Wilkie Collins was one of the original "masters of suspense", a prolific professional who wrote a masterpiece in The Woman in White and is never dull, though sometimes slipshod. The three tales which make up this volume illustrate his faults and considerable virtues - a mastery of "atmosphere", particularly of the sinister kind, fluent story-telling, and excellent dialogue, offset by lurid effects and a tendency to make all his villains implausibly villainous. The first story starts very well but ends in perfunctory melodrama; the second is fine Grand Guignol damaged by an implausible story; the third includes a remarkable portrait of a deaf man, though again melodrama intrudes. Not masterpieces, but excellent entertainment value.