The title story is the least credible, not because the central character is bad but because she is one-dimensional — a girl without a past or background, who plays the violin like the demon fiddler, and half-seduces men before abandoning them in favour of a life-size male doll with whom, it is hinted, she prefers to have her intimate relations. Because it is unconvincing, it is quite unfrightening. But that is so often the way with horror; it is a tricky medium to get right.

Should you buy this book over and above the others on the shelf? Yes, because du Maurier is endlessly interesting, via her writing and her own life. She could teach most young novelists and short-story writers today a thing or three, and even her uneven early work absorbs us simply because she was born with the storyteller’s gift and power.

Buy it too for the perceptive introduction by Polly Samson, one of our best contemporary short-story writers, who has something new to say about du Maurier — quite a feat in itself.

Blackwell Bookshop

Purchase your copy here, 10% off RRP