Norman Whitney

Well, I have to say, this was mounds better than the Vampire's Tear.

A slightly creepy story, with a mysterious stranger who comes to town, opens a shop, hires an assistant, gets mysterious customers who have mysteriously good fortunes days after they come see him; this was a really good story!!

Yeah, this was a middle grade level story, but I found it like Ruskin Bond's mysterious stories, most of which I have read in [b:Dust on the mountain|475187|Dust on the mountain|Ruskin show more Bond|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405004956l/475187._SY75_.jpg|463429].

What I didn't like: Like with most mysterious short stories, the story doesn't seem quite complete.....He dies, and so does she? Did he do a voodoo doll thing on her as well? Was the whole building her voodoo doll, and so when it burned, she died too? Or maybe he tied himself to Anna, and so when he died, she died too?

A good short story, wonderful for people wanting to improve vocabulary. In general, one of the good mystery short stories I've come across. show less

A professor invented the Truth Machine.
He advertized it. So many people wanted to use it.
He said "I like truth and I don't like lies. So I invented this machine."
But Is what he said true?
I like this story. This ending stoke my imagination.
Illustrations in this book are interesting for me.

Professor Verity is a great inventor.
He invented 『The Truth Machine』.
The excellent point of this machine is not to find the lie but to make a person tell the truth.
I think that it is great invention but it is worthless.
Because it is not only important to tell the truth but also to tell the lie.

At first, I thought this story was heart-warming story, but actually, this is horrible story. So I was very surprised. This story's hero is one stranger, Dave Slatin, who opened a shop in Woodend village. In a few times, special customers visited the shop and did something with Dave in a room. A clerk in the shop, Anna, wanted to know what they were doing, so she stole into the room. But he found it and told her what they were doing. Therefore, he ofrced her to marry him, but she refused. At show more last, Dave was missing and Anna was dead. The most terrible point is strange power which Dave had. And I think Dave killed Anna by his strange power because she refused his propose. He is the worst man in the world. show less