"Inscrutable Decrees"
by E.F. Benson
Synopsis:
An unnamed narrator stumbles upon the death notice of a remarkable woman he once knew. He then shares his memories of the woman, followed by a discussion with an old friend, which reveals the solution to a macabre puzzle.
My Reaction (with possible SPOILERS:
I can no longer recall if I stopped writing reviews for individual stories in this collection of E.F. Benson's short stories that I have... I know I stopped reading, years ago, but am uncertain of whether or not there may have been a backlog of stories I had read but not reviewed. At this point, I suppose it doesn't matter. I thought I might try to finish the collection, so I'm picking up where I left off with reading (if not reviewing).
I found the beginning of the story was actually more amusing than horrifying, which reminded me that it may be time to revisit the Lucia series again. As for this story, it was merely okay. There's some vague creepiness, but you see the culmination coming from a mile away, so there's no element of surprise, and if anything, I thought the crime committed was milder than expected. The ghostly element undercuts the horror, I think. I'm not big on stories with seances that reveal visible ghosts, and... well, spoiler alert, I guess! There's a visible ghost called forth by a seance. Not the best of his work, but the central character herself is an interesting one for an armchair criminological psychologist to ponder.
