Fear Across the Mersey XVII: Calling Card | review by Rafe McGregor

Fear Across the Mersey by Ramsey Campbell

PS Publishing, hardback, £25.00, August 2024, ISBN 9781803943701

Along with the next story, ‘Watch the Birdie’ (the eighteenth), this is the shortest in the collection, a second ghost story for Christmas following ‘The Christmas Present’ (the third). The protagonist, Dorothy, is not enjoying the festive season, after receiving a threatening card on Christmas Eve and having rubbish dumped on her doorstep on Boxing Day. Her son-in-law points out that in addition to the addressee of the card being illegible, it was posted sixty years ago. On New Year’s Eve, she learns that the previous occupant of her home had a violent mentally ill son who drowned himself in the Mersey. His body was, however, never recovered…which adds a mundane threat to the supernatural. The tale reminded me of ‘The Ferries’ (the fourteenth in the collection) with its multiplicity of memorable and menacing images of water and the threats it poses. A good choice to share with friends and family around the fireplace.