The Unorthodox Dr. Draper and Other Stories

A childhood trio is reunited after years apart by the return of a mysterious general store. An alcoholic dad is tormented by a grotesque man who does him bizarre favors. A young adventurer seeks to slay the evil librarian who imprisoned him, but all is not as it seems. A dime-novel hero pursues a zeppelin carrying a wayward girl only to uncover a monstrous evil lurking beneath the waves. An unusual psychologist takes on a patient whose fractured personality manifests in unexpected ways.

William Browning Spencer would have thrived as a Twilight Zone writer. His stories walk that fine line where something mundane could be happening, or something supernatural, or perhaps both, or perhaps neither. That uncertainty, properly shepherded, can yield wonderful tension. Several of the stories in The Unorthodox Dr. Draper and Other Stories do precisely that, building a narrative ripe with intrigue and possibility, then introducing a horror element and upping the creep factor.

Some of these stories do feel rushed or unfinished, though, as if his eagerness to get to the twist or the horror undercuts the storytelling itself. That being said, the gems in this collection make the duds worth it.