Mystery, you say?
So this year’s theme is “mysteries” in honor of Agatha Christie’s novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles turning 100 years old. To really have this theme be present I decided to review a mystery every month…somehow and ideally connecting it to Jane Austen.
Time to get on the case!
In January, I wasn’t sure what to do when I received a goblin in my mailbox.
It turned out to be a a mysterious package from The Mysterious Package Company.
Hmm…
So the first package seemed to be saying that there is something wrong with 27 East Heath Road. The architect, Henry Griggs, had been going crazy trying to finish building his house after his wife died-using all his money. He even felt as if something was there making him continue, something altering his plans, something controlling him. The house was almost complete, but Griggs had descended into some kind of madness. He ends up putting his daughter in an orphanage and Griggs disappears, presumed dead.
Hmm…
Then in the second package, the house is sold to Dr. Elliot, a physician who likes to experiment on himself with his tinctures.
He has a strange patient, Beth Siggers (could it be ElizaBeth Griggs?) who acts off in his home. He also starts seeing something in his mirror. He died from overdose…or murder?
Hmm…from The Wolfman
Then the house was bought by magician’s assistant, Héléne Ashworth and her magician husband The Great Goodyear, Claude Goodyear. Helene loves the house, espechially the conservatory as she can grow all her plants. But then strange things happen-other plants are being planted, she starts having trouble remembering, she feels a presence in the house, and she thinks she sees something. She starts searching her home and dies of fright…or was she murdered?
Hmmm…
In the third package I received a demon mask that I instantly boxed up to never see again. Elizabeth Griggs has come into her inheritance and has bought 27 East Heath Road revealing that she created multiple identities: Beth Spriggs, Lilibet, the “psychic” Mrs. Alizbeta Divak. She loved the house, but she didn’t stay there long. A madman in a mask came out of a secret passage in the house and tried to kill her, both dying and it was revealed the crazed man was her father,
He was never dead but just hiding in the house.
I was also able to decode all the secret messages in everything.
I thought the story was over, but then I received another package.
This one has:
- An article on “The Black Moon Tragedy” from This Mortal Recoils
- A pamphlet for Griggs Manor
- A letter from the people who sent the package
The article “The Black Moon Tragedy” from This Mortal Recoils tells of a Goth sounding band, Spiritus Lost, renting the house for its creepy reputation to do a spooky show. They left everything as it was, creepy, scary, gothic, etc. for aesthetic.
Creepy…
But what was supposed to be an amazing night went extremely wrong. There is something in the house, something dark. Flower scents where there are no flowers, pools of blood, the doors locked, people dying trying to get into the mirror (that’s where the secret passage is), people going crazy, ghostly figures seen in the mirror, one woman died of fright, and more.
I would stay far away from that house or just knock it down to be honest. It really needs to be destroyed. Salt and burn that thing.
Salt and burn it
The pamphlet says that they have redone the Mansion and converted it into 20 ultra deluxe suites. It sounds really nice with a library, garden, conservatory, underground parking, a marble fireplace-the pictures are beautiful, but there is no way I’d ever live in a demon house.
Not okay.
The final note is from The Mysterious Package Company with a link to type and see who sent it, and it turned out to be a group of my friends, exactly who I suspected it would be.
I have to say this whole experience was a ton a fun. It is expensive, but worth the amount of effort that goes into it. I mean you can definitely see the worth in it.
I recommend trying it out if you are interested in receiving fun mail, espechially with shelter in place coming into effect again.
For more from The Mysterious Package Company, go to Creepy Demon Mask & Haunted Hampstead Heath House of Horrors!
For more mysteries, go to Murder She Hoped: Raising Hope (2013)
For more haunted houses, go to Trapped in a Mansion in the Middle of Nowhere with a Psycho: The Cat and the Canary (1939)
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