I have not read other books in this series, but I picked up a copy of Nightmares & Fairy Tales, Vol. 3: 1140 Rue Royale somewhere along the way, then let it gather dust in a box of books I'd get to "someday." Well, I finally got to it.

The black-and-white art by Crab Scrambly is creepy, sort of like Edward Gorey meets Roman Dirge. It certainly suits the mood of the story Serena Valentino is trying to tell. Sadly, though, Valentino never really gets around to telling it.

There's the nut of a tale here: an old woman named Victoria and her niece Rebecca move into a massive old mansion in New Orleans. The house is clearly haunted, and the spirits are angry ... although, for reasons unclear, one ghost gets pretty chatty with Rebecca. It all stems back to the former owner of the house, who starved and tortured slaves there.

That's sort of it. The book never delves into motivations or gets beyond the most superficial of plot lines. You don't get to know anyone in the book or understand what they're about. There's a wise old carriage driver and some questionable nuns, but ... the story never rises to the eeriness of the art.

By the end, I was bored. Crab Scrambly's imagery deserved a better framework.