The Ways of Ghosts : And Other Dark Tales by Ambrose Bierce (British Library Tales of the Weird)

Motionless now and in absolute silence, she awaited her doom, the moments growing to hours, to years, to ages; and still those devilish eyes maintained their watch. Ambrose Bierce was one of America’s leading writers of the nineteenth century, seen by contemporaries as a successor to Edgar Allan Poe with an authentic grasp of horror based on his experiences fighting for the Union in the American Civil War. Despite his contributions to the genre of supernatural and weird tales, today his name remains unknown to many readers. This new collection presents over thirty of Bierce’s most terrifying and unusual stories, from essential classics such as ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’ and ‘The Eyes of the Panther’ to the writer’s lesser-known series recounting macabre local legends of haunted houses, mysterious disappearances and chilling encounters with the dead.