View source for The Mistletoe Bride and Other Haunting Tales by Kate Mosse

{{infobox1
|title=The Mistletoe Bride and Other Haunting Tales
|sort=Mistletoe Bride and Other Haunting Tales
|author=Kate Mosse
|reviewer=Ani Johnson
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=A collection of haunting stories (in all senses of the word) from the author of the Languedoc Trilogy proving that even tight word limits are no barriers to talent.  Just right for a Christmas present, but make sure you read it yourself before you wrap it!
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=304
|publisher=Orion
|date=October 2013
|isbn=978-1409148043
|website=http://www.katemosse.co.uk/
|video=YPWQ3InY_yM
|cover=1409148041
|aznuk=1409148041
|aznus=1409148041
}}

This book of 14 short stories and a short play is based on the idea of
haunting.  Sometimes the haunting is the ghostly kind and sometimes
something psychologically deeper and more primal.  All the stories drift to
us from different eras, both past and recent, but all have one thing in
common: they centre on a troubled person.  For instance we meet Gaston, a
French child who witnesses an odd event on the beach just after losing his
parents.  In the inevitably touching but beautiful ''Red Letter Day'' we
travel to a French castle with a woman who has an appointment with the past.
If you want something completely different, there's ''The Duet'' which draws
us into a fascinating dialogue and then hits us with a sting.

The stories vary in length from the atmospheric 36 page ''The Ship of the
Dead'' (keep the lights on for that one!) to the charming 3-pager ''Why Yew
Trees Live So Long''.  However length is immaterial as we're drawn into the
moment and, in my case, the book is devoured in one sitting.

It sounds silly after saying that, but I picked ''The Mistletoe Bride'' up
with as much foreboding as anticipation.  You see I devoured all of Kate's
Languedoc Trilogy (''Sepulchre'', ''Labyrinth'' and ''Citadel'') and love
her ability to spin a story out to such lengths while weaving such hypnotic
tales (all three books being the size of house bricks).  Therefore Kate has
proved she writes exemplarily long but short is a different discipline
altogether.  No need to worry - not only are these stories enthralling, but
each is also very individual and more poignant than scary so cowardly
readers aren't ostracised.

This isn't the first time they've all been published as some of them have
been seen in periodicals over the years and the poignant play at the end,
''Syrinx'' (commissioned by TV and radio's [[:Category:Sandi Toksvig|Sandi
Toksvig]] no less) has become an Am-Dram staple.  However this is their
first time as a collection and, in some cases, Kate has primped and
rewritten bits of the originals transforming them into something with which
she's happier at this stage of her career.

One of the fascinating facets is that we can actually trace the history of
the author's inspiration from these stories.  For instance in ''The Yellow
Scarf'' not only do odd things happen to a woman wandering around a castle
but we see the roots of the timeslip ideas that will later find their way
into her novels.  In ''The Drowned Village'' her words transmit a love of
the French and their folk tales that also reappeared in later work.
Similarly in one of my favourites, ''The Princess Alice'' she blends real
history with what-ifs, and not for the last time.

The second facet that impresses me is Kate's personal notes explaining the
origin as they pre-empt or post-script each story.  This works particularly
well with the title story, a version of which most of us will have heard
before (i.e. a game of hide-and-seek that goes badly wrong).  However Kate's
explanation of where the story began and its latter day derivatives adds a
level of freshness.

These notes also acquaint us with members of the author's family like Aunt
Margaret, the first woman to be ordained in her diocese.  To these people
Kate distributes the credit for inspiring her own creative process, showing
us someone for whom success hasn't eradicated modesty or gratitude; a
thought as warming as the notion of curling up with these short stories at
Christmas once the little ones have gone to bed.

I'd like to thank Orion for providing us with a copy for review.

Further Reading: If you enjoy a good ghost story then we also recommend
[[Tales from the Dead of Night: Thirteen Classic Ghost Stories by Cecily
Gayford (editor)]].  You m right also enjoy [[Ghosted: The Treason House Trilogy by Baye Hartshorne]].

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