A NOVELLA by Tom Mead
CATEGORY  Supernatural / Ghost story
PUBLICATION DATE  June 2026
COVER ART  Yorgos Cotronis
PAGES  101

EDITION
Signed Hardcover, limited to 200 numbered copies signed by the author — ISBN 978-1-80394-571-2  [£20]

ABOUT THE BOOK

“The Lamp in the Window is a wonderful take on the classic ghost story, featuring tales within tales, unexpected twists, and gruesome turns that would make Dickens and James proud. Beautifully written and gorgeously realised, it's a total delight.”

—Tim Lebbon, New York Times bestselling author

“There’s a long tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve, and Tom Mead’s novella conjures every bit of the atmosphere, suspense and enjoyment those words suggest. The Lamp in the Window is a delight to read and instantly one of my favourites of the genre.”

—Alison Littlewood, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of A Cold Season and The Cottingley Cuckoo

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin...
Each Christmas Eve, academic and antiquarian Roland Spence invites a select group of students to his quarters to indulge in a glass or two of port, and to listen to a ghostly tale by the fireside. It seems like an innocent enough tradition—after all, who doesn’t enjoy a wintry chill at Christmastime? Decades later, one of Spence’s students must revisit those half-remembered stories as a long-buried secret threatens to resurface...
Inspired by M.R. James, E.F. Benson, Algernon Blackwood et al, The Lamp in the Window is an eerie winter ghost story in the classic Victorian tradition.  

AUTHOR BIO

Tom Mead is a mystery writer and aficionado of Golden Age crime fiction. His novels include Death and the Conjurer, The Murder Wheel, Cabaret Macabre and The House at Devil’s Neck. He also recently published a collection of mystery stories, The Indian Rope Trick (And Other Violent Entertainments).
His books have been translated into twelve languages (and counting), nominated for various awards and named books of the year by The Guardian, The Telegraph, Publishers Weekly and CrimeReads.