Checkmate

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu, an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. M. R. James described Le Fanu as "e;absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories"e;. Three of his best-known works are Uncle Silas, Carmilla and The House by the Churchyard.