ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MORTAL ERRORS

by Cathleen--Ed. Jordan ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 23, 1984

Thirty stories from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, mostly of 1960s-'70s vintage--with no shining standouts but few thoroughgoing clinkers. The better entries are very much in the reliable murder-with-irony mode: Jack Ritchie's grisly mini-twister about the severed head in ""The Wastebasket""; Stephen Wasylyk's tale of a poisoned rich uncle who refuses to stay killed; Edward D. Hoch's neat item about a crook's moll, whose dreams guide the lug to each new crime; Donald Olson's ""Blood Relatives,"" with a sweetly unlikely killer and a highly ingenious murder weapon; and William Jeffrey's ""A Case for Quiet,"" a sort of British-pukkasahib variation on Arsenic and Old Lace. Of the non-murder pieces, William Brittain's ""The Artificial Liar"" stands out--an amusing, tricky lie-detector yarn. And the remainder includes the usual servings of tough-guy vengeance, haunting, kidnaps, cops and robbers-plus one sadly dated, frilly tale about a Berlin Wall exchange. Unremarkable but professional: a generous, respectable assortment.

Pub Date: March 23, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dial/Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION