Who is Esther May Morrow? Why is it that her strange shop, resembling something out of medieval England, has remained unchanged from the nineteenth to the twenty-third century? What is she selling? And who will come to buy...
SPELLBOUND - an eight-year-old boy, driving home with his family after a long holiday, is haunted by the movie theme music to Hitchcock's Spellbound. He's drawn to a bizarre gift shop behind the service station, where he meets the proprietor, Esther May Morrow. The item he buys - an old army canteen - looks innocuous enough. But the night soon takes a dramatic turn.
GIN RUMMY - Set in 1899. Professional cardsharp Horace Exeter strolls into the Francis Drake pub with a dark secret and a desire to win at all costs. So when a mysterious lady joins the game and wipes him out, he is filled with vengeance. Following her home through the forest, his predatory instincts take over, but nothing is quite what it seems.
CRETACEOUS - an old man is heartbroken when he discovers his old dog hasn't got long to live. He himself collapses outside the vet's, crashing into a gift shop. The proprietor, a kindly woman who looks like Barbara Stanwyck, nurses him back to health. But what exactly is the strange elixir she has given him?
THE FACE NEVER LIES - For Lieutenant Barr, travelling back a single day would allow him to save the lives of his family, by thwarting a suicide bomber. But he and his subordinate, Corporal Kendrick, arrive too late. Has Esther May Morrow given them the wrong time? The trip was a one-shot deal, but is Barr justified in wanting revenge?
MISS OLIVIA - Set in Hollywood 2237. Rex Harrison is a celebrated male prostitute in a town where sexual fantasies constitute a billion dollar industry. He plays the famous stars of Hollywood's golden era, and nobody does it better. But Rex has an obsession of his own...Olivia De Havilland. The REAL Olivia De Havilland. Is love across time all in his mind, or is fate about to atone for his years of torture? What will happen when he meets Esther May Morrow?
Eerie, amusing, disturbing and always original, these stories address the personal journeys of five haunted individuals, for whom quirks of time shed new light on their dilemmas. No one who enters Esther May Morrow's shop is ever the same again.
Explore the intriguing world of ESTHER MAY MORROW'S BUY OR BORROW.
By Arthur Everest
