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Title: 14 of My Favorites in
Suspense
Series: ----------
Editor:
Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Crime Fiction
Pages: 181
Words:
71K
Publish: 1959
I’ve noted this on multiple other
Alfred Hitchcock Presents collections, but sometimes they just rub me
the wrong way. It’s like the writers are almost gleeful in how they
are writing about about madness and murder and mayhem. I do not like
that. The problem is that I can’t tell if it is actually the
authors or just because of a mood that I’m in and not truly aware
of.
I didn’t dislike this collection but
I was glad to see the end of it. In the table of contents there are
little blurbs for each story with spoilers galore. I’m not
particularly worried as I doubt a single one of you will read this
book, but just in case, do be aware. The other thing that might
happen is that I win a big lottery, become super rich and famous and
so some lowlife sues me because I spoiled this book for him. So I’m
heading that problem off at the pass! (besides the obvious one, you
know, of not buying a lottery ticket in the first place) (except on blogger, so total spoilers here)
★★✬☆☆
Blurb & Table of Contents &
Synopses:
Sardonic
Shockers
Selected by
Alfred Hitchcock. . .
The not so gentle man who knows all the
angles (especially the sharp ones) and all the ropes (the hanging
kind). From his deep-freeze of ingenious chillers incredible only to
the unimaginative and horrifyingly real to the shrewd and daring—the
following fourteen tales of intrigue were cunningly chosen to startle
as well as satisfy, while above all holding you in the clammy grasp
of. . .
SUSPENSE
"The Birds" by Daphne
du Maurier, the source material for the film Hitchcock would do
sometime later.
"Man with a Problem" by
Donald Honig is a story about a man about to jump off a building and
the beat cop trying to talk him down. The twist is that the cop was
having an affair with the jumper’s wife and jumper takes them both
over the edge at the end.
"They Bite" by Anthony
Boucher is a straight up horror story, in which a foreign agent
spying on an American desert installation learns of the ancient,
bloodthirsty evil dwelling in the old abandoned adobes and dies.
In "The Enemy" by Charlotte
Armstrong, a young man tries to help some kids find out who killed
their dog and stumbles across a bold murder attempt.
H.G. Wells' "The Inexperience
Ghost" starst with some well-bred gentlemen in their exclusive
club telling tales to each other.
In "Sentence of Death" by
Thomas Walsh, a cop tries to nab a killer with the help of the only
reliable witness, and begins developing feelings for her.
"Spring Fever" by Dorthothy
Salisbury Davis: a lonely housewife is tempted, then repelled, by a
lecherous neighbor pursuing her, ending with violence.
Matthew Gant's "The Crate at
Outpost One" has two soldiers guarding an important box with a
secret weapon they have to withhold from the enemy. Turns out to be
books.
Guy Cullingford's "My Unfair Lady"
is about a man worried that he'll be accused of murdering the woman
he found dead in the woods. He tries to find the little girl who
initially witnessed the crime, only to discover the little girl has
an agenda of her own, blackmailing the handsome murderer for free
icecream and candy.
In Carter Dickson's "New Murders
for Old", a man trying to recover from a nervous breakdown has
either been targeted for murder or is losing his mind.
"Terrified" by C.B. Gifford
has a man dying slowly after being run off the road, tormented by the
young couple who did it. He dies but the cop easily figures it out at
the end.
Joan Vatsik's "The Duel" a
disturbed woman becomes convinced that a lothario ghost is in love
with her, leading to tragic consequences for her husband who dies
while she goes insane.
"Four O'Clock" by Price Day
is about a man with the power to show the evil in men’s hearts. He
decides to make everyone who is evil half the size of a regular man,
at 4pm. With himself getting shrunk too as the twist.
Paul Eiden's "Too Many
Coincidences" ends the collection. An insurance man ignores his
gut feelings about potential danger to his wife because it goes
against “the science of math” and she dies. Serves him right for
being such a jackass.
