legend and Coleridge's "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner," and even Poe's "Lenore," is the best of the four and constitutes the book's gripping climax. Captain Gray's narrative brings the main storyline back into the present and merges Weston's immediate quest with the larger premise of the novel: the attempt by misguided humans to reawaken the Old Ones as described in Lovecraft's Cthulu mythos. There is much of Blackwood's style in Talley's writing. Blackwood was described by his peers as a mystic, naturalist, conservationist, outdoorsman, and genuine intellectual interested perhaps more in the terrors of the mind and the powers of the unseen than the physical acts of horror themselves. This is not to say that That Which Should Not Be doesn't have its graphic, pure horror moments -- an early image of the Wendigo devouring its prey qualifies nicely, as does the bloody Sisters' sacrifice in a cursed abbey. But much of the book's satisfying gothic terror stems from the mind's contemplation of nighttime frights and what lurks, gibbering, beyond ordinary perception. In old-style gothic novel writing, what the reader congers in his or her imagination, with skillful prompting from the author, produces a much stronger, lingering sense of terror than detailed graphic descriptions, shocking as they may be at the moment of reading. As we all know, the mind is a dark and dangerous place. That's why reading Talley's book just before bedtime is not a good idea. But then, once you've started, it's impossible to stop. (less)