Naboth's Vineyard

"Naboth's Vineyard" exemplifies E. F. Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of supernatural and macabre tales. This story takes it title from a story in the Old Testament Book of Kings starring Ahab and his infamous wife Jezebel. Ahab wants Naboth’s vineyard and Naboth refuses to sell. The update is not about a vineyard, but a home. The Ahab here is a wily lawyer named Ralph and a client whom he failed to protect from charges of embezzlement. Ralph desperately wants the house and uses his knowledge of the other man to press the matter; a circumstance which almost immediately results in the other man’s death by heart attack. The second…