Book Description
Be afraid—be very afraid: the master of suspense is serving up 58 bloodcurdling tales for your delectation. These suspenseful stories all appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and in the words of Hitch himself, they “are guaranteed to chill and unnerve.” Bill Pronzini contributes “The Arrowmont Prison Riddle,” Margaret B. Maron has “A Very Special Talent,” Barry M. Malzberg offers “A Home Away from Home,” and Patricia Matthews chronicles “The Fall of Dr. Scourby.” Meet a girl who stalks Jack the Ripper, a clairvoyant writer of newspaper obituaries, a homicidal partygoer in a sanatorium, and a police detective who lives vicariously through the exploits of one of his most notorious suspects: they all populate these frightening pages. Caution: not recommended for late-night reading—except for the very brave!
Customer Reviews:
ah book review.......2007-01-23
hitchcock is a genius. stories may be told in a different generation, but they still hold true.
Tales of Terror : 58 Short Stories Chosen by the Master of Suspense.......2006-03-01
An Excellent collection of short stories to keep you in suspense.
Recommend to all short stories fans.......2006-02-24
I adore short stories so I was delighted to discover The Tales of Terror. I have over 200 books with short stories, so I was not surprised to find 2 or 3 stories I've "met" before. But I enjoyed reading them again, and there still remained a long list of some 55 fresh ones.
I immensely enjoyed re-reading A Cabin in the Woods by John Coyne. One must admire author's masterful way of increasing the suspense till culmination. Without revealing too much, it is a Man-against-Nature type of confrontation, only with a twist that will surprise you no matter what you happened to expect. I cannot speak for anybody else but for me this story is a gem.
There are a few stories about travelling, for those who like mystery and suspense "on the go" (Career Man by James Holding, The Perfidy of Professor Blake by Libby McCall, Sea Change by Henry Slesar and The Grateful Thief by Patrick O'Keeffe, of which the latter two take place on a sea cruise), a few newspaper tales (The Graveyard Shift by William P. McGivern, Man Bites Dog by Donald Honig,, The Death Desk by S.S. Rafferty and (sort of) also Theodore Mathieson's Second Spring).
Special mention for being truly very chilly deserve A Bottle of Wine (Borden Deal), Never Trust an Ancestor (Michael Zuroy), Sparrow on a String (Alice Scanlan Reach), That So Called Laugh (Frank Sisk), The Joker (by Betty Ren Wright), Death is a Lonely Lover (Roberty Colby) and Scheme for Destruction (Pauline C. Smith).
There were also some clever plots taking place in the ruthless world of business (Cora's Raid, Free Advice Incorporated, Hard Sell, Bank Night, The Prosperous Judds, The Time Before the Crime, The Real Criminal and the famous, ingenious Dettweiler Solution by Lawrence Block)
Last but not least, I vey much enjoyed reading several indispensable family cosies (We're Really Not That Kind of People (Samuel W. Taylor), A Very Special Talent (Margaret B. Maron) and the opening story of the book, Killed by Kindnes (Nedra Tyre). I should mention also Private Little War by William Brittain about a feuding teacher and pupil where one of them is ready to go too far. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by contributions of some authors never encountered before.
Maybe, like me, you will not like all stories to the same extent but this book - with its 631 pages - is doubtlessly good value for money and will bring you many enjoyable moments of suspense.
Average customer rating:
- "Must" reading for all Hitchcock fans!
- The master's canon
- Excellent presentation, too little room to develop it
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The Alfred Hitchcock Story
Ken Mogg
Manufacturer: Taylor Trade Publishing
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ASIN: 0878331638 |
Book Description
The authoritative guide to the world's best-loved and most respected film director. The story combines complete stroy synopes, insightful commentary, and a stunning collection of photographs to capture the essence of the acclaimed Master of Suspense.
Customer Reviews:
"Must" reading for all Hitchcock fans!.......2000-03-04
Film director Alfred Hitchcock was a master of suspense: this survey of his film contributions gathers over 300 photos from throughout his life, providing an excellent collection of revealing images spiced with film reviews and sidebars of facts. Highly recommended for any Hitchcock fan.
The master's canon.......2000-02-26
Interested in the films he directed, or just a hitchcock fan? Either way this book is a must. Not only does it cover every film he directed, but there are nice little extras on the stars he worked with, the writing process and even a look at films he inspired. The book is beautifully laid out, yet if you are looking for close analysis then this is not what you want. It looks at each film and talks about them, but there is no hard depth to this material - this is just a good look at the entire canon.
Excellent presentation, too little room to develop it.......1999-11-09
Reference books make great gifts because they can be pretty useful for years to come. Some of them are even attractive enough to leave out on coffee tables for guests to flip through when conversation drags.
by Ken Mogg (Taylor Publishing Company, 1999) is probably the most attractively produced book on that much written about director. It is well organized, each of the Master's films getting anywhere from one to five or six pages, well illustrated, with several specialized items to keep us abreast of trends in Hitch's career. For example, there is a list of all his cameo appearances in his films, a brief examination of his film techniques, his use of famous locations, and so on. Especially welcome are little inserts of trivia, such as the story behind the song the children are singing as The Birds are massing outside in the playground, and a generous number of lobby card reproductions. There is also a good discussion of his television series and even his paperback anthologies. In short, Mr. Mogg does not concentrate entirely on the films, although they do take up the bulk of the volume. By the way, listing Janet Leigh as co-author on this website is misleading: she only wrote a one-page introduction that is quite amusing. My only complaint is that 211 pages are not enough room to handle this wealth of material; and here and there I feel much more of value could have been said had the author been given more space. (Hence the one star less in my rating.) Still such a comment merely shows how much I like this book and many of you will too.
Book Description
These 63 spine-tingling stories originally appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery magazine, and in the words of the master himself, they’ll “make your blood run cold.” Hitchcock coolly serves up cool cops, clever gangsters, bodies stuffed in trunks, kidnappings, adulterous affairs, murder, and espionage, and the resulting thrills are positively delicious. The writers include Ed McBain, whose “Sadie When She Died” features a strange cat-and-mouse game between a sharp detective and the husband of a murdered woman whom the police suspect of having committed the crime. Other tales come from Donald E. Westlake, Bill Pronzini, Patricia Highsmith, Henry Slezar, and Richard M. Ellis.
Customer Reviews:
lots of great little short stories .......2005-06-01
most of the stories are about 5-10 pages. interesting easy to read stories chosen from the Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazine. The book was put together after Hitchcock's death and stories of course were not written by hitch.
Stories NOT by Alfred Hitchcock.......2002-06-20
I havent finished the book, Im saving it for those long summer days that are filled with nothing to do. For the most part the stories are cool, but some are as dull as dirt. I wont name any stories because I have 2 of these types of books and I may confuse stories from the other and write that they are in here. The big thing for me was the fact that these stories were chosen by Alfred Hitchcock, no he didnt chose some of his favorite stories that he wrote; he chose stories by other authors. The book says that he chose them, but it also states that this book is By:Alfred Hitchcock. I have no clue why, its sort of like hes stealing other authors stories. Anyway this is more an adult book unless you are a very good reader. I purchased this book when I was 14 and I am now 15 and I am able to understand most everything in the book, but there are some big words in it. But I am also one of the best readers in my class(at when reading to myself, I hate reading out loud). So if you are looking for something by Alfred Hitchcock then you might not want this book. If you want something that Mr.Hitchcock liked then you may want this. For the most part the stories are enjoyable and scarry, but dont expect this from all of them.
Book Description
Con men and criminals, PIs and amateur sleuths, the mean streets of New York and San Francisco, Chicago and Seoul, not to mention eighteenth-century London and eleventh-century Japan. For 50 years Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine has offered its readers a wide range of the finest crime and detective stories available and stands today as one of the foremost magazines of mystery and suspense. In anticipation of AHMM's golden anniversary, Ms. Landrigan invited readers to nominate their favorite stories, and this collection is packed with popular authors and well-known characters, including Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder, Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective, and Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski.
Linda Landrigan is editor-in-chief of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. She lives in New York.
Customer Reviews:
Great Anthology!.......2007-09-12
Have never read Alfred Hitchcock's Magazine so have no idea if these are the best stories which have appeared in there but I can say I have read a fair few anthologies and would have to say this is up there with the best of them. You'll never come across a large collection of short stories by various authors where you love every single story inside but the great collections have a large percentage of stories you really enjoy, allow you to read stories you will have a pretty difficult time tracking down by authors who you are a fan of as well as introduce you to authors whose full length novels you have never tried. This collection does accomplish all this.
The best stories in here in my opinion are the first story Frightening Frammis about a hitchhiker con man who is returning to LA with his tail between his legs when he is given a lift by a couple and shortly after offered a scam by the wife if he will kill her husband. #8 although a bit predictable is a good old serial killer tale. Although most of Westlake's work is better Good Night Good Night is still a good read about a TV star who is shot while watching an episode of his show and wants to work out which of his co-stars shot him before death embraces him. The Method Sheriff, the tale of a small town bank robbery is one of those classic twist stories. New Neighbour is the story of how the elderly in a street react to a new bully neighbour who kills their animal companions when they complain about the noise and other matters. The Muse by Jan Burke along with being a great story also constantly pays tribute to Alfred Hitchcock with his films constantly referenced by the main characters who play games where the other must guess which film they are referring to unfortunately for them though someone else wants to play an even deadlier game. Sinkhole is another great tale of a man not able to divorce his wife who uses a sinkhole in the backyard to get rid of her only to find he is not the only person in the area who has had this idea.
Since Amazon doesn't give a list of who has contributed to this collection and which of their stories are in here, something which I personally find really annoying when trying to track down stories I haven't read by authors that I like. I will provide a comprehensive list at the bottom of this review. Buy this anthology it's good! Other great recently published anthologies are Dangerous Women edited by Otto Penzler, The Best American Mystery Stories 2006 edited by Scott Turow and Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part: New Stories about Love, Lust, and Murder edited by Harlan Coben.
Inside this anthology you'll find:-
The Frightening Frammis by Jim Thompson
The Day of the Execution by Henry Slesar
#8 by Jackie Ritchie
Not a Laughing Matter by Evan Hunter
A Genuine Alectryomancer by Charles Willeford
Good Night! Good Night! By Donald E Westlake
The Cost of Kent Castwell by Avram Davidson
The Long Way Down by Edward D. Hooch
The Method Sheriff by Ed Lacy
Death of a Nobody by Bill Pronzini
Recipe for Murder by James Holding
New Neighbor by Talmage Powell
Historical Errors by William Brittain
A Candle for the Bag Lady by Lawrence Block
Making a Killing With Mama Cass by Wiliam Bankier
The Takamoku Joseki by Sara Paretsky
My Brother's Wife by Rob Kantner
Final Rites by Doug Allyn
The Search for Olga Bateua by Stephen Wasylyk
Hawks by Connie Holt
Unbearable Temptations by Jeffry Scott
Priests by George C Chesbro
Pusan Nights by Martin Limon
Body Englis by S. J. Rozan
The Muse by Jan Burke
Sinkhole by Carol Cail
Saturday Night at the Mikado Massage by Loren D Estleman
Lord of Obstacles by Gregory S. Fallis
Black Spartacus by James Lincoln Warren
Eries Last Day by Steve Hockensmith
Tabloid Press by Janice Law
The O-Bon Cat by I. J. Parker
Leaving Nairobi by Ed McBain
Voodoo by Rhys Bowen
An excellent mystery anthology.......2006-12-16
I'd never heard of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, though I am an avid reader of mystery and suspense novels. If this anthology is an indicator of what's to be found in the magazine, then the montly is definitely worth a look.
Most of these thirty-four stories are very well done. There were several that didn't quite hold my interest, but that wasn't because they were poorly written: they just didn't grab me.
There are several standouts in the anthology, including a wonderfully wry short by Ed McBain.
Many of the names in the anthology are familiar. Some stories represent early works, some later.
In any event, any mystery fan will enjoy this anthology. It will provide several evenings of fun mystery reading when you're not up to tackling the latest novel.
Jerry
For hard-core crime fiction fans only........2006-10-21
I recall reading 'Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine' in the '80s, and discovering quite a few of the now long out of print paperback anthologies, which purported to be 'edited' by Hitchcock himself, along with ghost-written introductions. All of this was in the manner of the classic 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' TV series, with which the magazine is the longest-lived tie-in.
The glory days of the magazine(and the anthologies) were filled with short, concise, suspenseful little tales in which the bad guy would reach a suitable end, with an appropriate twist of fate (and plot).
Only a few such stories are in evidence in this volume, perhaps because the best work has already been reprinted in numerous places.
This 'comprehensive' 50th-anniversary collection suffers from the same problem as many anthologies, with perhaps a few too many riches. Although there are a few well-known authors, and some occasional nuggets among the stories, nothing in particular sticks in the memory, and in fact, skipping a few stories altogether won't make too much difference.
The 'Hitchcock' magazine has somewhow managed to last half a century, so it must be doing something to satisfy a (relatively) small but loyal audience. As an example of a declining breed-the a short story anthology magazine-this is worth browsing through as a curiousity, but the reader would probably be better served to dig deeper into the works of the reprsented authors. I get the feeling all are capable of better things in a different forum.
Customer Reviews:
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories that go bump in the night.......2006-02-07
Stories that go Bump in the Night is a collection of short (and chilling) tales written by various authors, selected by the Master or Suspense himself. They are all different and unrelated in plot and style, but they each have in common an aspect of gruesome murder, or a macabre twist that forces you to read on, and yet makes you shiver when you're done. One of my favorite stories was Easy Mark by Talmage Powell, about a seemingly defenseless man, who walks into a drug bar and is subsequently robbed of his car and some money. What the-would be assailants don't know, is that the body of this man's wife, whom he murdered, is in the trunk, thereby making them the easy marks. However, I really liked the style of writing that Theodore Sturgeon used in The Other Celia, which is about a peeping Tom who spies into the life of someone not human. The language the author used made trespassing sound everyday. I think that Hitchcock chose some really good tales that I would have never read to be in his book. I loved how many of these yarns were similar in effect, and yet different as far as the plot goes. It's amazing how much oomph a writer can put into such short story.
Customer Reviews:
The story keeps you on the edge of your chair........1998-07-25
The characters are kids you can look up to. The story is thrilling and fast paced. There is nothing about the story that seems unbelievable. It keeps you guessing until the end. I read this as a child and I have never forgotten it. It is one of the best series I have ever read.
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