The Rats in the Walls

Written by Brad Strickland and H. P. Lovecraft

Narrated by Multiple Narrators

Delapore. A name with a history. A history of unspeakable atrocity; a history of black arts; a history of hatred, and terror.

Delapore. It's just a name, now. In this case, it is the name of a man returning to England to reclaim the lands of his family. The name of a man who knows the skeletons in his family's closet -- or so he thinks.

Delapore. Surely it is possible to outlive the past. Surely it is possible to outrun one's ancestors, to outrun history -- to outrun fate. Surely a man's destiny lies in his own hands, and not in the misdeeds of men a hundred generations dead.

Beware, England. The last Delapore has come home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Atlanta Radio Theatre Company Audio
• Release date: Jan 1, 1990
• ISBN: 9780929483511

Brad Strickland

Brad Strickland is also the author of Aladdin's Pirate Hunter trilogy as well as many middle-grade novels based on licensed properties, including Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Star Trek.

Reviews for The Rats in the Walls

[aneris-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Rats in the Walls is told by a last living member of the de la Poer family.
On July 16th, 1923 he left everything in America and came to his ancestral home in England - Exham Priory. 'Unlike our planter neighbours, we seldom boasted of crusading ancestors or other mediaeval and Renaissance heroes; nor was any kind of tradition handed down except what may have been recorded in the sealed envelope left before the Civil War by every squire to his eldest son for posthumous opening.' Unfortunately, that letter was lost in a fire so neither the narrator nor his father found out what's in it. One of his ancestors Walter de la Poer, the eleventh baron Exham, fled to America after he killed members of his family. The fact that 'this deliberate slaughter, which included a father, three brothers, and two sisters, was largely condoned by the villagers' should have told him something.

After he starts living in Exham Priory, he starts hearing strange noises in the walls and having disturbing dreams.

I should have expected that ending, but somehow it surprised me.

[meandmybooks-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm a weenie when it comes to scary stories, reliably hearing ominous creaks and other peculiar noises in my quiet house while reading about horrors stalking the unwary, but, not having inherited an ancestral mansion with a shadowed past (and if I did I sure's heck wouldn't excavate the sub-sub-basement!), I found “Rats in the Walls” not scary and... well, campy good fun! Lovecraft's lurid prose and slow reveal of the Ancient and Inescapable Horror (the opening reminded me very much of du Maurier's “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”) makes this a quick and compelling story. On reading”we paused, in doubt whether to abandon our search and quit the priory forever in superstitious caution, or to gratify our sense of adventure and brave whatever horrors might await us in the unknown depths,”we wonder, “Will our narrator, a hitherto sensible older gentleman, listen to the warnings of 'superstitious caution'?” Not a chance! And thank goodness, because things would go better for him but be pretty dull for us then, wouldn't they? Our non-superstitious narrator comes back with a crack team and opens “the gate to a new pit of nameless fear.” And discoveries ensue!