Introduction

''The screams came again: by now they sounded quite blood-curdling to the girl alone in the small room - or was it that they were getting nearer?''

From murders and ghostly visitors to devious plots and family feuds, Antonia Fraser's first collection of short stories is a feast of mingled delight and suspense.

There are five Jemima Shore stories including the first ever Jemima Shore mystery in which the fifteen-year-old Jemima is confronted by blood-curdling screams and miraculous moving statues in the dead of night.

Jemima is at her sparkling best as she solves the case of the Parr children in a remote corner of the Scottish Highlands and elegantly deals with a missing bride on a romantic Venetian honeymoon.