An interesting, if uneven, collection. The Introduction is full of spoilers and should've been an Afterword instead. Read it last to fully enjoy the stories. ( )

L.M. Montgomery is a long time and all time favorite author of mine. She writes the perfect girls story with just the right mix of adventure, drama and happiness. I find her books a comfort to read and have re-read most of her works many times over the years. They are classics for a reason and that reason is they are great. These are true comfort books for me and books I enjoy re-reading again and again. ( )

Somehow I've never been able to appreciate the Anne stories, but not because Montgomery can't write. Not every story in this collection is a treasure, but some are, and all are worth reading, imo. They are definitely not all ghost stories, Many have a romantic element, but not all. The introduction, imo, is not worth reading - and if you do read it, do so afterwards, because it contains spoilers. My library had this in the Teen section, and the co. page says ages 12 up - but it's definitely for adults as well as for motivated readers down to, I'd say, age 10. ( )

The third of eight volumes of L.M. Montgomery's short-stories collected and edited by Rea Wilmshurst, and published from 1988 to 1995 - the first two were Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans and Along the Shore: Tales by the Sea - Among the Shadows presents nineteen selections, each of which address some ghostly, or socially "disturbing" theme. Here are tales of hauntings, seeming hauntings, drunken anti-heroes capable of one good deed, thieves being caught and punished (or not, as the case may be), embezzlers finding redemption, social outcasts finding salvation, and murderers confessing (or fleeing). In short: this is not the L.M. Montgomery who is all sweetness and light - of course, none of Montgomery's work is all sweetness and light, but that's another story - but the one capable of writing about the darker impulses of the human heart, and the eerie and unhappy world of the spirit. Selections include:

The Closed Door, a truly eerie tale, which follows a group of children as they walk through a "door" into a ghostly house from the past, solving an old mystery concerning a lost pearl, and a reputedly faithless wife in the process, and getting their first glimpse of true evil - something that none of them will ever forget...

Davenport's Story, in which a ghostly visitation prevents a tragedy, when the eponymous Davenport's wife, daughter and brother-in-law are due to sail to Europe...

The Deacon's Painkiller, a humorous selection in which an unbending deacon, having forbidden his daughter to marry her respectable physician suitor, because he once, in his youth, had a drunken episode, gets a taste of his own medicine...

Detected by the Camera, in which a thief is caught red-handed on film, stealing a pocketbook containing five hundred dollars...

From out the Silence, which follows the story of a middle-aged woman who bitterly regrets the quarrel she once had with her closest friend - a quarrel that can never now be resolved, as the friend died without sending any word - who, through her compassionate action in taking in distant relations for whom she has little fondness, receives a most unexpected message of forgiveness...

The Girl at the Gate, in which a dying man's young bride - long since dead herself - returns to fulfill a promise to her husband, that she would be present as his own deathbed...

The House Party at Smoky Island, another intensely eerie selection, in which the tense stand-off between a husband and his wife, who has begun to suspect that he might have been responsible for his previous wife's death, is broken by the ghostly appearance of the real murderer, come from beyond the grave to confess...

The Man on the Train, in which a kindly old grandmother, frightened at the prospect of her first trip on the rails, is looked after by a thoughtful young stranger who turns out to be a murderer on the run from the law...

The Martyrdom of Estella, in which a plain farm girl finds her betrothed stolen out from underneath her by a glamorous actress boarding with her family, until a drunken episode opens his eyes...

Min, the tale of a minister whose sojourn in a rural community has not been a complete success, who finds himself attracted to the village pariah...

Miriam's Lover, in which a young girl experiences a deep and spiritual connection to her fiancee, and can - though they live hundreds of miles apart - receive "messages" from him...

Miss Calista's Peppermint Bottle, in which an intrepid old maid discovers who it was who attempted to rob her, and handles the situation in her own inimitable style...

The Old Chest at Wyther Grange, a tale within a tale, in which a young girl learns the tragic story behind an old chest stored in her grandmother's house...

The Red Room, the gothic story of an unhappy marriage, a faithless wife, and a murder - all as witnessed by a young girl...

A Redeeming Sacrifice, a rather sentimental selection, in which a worthless young layabout, realizing that he will never make anything of himself, decides to do the one decent thing of his life, and release his beloved - a worthy young woman - from their agreement...

The Redemption of John Churchill, in which a convict, released at long last from prison, plans on "going to the devil," after a brief visit with his son...

Some Fools and a Saint, the longest story in the collection, in which a series of very destructive "hauntings" is finally solved, revealing an earthly cause that is no less disturbing, for not being supernatural...

The Tryst of the White Lady, in which a young man is disappointed to discover that he has not fallen in love with a ghost after all, but a real live woman...

And finally, White Magic, in which a love triangle is happily resolved, with or without the use of a love potion, depending upon one's interpretation...

I enjoyed most, if not all, of these stories, even the ones which veered into overtly sentimentality (hardly a surprise, in L.M. Montgomery), but my particular favorites would have to be: The Closed Door, because I identify so strongly with Montgomery's use of doors, and the going through of doors, as a means of discussing our reaction to the unknown; Miss Calista's Peppermint Bottle, because I'm a good old-fashioned bleeding-heart liberal, when you come right down to it, and liked the heroine's response to the man who attempted to rob her; and Some Fools and a Saint, because it was deliciously creepy, and didn't sugar-coat anything, at the end. All Montgomery fans should give Among the Shadows a try, and experience the "darker" side of one of their favorite authors! ( )

I was surprised that L.M. Montgomery could write this kind of thing this well. Not that they're truly scary, but some of them are pretty eerie. ( )