Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Sixteen Skeletons from My Closet
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 16 Skeletons from My Closet
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Sixteen Skeletons from My Closet edited by Robert Arthur
Dell, 1st printing, 1963
221 pages
Genre: Horror, suspense, thriller
Synopsis & Review: Another AHP collection, this time of sixteen stories, and with an emphasis on mystery, thrillers, and crime fiction. Perhaps I’m picky, and just don’t like any crime fiction that’s not by Woolrich, Chandler, or Thompson; I don’t know. But this collection did very little for me. It was a bit of a chore to finish.
It’s a much more contemporary collection than Stories My Mother Never Told Me, with no stories from before 1957 or after 1961. So I would hazard a guess that they were all published in contemporary magazines about that time, and that this ought to represent the creme de la creme of thrillers of the day. But it doesn’t. Many of the efforts seem almost amateurish and transparent at best, and hopelessly uninteresting at worst. Read the rest of this entry »
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories My Mother Never Told Me
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories My Mother Never Told Me
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories My Mother Never Told Me
originally published 1963
Dell, 1st printing, 1965
223 pages
Genre: Horror, suspense, thriller
Synopsis & Review: A collection of thirteen (oooOOOOooooo!) stories featuring all manner of thrills, suspense, and horror. Included are masters of the genres such as Shirley Jackson (“The Summer People”) and Richard Matheson (“The Children of Noah”), as well as comparative unknowns, and even a creepy effort by F. Scott Fitzgerald (“A Short Trip Home”).
I loved watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents reruns on Nick at Nite back in intermediate and early high school. Inspired by my enormous enjoyment of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Scared Even Me, I purchased two more AHP volumes on the cheap. This one was by far my favorite of the two. In it, you’ll find couple of cannibal stories (perhaps more than necessary) and a very odd and disturbing change up of “The Most Dangerous Game” (“An Invitation to the Hunt”). There’s also “The Hostage” by Don Stanford, which I immediately recognized from Suicide Kings. As with any collections, there are a few gems and a few duds. Read the rest of this entry »
the stacks my destination 