Coffin Corner [Paperback]

Alfred (ed.) Hitchcock (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Dell; 1st Edition Pbk edition (1975)
• ASIN: B000W70PK6
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Fourteen Stories for Fans of Stories with a Twist, August 20, 2011

By 

Lonnie E. Holder "The Review's the Thing" (Columbus, Indiana, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Coffin Corner (Mass Market Paperback)

Alfred Hitchcock lent his name to many collections of short stories. The collections uniformly contained stories that were shocking or had a strange or unusual twist. These collections were generally quite good, and such is the case with this collection of 14 stories, many by authors well known both when this collection first appeared in 1968 and now.

After Alfred Hitchcock's introduction to the collection, the first story, by Richard Hardwick, is "A Walk on the Mountain." Charlie Walters takes his family to a place where he went as a child. However, sometimes we forget the things that happened to us, or that we did, as a child. Sometimes those things we did as a child come back to us when we visit the old, familiar places.

Moving on to "A Time for Rifles," by H.A. De Rosso, we learn the age-old truth that when a woman has an affair with another man, often the ending is not what anyone involved would like. The ending of this story is quite chilling.

Donald Honig provides an interesting story about the disappearance of $5,000 in "The Last Gourmand." Two men are sure the money is in a certain house. All they have to do is find it. The question is why no one else has found the money in the years it has supposedly been in the house.

Sometimes the things you think you know are different from what you really know, as we find out in "Sudden, Sudden Death" by Talmadge Powell. Steve Griffin receives a call from his wife, Maureen. Maureen tells Steve that someone is trying to kill her. The truth is far stranger, and much more complicated, than Steve could ever have guessed.

Good, old-fashioned mystery remains enjoyable to me. Arthur Porges describes such a mystery in "Circle in the Dust." Porges reminds us that many times the criminal neglects one minor detail that is all a skilled investigator needs to solve a crime. Fans of Sherlock Holmes will find this story amusing.

A pair of bank robbers learns to their chagrin that having a gun does not always give you power in William Brittain's "Joshua." Native American Joshua Red Wing meets a pair of men who happened to be bank robbers. Joshua is much sharper than the bank robbers know, and Joshua is at heart an honest man - in his own way. Two armed men against an unarmed Native American. Never take odds against a smart man.

August Derleth was famous for many reasons. He was the founder of Arkham House, the first publisher of H.P. Lovecraft, and the creator of Solar Pons, a character similar to Sherlock Holmes. Pons has an interesting mystery to solve when the police bring him a letter in "The Amateur Philologist." Written in the spirit of the Arthur Conan Doyle, this story is a mystery gem.

One characteristic of Hitchcock collections is that at least one bad person wins, often to the chagrin of another bad person. Such is the case in "Thieves' Honor" by John Lutz. I may have already said too much about this very short story when coupled with the title, so I will describe nothing more.

It seems that we have seen stories about people going into prison to investigate or report an issue multiple times. Richard O. Lewis visits this plot device again in "The Final Chapter." What does the investigator or reporter do when the only person who knows his mission becomes incapacitated? The ending of this story is quite scary.
Mary Linn Roby provides a unique perspective on gardening in "The Helpful Horticulturist." Roby does a great job of letting the story unfold subtly. The ending is chilling, but for more than one reason.

How many times has an anonymous caller provided a warning? What actions does a receiver of such calls take? How often are those actions right? Hal Ellson explores the nature of anonymous telephone calls in "Dead Oak in a Dark Woods." This story is yet another chiller in this collection.

I would like to tell you something about "A Recipe for Eggs" by Frank Sisk. Unfortunately, anything I say about this shocker will be too revealing. The story has a great twist that I enjoyed, and so will you.

Creepy endings are often the best in these collections, and the ending to "Not the Killer Type" by John Arre is creepy. Just remember that there are always consequences to the things you do, whether positive or negative.

The final story in this collection is "Blood Kin" by Richard Deming. It is one thing to figure out that someone is out to kill you. It is another thing to figure out what to do about it. Is there any way to protect yourself from a smart murderer?

This collection has many very good stories. If you are familiar with Alfred Hitchcock's collections, then you know this one most likely contains stories that are enjoyable and interesting. However, there is variation among Hitchcock's collections, and some collections are less interesting that his best collections. I would rank this collection highly and worth having, especially if you like stories that have endings with a twist and stories with a mystery behind them, both of which are in this collection.

Enjoy!