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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Three novellas evoke a bygone era., October 26, 2005
"Noir" includes three short novels written by the legendary Richard Matheson back in the 1950's. These works bring us back to an era of in your face, hard-boiled, and unsubtle prose. In the first novel, "Someone is Bleeding," a writer named Dave Newton falls in love with a beautiful blonde who seems to harbor an antipathy towards men. "Fury on Sunday" describes the escape of an inmate from an insane asylum, and his subsequent attempt to take revenge on those who have wronged him. The final novel, "Ride the Nightmare" is about a family whose world is turned upside down when a shadowy figure from the past decides to pay them a visit.
The first two stories are occasionally suspenseful, but the author's melodramatic writing style and one-dimensional characters keep them from being first-rate. Matheson writes truncated "just the facts, ma'am" type of sentences, which evoke the fifties very well: "Eyes. That was my first impression. The biggest and brownest eyes I'd ever seen, great big eyes seeming to search for something." All three novels feature psychotic characters who lash out at others. In the first story, a woman named Peggy attracts men easily but she cannot bring herself to trust them. Is this femme fatale also a homicidal maniac? In the second story, Vince is a gifted former concert pianist whose career is cut short when he has a mental breakdown. After he escapes from the hospital where he has been confined, he sets out to kill the husband of the woman he loves. Will a night of abject terror end in tragedy? These first two novels, although occasionally powerful, lack depth and realism.
The third novel, "Ride the Nightmare," illustrates how much Matheson grew as a writer as his career progressed. In this story, Chris Martin lives with his wife, Helen, and their young daughter, Connie. Chris runs a successful music store, and he is proud of everything that he has accomplished. One day, he gets a call from someone who harbors a serious grudge against him. He must face the fact that he has unwittingly embroiled his beloved wife and child in a terrible situation from which there may be no escape. "Riding the Nightmare" is a mature and well-developed tale with nail-biting scenes of suspense and violence.
"Noir" provides a nostalgic look at a prose style that exemplifies fifties fiction. It also gives the reader a glimpse of three early works by Richard Matheson, the author of many memorable scripts for the Twilight Zone as well as other successful television shows and films.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
three fine suspense thrillers, October 13, 2005
"Someone Is Bleeding". In Santa Monica, writer Dave has fallen in love with Peggy. However, he begins to have doubts when he begins to find male corpses everywhere he goes. Could his sweet Peggy be a man-hating serial killer and if yes how can he avoid joining her deadly list?
"Fury on Sunday". Manhattan concert pianist Vincent was already a bit crazy when he finally goes off the deep end. He begins murdering people who cross his path turning the mean streets even meaner with a final confrontation in his apartment.
"Ride the Nightmare". In California, Chris has come a long way from his misspent youth. He loves his wife Helen and their daughter and is willing to die to keep them safe. He soon has the opportunity as his past has arrived in California not concerned about collateral damage.
These three suspense thrillers were written in the 1950s by the author of Duel (basis for the Spielberg movie). "Ride the Nightmare" and "Someone is Bleeding" are fabulous novellas that hook the audience from the start and never slows down as seemingly nice middle class people get caught in maelstroms of perilous trouble. On the other hand "Fury on Sunday" follows a maniac without getting inside him making his killing spree seem endless; this tale would have been better as a short with a smaller body count. Still overall NOIR lives up to its title.
Harriet Klausner
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as Good as The Stories That Made Matheson a Legend, February 7, 2008
Noir contains three 1950s written stories by Matheson, which although will adequately pass the time, are nothing special and certainly no where near the masterpiece league level of his classics I Am Legend, The Shrinking Man or Duel.
Richard Matheson is the master of the normal guy suddenly plunged into a terrifying situation thriller and the only story in Noir where we see even an aspect of this is the final one, Ride the Nightmare. In this story the everyday person is shared at different times in the novel between both the husband and wife but these characters are not as well written as in the above mentioned masterpieces or even stories that weren't quite in that league such as Hunted Past Reason. We don't really get into the depths of these character's minds that we do with those novels and there are no surprises in their at times very predictable actions. Nor are there any twists in this or the former two Noir stories. They're all just straight up, tell the story.
Three stories follow a mini biography or Matheson and his work which is quite interesting in its own right. The first story Someone is Bleeding has Dave falling head over heels for a woman, named Peggy, who he sees on the beach. He believes she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. When she invites him to a party he can't believe his luck, but there he learns she is sort of spoken for by a guy he went to high school with who he didn't like much then. He doesn't think any higher of him when he tells Dave she's a murderer and hater of men. Dave is determined to be with Peggy, surely she's no psycho!
Fury on Sunday has an escape from a mental institute by a man who goes on a murder spree once out. Pretty much straight up and down storyline.
Ride the Nightmare easily the best of the three has happy couple Chris and Helen, with a young daughter. One night they receive an irritating dinner phone call. Helen answers and although not an annoying telemarketer, her night (and next day) is about to ruined. The caller asks for her husband but calls him by a different name. Helen tells the caller he's got the wrong number but he insists to speak with Chris. It seems Chris hasn't told Helen everything about his past.
So although good enough to pass the time I wouldn't buy Noir for someone to introduce them to Matheson's work. However if they've read all his classics, it's worth picking up.
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