The Last Tenant

Edward Emery is a contented man. At fifty, with a comfortable income, a cozy ten-roomed house and a wife he adores, he asks nothing more of life than to be left in peace. His wife Maria, however, has other plans. She has decided that they must move, and nobody has ever won an argument against Maria. So begins a gloriously exhausting round of house-hunting across north-west London, until a persuasive agent offers them the bargain of a lifetime: a spacious detached mansion at No. 79 Lamb's Terrace, with gardens, greenhouses and stabling, for a ridiculously small rent.
It is far too good to be true. Why has the house stood empty for years? Why does the landlord insist that whoever takes it must actually live there? Why did its last tenant pay dearly for a house he never entered, and why does he now wish to keep paying? And why can nobody even tell them where Lamb's Terrace is? The warning comes from Edward's old schoolfriend, the kind-hearted and down-at-heel Bob Millet: the house is said to be haunted.
Maria laughs it off. Edward is not so sure. Then the couple step inside the crumbling, silent house, and an ordinary morning becomes the start of a chilling ordeal that follows Edward home, into his quiet garden and into the circle of his friends. Soon this sensible, down-to-earth man finds himself doubting his own senses, and wondering why he, of all people, has been chosen to bring a terrible secret to light.
First published in the early 1890s by the prolific Victorian novelist B. L. Farjeon, The Last Tenant blends dry domestic humour with creeping supernatural dread and a gripping mystery of detection. Told in Edward's wry, unforgettable voice, it is a ghost story, a crime story and a comedy of married life all at once: perfect for lovers of classic haunted-house tales, Victorian suspense and old-fashioned page-turners.