The Warder of the Door | L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace | Full Audiobook

The Clinton family is cursed, according to an old legend which describes a terrible fate awaiting each heir in the afterlife. Paranormal investigator John Bell returns in this ripping yarn involving secret tunnels, underground chambers and a door which apparently opens or closes according to an "infernal witchcraft". L. T. Meade (Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith, 1844–1914) was a prolific author of mystery and suspense stories, dominating the periodicals of the 1880s and 90s. She often wrote in collaboration with medical practitioners, who apparently supplied the scientific details which underpin many of her plots; first with Dr. Clifford Halifax, and later with Robert Eustace (believed to be the pen name of Dr. Eustace Robert Barton, 1854–1943). Robert Eustace is probably best remembered today for his much later collaboration with Dorothy L. Sayers on her 1930 novel 'The Documents of the Case'. Meade and Eustace created a number of recurring characters, including John Bell, "professional exposer of ghosts, and one who can clear away the mysteries of most haunted houses" – making him in effect a more sceptical counterpart to William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki, the Ghost Finder (who first appeared in print a decade or so later). Bell featured in a series of stories in Cassell’s Magazine in 1897, which were later published in book form under the title 'A Master of Mysteries' in 1898. The Warder of the Door was the second story in the series, and first appeared in the July 1897 issue of Cassell's Magazine. (The first story, The Mystery of the Circular Chamber, is also available on this channel.) Recording © Bitesized Audio 2019.