The Call and Other Stories: 9

Accomplished author Westall is in top form with this collection of six spine-tinglers. Readers will be hard put to decide which they enjoy most: the decidedly spooky goings-on or the glimpse into a workaday English life far from the glamour of London. It is, in fact, the mingling of the commonplace with the eerie that gives these stories their clout. In ``Uncle Otto at Denswick Park,'' the visit of an art historian with a passion for the past calls forth period-clad phantoms who do their best to restore the placid lawns of a luxury housing development to their former Georgian splendor. ``Warren, Sharon and Darren'' is the account of an out-of-work couple propelled by the arrival of a changeling son into the upper stratospheres of yuppiedom. An admonitory tale of greed and obsession, ``The Red House Clock'' manages to conjure up the coziness of 1920s village life while revealing its grimmer sides as well. Rich with detail and ingeniously constructed, these stories are as entertaining as they are evocative. Ages 12-up. (Feb.)