Looking to downsize? After reading Pamela Painter’s “Doors,” you might upsize instead.

“Doors” is a fine example of what extremely subtle ratcheting of tension can do: the situation seems normal. Then it’s normal but curious. Then it’s normal but slightly off…and so on. By the time the reader realizes what’s happening, it’s way too late to put it down—although the story’s subject and content are completely different, the way it was built reminded me of “A Rose for Emily”—and after I’d finished the last line, I felt that same “void.”

While many ghost stories ratchet tension well, I find this extreme subtlety not very common among the modern pieces, so for that reason, “Doors” is a must-own.

You can find “Doors” in Ghost Writing: Haunted Tales by Contemporary Writers, edited by Richard Weingarten, here: http://amzn.com/096796833X