Bird of Ill Omen : The Gothic Tales of Catherine Crowe

When morning broke, the ravages of this strange visitant were but too visible – graves had been opened, and the remains of the dead, frightfully torn and mutilated, lay scattered upon the earth.

A village is driven to a murderous frenzy by the wolf walking among them. In the dead of night, a sleepwalking monk reenacts a scene of violence glimpsed as a child. A lycanthropist draws closer to a monstrous truth while investigating a spate of grisly grave-robbings.

In the nineteenth century, Catherine Crowe’s name was synonymous with haunting accounts of ‘real’ ghost stories, glimpses of the ‘night side of nature’ and well-wrought Gothic tales, earning her a reputation comparable to Dickens’ to the Victorian readership. This new collection edited by Crowe expert Ruth Heholt features Crowe’s unique, journalistic short tales of real ghost sightings alongside her Gothic stories written for popular periodicals, showcasing her singular gifts as one of the great storytellers of the Victorian era.