One Dreadful Night presents a mystery that is deftly woven into the underlying web of supernatural horror. From the moment that a strange face is glimpsed peering from the window of the laboratory at "Restormal," the novel builds gradually to a climatic resolution of sheer terror as the identity of the mysterious woman lurking in the dim-lit corridors is revealed in a shocking denouement. One Dreadful Night is part of that small group of novels such as Mark Hansom's The Beasts of Brahm wherein the elements of the mystery novel and the supernatural tale are blended seamlessly to create a genuine thriller that will keep the reader turning pages while leaving all the lights on

The Library of Death begins at a leisurely pace, and a tone that seems to set the stage for a light romance. But then Ronald S.L. Harding deftly builds the mystery and from the moment we learn of the legend of a headless spectre that purportedly stalks the grounds and rumors of hereditary vampirism the novel undergoes another transformation with the light tone of the early chapters forgotten as horror is piled upon horror . . . So says John Pelan's introduction to this 1938 horror classic.