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The Empty House

 The Empty House by Algernon Blackwood is a simple ghost story.  Blackwood is supposed to be the most prolific ghost story writer of his time.

The set up is simple.  The narrator is visiting his aunt or is talking with his aunt and she has a proposition for him.  She has booked a night at a haunted house.  

It’s actually a neat idea.  I would like to book a haunted for a night and spend the night exploring the house with a woman.  It would be fun.  Or to spend a night at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.  The last time I looked, and that was around five years ago a when friend got married in Estes Park, it cost $400 a night at the Stanley Hotel.  But then everything in Estes Park is expensive.

In this story, there is some background for the haunted house.  A murder took place at the house.  At in the house there are some noises and things that were seen but not there.

It was an okay story.  But nothing that makes the hairs stand on my neck or quicken the pace of my heart.  It’s not like a story of a single mom who had to move out of house because it was haunted.  Things messed up all about the house.  Phone videos of something that really isn’t there but can be seen on the device.  That type of thing.

But there is something to be said about prolific ghost story writers.  They dared to write spooky things, even if not everything they write scares.


The Empty House was published in 1906.  The audio program I listened to was narrated by John Lee.

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