Short Story Review: Greye La Spina
Not so long ago, we read 3 short stories by Weird Tales author Greye La Spina - Wolf of the Steppes, The Sinister Painting, and The Antimacassar - and here are our reviews.
WOLF OF THE STEPPES
Dr Greeley and his wife Myra rescue a terrified girl from a large wolf. Even after she's safe in their home, Vera remains scared, though she refuses to explain why. And then, the howling begins...
Why on earth I should have had such a horror of that great dog I don't know, unless the girl's terror had infected me, but I certainly felt as if the devil himself were swinging along after me.
Told in the form of letters between Doctor Thomas Connors and his teacher in the magical arts Andi Rubdah, this is a good spooky tale. What the titular wolf is, is pretty obvious, but that doesn't make it any less threatening both in human and animal form. We thought Vera was just going to be this mute damsel in distress, so her story was a nice surprise, as it showed her as active and resourceful. In addition to the werewolf, La Spina throws in a black magic ritual in the end courtesy of Connors. The ritual was good, but we would've liked to have seen more of the werewolf. Or maybe the magic should've played a bigger part in the fight, as his handling in the end was a little too quick.
By the way, this one wasn't published in Weird Tales, which hadn't been launched yet, but rather The Thrill Book.
THE SINISTER PAINTING
After winning an art exhibition over wannabe artist Silva, young Oakey is found dead in a locked room. Also in the room? Silva's disturbing painting of a cadaveric old man...
As twilight gained the room, a murky dusk seemed creeping into the very canvas. Its shadows deepened. The old man merged into his dark background; all but his pallid face, his grayish beard, the waxen fingers dropping over his angular knees. It was wrong. Entirely wrong.
La Spina makes Silva's art look super creepy, and while we don't get to see the final confrontation, the ending was still spooky. Gwen Carradorne was totally wasted, though. Why spend so much time introducing her as a fully developed character and then have her leave so quickly? She deserved her own occult detective series.
THE ANTIMACASSAR
The search for a missing coworker takes Lucy to Mrs Renner's farm, where her new landlady's bedridden young daughter is kept isolated and spends the nights begging for food...
From deep sleep she stirred once into half waking at the sound of a cautious turning of the doorknob and retreating foot-steps and the moaning plaint of the little sick girl's "Mom, I'm hungry!" which seemed so close that for a moment she could have believed the child to be standing closely without her locked door.
While the meaning behind the little girl's hunger wasn't exactly hard to guess, this starts pretty well. We liked seeing Lucy putting the pieces together about Cora's disappearance and realizing there was something off about Mrs Renner. The daughter's cries for food and especially her nightly visit were creepy. We were disappointed that Lucy didn't do anything with Cora's garlic pills, and the ending was rushed. Lucy's boyfriend suddenly showing up to explain what was going on was both random and unnecessary. After everything she had experienced, she should've been able to figure it out herself. Aaron telling her would've been a better option, too.
VERDICT
From these 3 stories, it's clear that La Spina was a good horror writer, but the pacing is off, with the endings being rushed, which in the case of The Antimacassar, ends up ruining what had started out as a good story.