narrator seeks respite from the driving rain in the strange edifice. Things only get weirder from there as the monks in the abbey show little piousness and much sacrilege. The narrator is invited to a grotesque feast, the final dish one of abject horror.

My favorite story so far!

“Valse Triste” by Ray Faraday Nelson

A ghost story of sorts. And all the ghosts are writers. The horror!

“The Song of the Gallows Tree” by Robert E. Howard

A poem about a tree that has a legacy.

“Fear” by Joseph Payne Brennan

A Lucius Leffing occult detective story. Elderly patients are dying of fright in a nursing home. Leffing figures out what is doing the haunting. This was a no frills but competent story. Better than the previous two.

“Boy Blue” by Steve Rasnic Tem.

A story about abuse but also arrested development. Trauma and congenital defects. Psychological disorder. Unreality. There is some good dread in this story, but I feel like too much in the story is metaphorical and vague.

“The Night Ocean” by H. P. Lovecraft and Robert H. Barlow. Ponderous. Lots of atmospheric description. Lots of language about the ominous ocean. Some fleeting glimpses of weird things emerging or swimming in the ocean. But that’s it. Nothing much happens. I found myself nodding off a few times.