Campfire Ghost Stories

Geoff Cragg is a tenured instructor in the Faculty of General Studies at
the University of Calgary in Alberta.

Campfire Ghost Stories is the most recent addition to the popular series
that began with Ghost Stories of Alberta. Strictly speaking, the title
is misleading, for, as the author admits in the introduction, she has
included “monsters and maniacs” in the collection.

The book is divided into three sections: tales told by firelight, tales
told by moonlight, and tales told by candlelight. Most of the stories
reside in the public domain, which makes Christensen more like the
collector of folklore than the stereotype of the modern author.
Nonetheless, the consistency of style and narration shows that she has
imposed considerable control over her material. The stories are short
(from three to twelve pages) and written in a spare and simple style.
The narration is straightforward (though the longest tale, “The Lost
Lights,” uses a sophisticated and clever framing device) and always in
the third person.

These pleasurably fear-inducing stories demand to be read aloud,
preferably late at night and around a campfire.