Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Stories to excite, intrigue and keep you guessing, April 29, 2009
A smash and grab jewel thief is caught red handed, but when searched by the police he possesses no jewels. How will this crime be solved? A shipwrecked sailor finds himself trapped in a frantic game of death. How will the game end? Over England the birds start behaving very strangely. How will Nat, a rustic farm-worker, and his family survive this frightening outburst of nature? Poppy the dog inherits a fortune and Miss Crump, the animal's protector, is convinced that someone is trying to kill her. Can Miss Crump's neighbors, Iris and Peter, unravel the truth behind this seemingly outlandish claim? These and many more stories will keep you entertained for hours.
This is one of the very many books edited by Alfred Hitchcock, famed movie and television director. Hitchcock was constantly looking for new stories to make into movies and TV programs and one of the stories in this book, The Birds (Collector's Edition), was very successfully adapted to the screen by the director. This book contains thirteen mystery-suspense short stories, all of which are designed to excite, intrigue and keep you guessing until the end. Many of them are by masters of the field, such as Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier and Roald Dahl. Those by lesser known authors are not to be dismissed as mere padding. Richard Connell's <The Most Dangerous Game> is, for example, quite a memorable and original story. Some of the tales are of a lighter frame of mind and Percival Wilde's is the best of these, being a very humorous spoof on some of the other authors represented in this book. The longest story is thirty-six pages and the two shortest are six pages. The best story in the book is, to my mind, Dorothy L. Sayers' <The Man Who Knew How> and the least successful are the two six page stories, one by F. Tennyson Jesse and the other by Clayre and Michel Lipman. On the whole the quality of the stories were good and this book is certainly worth picking up if you have an hour or two to fill and a taste for the mysterious and slightly weird. It can be read by teenagers thirteen years and over, but certainly should not be ignored by adults.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Still "Spellbinding" After All These Years, April 2, 2009
I owned a copy of this book as a child in the 1960s and distinctly remember how much I enjoyed reading it late at night. (when I was supposed to be sleeping!) Prompted by that memory--and convinced that I'd still enjoy the stories as an adult--I set out to replace my copy, which had been lost or given away decades ago.
I was right: it IS still a good read for those who like suspense, mystery, or (mild) horror stories. I'm still reading--and enjoying--those stories late into the night when I'm unable to fall asleep.
While all the stories are engaging, film buffs may be particularly interested in "The Birds," which, of course, inspired the Hitchcock film of the same name. The perspective and "feel" of the original story is remarkably different from the movie version. (but BOTH are superb treatments of the tale--they're just different from each other)
Overall, this is a fine compilation that doesn't fail to hold a reader's interest.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Great authors and stories. A must read., September 30, 1999
By A Customer
This book is a definate must read. Yours truly, Jack the Ripper and The Most Dangerous Game have to be my favorite stories in this book, but I still like them all. If you can find a copy of it definatly buy or borrow immedietly.
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by Alfred Hitchcock
