A Book Review by Brian Greene.
The original stories are well-written and compelling enough to stand on their own apart from their associations with the great auteur.”
Alfred Hitchcock had a deep connection to literature. The authors whose novels and short stories served as the bases of his films include literary hall of famers such as Daphne Du Maurier, Cornell Woolrich, Patricia Highsmith, and Robert Bloch, et al. My personal favorite work of fiction that Hitch adapted for film is the 1954 novel D’ents les Morts by the writing team of Boileau-Narcejac, which was made into the 1958 classic Vertigo.
This collection of 12 short stories from Black Beacon Books connects Hitchcock’s movies to the written word by way of different kinds of tributes to the esteemed director by the various writers. Just exactly how the tales link up with Hitch’s films is explored below.
There’s a nice assortment of historical eras and geographical locations among the dozen pieces. The stories are set everywhere from major U.S. cities to parts of the U.K. to Australia to a small town in Colorado. And while many of them take place in the Hitchcockian era of the middle of the 20th century, some are set in modern times and include elements like smartphones, computer hackers, and a mention of the Me, Too movement.
Likewise, the subject matter is varied. The plot elements include gangsters, innocent victims, serial killers, wrongfully accused persons, kidnappings, bank heists, hauntings, revenge, and, um, zombies, etc. What ties the stories together is that they’re all suspenseful in one way or another; that, and of course their associations with Hitchcock.
The quality of the writing is almost uniformly strong throughout. I’m a jaded reader who just about expects to be unimpressed by works in the overcrowded field of contemporary crime fiction. But, apart from one of the 12 selections, I was fully taken in by the tales. They’re generally well-written with memorable characters, intriguing narratives, and plenty of gripping suspense. I did wince at the handful or so of typos found between the covers, but that can’t be held against the writers.
In terms of style and tone, most of the pieces can be classified as crime fare, leaning further toward literary fiction than noir. One of the tales could be labeled as existing within the horror genre.
Personally, I found it more pleasurable to read the book when I stopped worrying about trying to identify the Hitchcock movies the stories are meant to highlight. Sometimes there’s no way around being conscious of Hitch….”
As far as the stories’ links to the films of Hitchcock, well, fans of the director’s work might find this facet of the read somewhere between challenging and frustrating. It’s just not always very clear to which Hitch title the tales are nodding. Editor Trost (one of his own stories is included) explains, in his preface, that he made a point of not indicating which movie(s) the stories reference, to make things interestingly unclear for the reader. And challenging it is! I’ve seen every Hitchcock movie that was released between 1951-76, as well as a smattering of his titles that pre-date that stretch, yet I could only comfortably identify the relevant Hitch feature(s) in maybe five of the dozen selections.
Asked what he was looking for when wading through the submissions he received for consideration, Trost explains, “A wink and a nod to a Hitchcock film was the key. Apart from that, I chose stories that emulated his sense of suspense and a number that were set in the mid-20th century, like his films. The idea was to pay homage to the master of suspense in both obvious and more subtle ways.”
And when queried as to whether readers should be ready to successfully play Name That Hitchcock Movie while turning the pages, or if it’s more of a thing where they should just anticipate finding Hitchcockian qualities in the writing, he tells:
“Most of the stories are inspired by one particular film, while a handful are inspired by two or more. In some cases, the film in question is recognizable by the title of the story. Others are easy to guess. Some, however, put the reader’s knowledge of Hitchcock’s filmography to the test. The way I see it, a suspenseful anthology should have a few secrets of its own.”
Personally, I found it more pleasurable to read the book when I stopped worrying about trying to identify the Hitchcock movies the stories are meant to highlight. Sometimes there’s no way around being conscious of Hitch, such as when he appears as a character in one tale or, in others, when things happen like birds are attacking a character or a guy is spying on his neighbors (but via CCTV rather than binoculars), etc. But overall the tales are well-written and compelling enough to stand on their own apart from their associations with the great auteur. I’ll be looking into other works by a handful of the scribes, and yes, maybe watching a few of those pre-1951 Hitch films I haven’t yet seen.
Brian Greene writes short stories, personal essays and critical pieces on books, music, film and visual art. His features on noir fiction and films have been published online by Criminal Element, Crime Reads, Literary Hub, The Strand, Crime Time, Crimeculture, Mulholland Books, and others, and in print by Stark House Press, PM Press and Paperback Parade. He lives in Durham, North Carolina. briangreenewriter.blogspot.com/Twitter: greenes_circles