Benson’s second collection of ghost stories contains three powerful tales featuring the type of 'spectres' that Benson seems to have been most haunted by: large ('Junonian,' as he might say), attractive, cheerful, outgoing, middle-aged women. In 'The Outcast' she is a reincarnation of Judas, in 'Inscrutable Decrees' she is an emotional sadist and a murderer by omission, and in 'Mrs. Amworth'--one of the best supernatural tales ever written--she is a conventional but nevertheless terrifying vampire.There are other good tales here too, particularly 'Negotium Perambulans' (featuring a giant slug acting as an instrument of divine vengeance) and 'Roderick’s Story,' that rare tale about a benign haunting that still produces a shiver and the consciousness of a world beyond. (Bill Kerwin)