The Ghost of Fountain Lane

Somebody has got hold of Miss Loveday Brooke's private address, which she had given strict orders was to be handed to nobody at all. Her holiday lasts precisely as long as it takes to read the note. In a quiet lane outside Brighton, a respectable household is being haunted. Not by one nervous servant with an overactive imagination — by everybody. The cook, the children, the mistress of the house: each has seen the same figure, and each describes it in the same sharp, confident detail. There has also been a stolen cheque, and the two things are not being discussed in the same room. Loveday Brooke of the Lynch Court agency is about thirty, dresses in plain black, and enjoys the great professional advantage of being entirely unmemorable. She arrives, listens to the ghost story from five different people, and then asks the household the one question that nobody has thought to ask. Pirkis was writing in the eighteen nineties, when spiritualism was at its height and perfectly respectable people were paying money to sit in the dark. She puts a woman in plain black in the middle of it who politely declines to be impressed. FOR LISTENERS This is a complete, unabridged reading of The Ghost of Fountain Lane by Catherine Louisa Pirkis, collected in The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1894) and now in the public domain. Every word is the author's own. Part of The Midnight Archive: three nights of classics every week, alongside four original Nocturnal Tales mysteries. YOU CHOOSE WHAT'S NEXT The Archive is deep — more from tonight's detective? Loveday Brooke? Violet Strange? Sherlock Holmes? Father Brown? Max Carrados? Lady Molly? Raffles? Dr Thorndyke? Arsène Lupin? Vote in the poll attached to this episode, or tell us in the comments which classic you want to hear by lamplight. Ghost-seeing, Loveday says, is quite as catching as scarlet fever. Have you ever watched a story spread through a group exactly that way? CHAPTERS 00:00 - Introduction 01:54 - Part One 14:50 - Part Two 26:27 - Part Three 39:20 - Part Four SUPPORT & LISTENING OPTIONS ABOUT THIS RECORDING The Ghost of Fountain Lane by Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1894) is in the public domain. This recording is the complete, unabridged original text. Narration and production Nocturnal Tales. CREDITS Narrated and produced by Nocturnal Tales. Story by Catherine Louisa Pirkis (public domain). TAGS / KEYWORDS catherine louisa pirkis audiobook, loveday brooke audiobook, the ghost of fountain lane audiobook, experiences of loveday brooke 1894, victorian lady detective, victorian ghost mystery, female detective audiobook, spiritualism mystery story, brighton victorian mystery, classic detective story audiobook, public domain audiobook, unabridged classic mystery HASHTAGS