13. 'The Mangler' (1972).
I'm going to start this post by making it clear that I fully understand if anyone reading my previous posts is baffled by my admiration and enthusiasm for this particular story. I have, on several occasions, referred to some of the stories I have read as 'silly' or 'ridiculous', and there is very little I can think of that is more ridiculous than a haunted laundry machine. But, like the fairly stupid sounding premise of The Day of the Triffids, for some reason, it just works. The Mangler I loved this story. It's about a detective who is investigating the horrifically grisly death of a woman who worked on 'the Mangler' - a supersized folding and ironing machine - after she was pulled into its workings, despite safety apparatus which should have made this impossible. The detective soon discovers that this is not the first 'accident' involving this particular machine, and starts to believe that it may be possessed by an evil force. Now, do...