Blackwood is high on my list of favorite ghost story writers. He's a master for creating a palpable sense of dread, the mental anguish of not knowing, where sitting in the dark on an island or in bed can be more horrifying than actually seeing a monster.
I enjoyed all of the stories in The Empty House and am looking forward to the next Blackwood in my stack. Some modern readers may find his writing style long winded; he can stretch a sentence yet doesn't waste words. I am a very visual person and find he creates a scene vividly in my head. I'm there in the dark, listening, waiting.
A note on this particular physical book-- I bought it, lured by the book cover depicting a path through bare, wintery trees. The format of this particular book is much like reading an Ebook-- the formatting is rough: no table of contents or forward, just the stories back to back with barely a break. Not even a new page for a new story. Buyers remorse on this particular publication. I'd have paid more for a more professionally laid out book with a bit of introduction about the author or SOMETHING... quite seriously, the first story begins on the first page, there are no first pages.