Have you experienced this? You see your favourite name on your favourite thing and you are compelled to buy it? I am not a fan of spooky stories but when I saw this book in a book cafe, compiled and edited by Ruskin bond, I had to pick this up.

Here is my review of They Never Get Caught.

Author- Various

Genre- Horror, mystery

Pages- 216

Reading level- Difficult

Who should read it? – Those interested in ancient horror stories and who don’t mind reading old English.

About the Book

This is a compilation of short stories in the horror and mystery genre by Ruskin Bond. It includes stories by different authors. Though it is labelled as a horror book, not all the stories in it are scary. They are more in the mysterious category. This is what makes this book a mixed bag and full of surprises because you don’t know whether the story you are reading will be scary or mysterious.

The Short Stories

There are a total of 15 stories in the book, 3 of which are written by Ruskin Bond. Frankly, the stories by Bond were the only ones that I truly enjoyed in this gloomy book. The author has something in his writing that makes even dark stories turn your heart light and fluttery. Other stories that I enjoyed were-

• The Phantom Coach,
• The Empty House,
• The Voice in the Night, and
• They Never Get Caught.

The other stories were just okay – neither spooky nor mysterious.

The Writing

The stories seemed to be written decades before, you can judge this from their language. Most of the stories are in old English and are very difficult to read for today’s readers.

Add to this the dragged plot and you find yourself struggling to understand and finish them. I skipped the last 4 stories because of being overwhelmed by the language and the slow pace. Since the stories are also edited by Ruskin Bond, I just wished he made them shorter.

My Ratings

Overall, I did not much like this book of horror stories except the ones by Ruskin Bond and others that I have mentioned. I feel I should just stick to the books written by Mr. Bond and not compiled by him. I am thinking of reading his Enchanted Cottage. Okay, coming back to this book- it gets 2.5 stars from me.

If you like slow spooky stories that lean more towards mystery, then you should definitely give this a try.