Edward Frederic Benson (1867 - 1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist, and short story writer, best known as the true master of the gothic ghost story.

Outside the Door is a strange tale illustrating how terrible deeds from the past can imbue the rooms in which they happened with the spirit of the events which happened there. In this case, a dreadful murder which is re-enacted at night in the old manor.