I've enjoyed several of Freeman's stories in various anthologies, and was pleased to find this good-condition softcover collection of her work at a local Savers thrift shop. Looks like a facsimile edition that includes illustrations from the originally-published versions of the stories.

The author's style tends to be remote-creepy, with the characters chatting with each other about the growing weirdnesses. Sometimes there's a sudden realization near the end (see the title story), but more often the characters gradually realize that something's terribly wrong, and either flee from it or try to address it. My favorite is "Luella Miller," about a small town into which a helpless-seeming young woman arrives; she's so helpless that people are drawn to doing her chores, bringing her presents, etc., even though there doesn't seem to be anything actually wrong with her. The story opens in third-person but refers to a townswoman named Lydia Anderson as the best surviving source of info on Luella - and most of the tale is from her point of view after that. The details of sweet-faced, lovely, helpless Luella personifies an unwitting psychic vampire, but of an unusually deadly type!

Another favorite, with a more heartwarming twist, is "The Lost Ghost", about a lonely child-ghost with a terrible back-story, whose attempts to reach out finally pay off.

I left this book in the Little Free Library (back in operation after a long winter) on this beautiful day; hope someone enjoys it!

*** Released for the 2018 April Showers/May Flowers release challenge. ***