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Birds, Strangers and Psychos: New Stories Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock
Birds, Strangers and Psychos is a thrilling anthology that brings together the biggest names in mystery and crime fiction to pay homage to Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary filmmaker whose name is synonymous with suspense. Acclaimed editor Maxim Jakubowski curates 30 original short stories, each inspired by the mood, tension, and style that defined Hitchcock's groundbreaking work. This anthology invites both emerging and established voices to reimagine the chilling atmospheres, twisted plots, and unforgettable characters of Hitchcock's films, from Psycho and Vertigo to North by Northwest and The Birds.
Each author takes on the challenge of evoking the quintessentially 'Hitchcockian' elements that have captivated audiences for ordinary lives interrupted by peril, psychological duels, and unexpected encounters that spiral into nightmares. The volume showcases an extraordinary blend of talent, including Lee Child, Denise Mina, Sophie Hannah, Vaseem Khan, M.W. Craven, Jeff Noon and S.A. Cosby and many more!
Just as Hitchcock adapted stories from literary giants like Daphne du Maurier, Patricia Highsmith, and Roald Dahl, Birds, Strangers and Psychos unites today's literary stars to craft new suspenseful tales that are destined to thrill, haunt, and unsettle. These stories celebrate Hitchcock's enduring influence, creating an anthology that serves both as a tribute and as a reminder of why Hitchcock's legacy continues to loom so large in popular culture. This volume is not just a collection of stories—it's an invitation to rediscover the artistry of suspense.
Each author takes on the challenge of evoking the quintessentially 'Hitchcockian' elements that have captivated audiences for ordinary lives interrupted by peril, psychological duels, and unexpected encounters that spiral into nightmares. The volume showcases an extraordinary blend of talent, including Lee Child, Denise Mina, Sophie Hannah, Vaseem Khan, M.W. Craven, Jeff Noon and S.A. Cosby and many more!
Just as Hitchcock adapted stories from literary giants like Daphne du Maurier, Patricia Highsmith, and Roald Dahl, Birds, Strangers and Psychos unites today's literary stars to craft new suspenseful tales that are destined to thrill, haunt, and unsettle. These stories celebrate Hitchcock's enduring influence, creating an anthology that serves both as a tribute and as a reminder of why Hitchcock's legacy continues to loom so large in popular culture. This volume is not just a collection of stories—it's an invitation to rediscover the artistry of suspense.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 25, 2025
28 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Maxim Jakubowski
279 books161 followersMaxim Jakubowski is a crime, erotic, and science fiction writer and critic.
Jakubowski was born in England by Russian-British and Polish parents, but raised in France. Jakubowski has also lived in Italy and has travelled extensively. Jakubowski edited the science fiction anthology Twenty Houses of the Zodiac in 1979 for the 37th World Science Fiction Convention (Seacon '79) in Brighton. He also contributed a short story to that anthology. He has now published almost 100 books in a variety of areas.
He has worked in book publishing for many years, which he left to open the Murder One bookshop[1], the UK's first specialist crime and mystery bookstore. He contributes to a variety of newspapers and magazines, and was for eight years the crime columnist for Time Out and, presently, since 2000, the crime reviewer for The Guardian. He is also the literary director of London's Crime Scene Festival and a consultant for the International Mystery Film Festival, Noir in Fest, held annually in Courmayeur, Italy. He is one the leading editors in the crime and mystery and erotica field, in which he has published many major anthologies.
His novels include "It's You That I Want To Kiss", "Because She Thought She Loved Me", "The State Of Montana", "On Tenderness Express", "Kiss me Sadly" and "Confessions of a Romantic Pornographer". His short story collections are "Life in the World of Women", "Fools for Lust" and the collaborative "American Casanova". He is a regular broadcaster on British TV and radio and was recently voted the 4th Sexiest Writer of 2,007 on a poll on the crimespace website.
Jakubowski was born in England by Russian-British and Polish parents, but raised in France. Jakubowski has also lived in Italy and has travelled extensively. Jakubowski edited the science fiction anthology Twenty Houses of the Zodiac in 1979 for the 37th World Science Fiction Convention (Seacon '79) in Brighton. He also contributed a short story to that anthology. He has now published almost 100 books in a variety of areas.
He has worked in book publishing for many years, which he left to open the Murder One bookshop[1], the UK's first specialist crime and mystery bookstore. He contributes to a variety of newspapers and magazines, and was for eight years the crime columnist for Time Out and, presently, since 2000, the crime reviewer for The Guardian. He is also the literary director of London's Crime Scene Festival and a consultant for the International Mystery Film Festival, Noir in Fest, held annually in Courmayeur, Italy. He is one the leading editors in the crime and mystery and erotica field, in which he has published many major anthologies.
His novels include "It's You That I Want To Kiss", "Because She Thought She Loved Me", "The State Of Montana", "On Tenderness Express", "Kiss me Sadly" and "Confessions of a Romantic Pornographer". His short story collections are "Life in the World of Women", "Fools for Lust" and the collaborative "American Casanova". He is a regular broadcaster on British TV and radio and was recently voted the 4th Sexiest Writer of 2,007 on a poll on the crimespace website.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 13, 2025
Maxim Jakubowski is one of my favourite editors. I like the stories that he picks. He's been around a long time and knows everyone, so he can call on a lot of talent. I loved the premise of getting well-known writers to produce Hitchcockian stories.
Hitchcock also had an eye for talent. He was the first editor to promote Roald Dahl's short stories. He made Patricia Highsmith's debut novel into a movie within a year of it being published. I grew up with his TV series, and I've seen many of his movies, some of them as reruns at the cinema.
The twenty-four stories in this collection vary greatly in style and content, but they each do they're part to evoke the spirit of Hitchcock's movies and TV shows. Not all of them matched my taste, but I'm sure other readers will have different favourites.
Below, I've commented on each story in the order that Maxim Jakubowski presented them. I've rated each story, very subjectively, of course. I rated four as five stars, three as four stars, seven as three stars, two as two stars, and four as one star. There was one I didn't rate because I abandoned it partway through.
STRANGERS ON A SCHOOL BUS by Peter Swanson ★★★
The title told me that this was going to be a twist on Hitchcock's 1951 movie, 'Strangers On A Train', adapted from Patricia Highsmuth's debut novel, 'Strangers On A Train' (1950), but I didn't see the twist coming. It was a clever idea that slowly unfurled as Detective Marchard interviewed teenager Jane Weir about her conversation on a School Bus with Lisa Kelly. The school trip and the teenage bullying were neatly rendered. The reveal was suprising but a little abrupt. Even so, the ending was satisfying.
THE HUNTER by Vaseem Khan ★★★★
I thought I knew where this one was going, right up to the point where it went somewhere else entirely. The ending was shocking and very very good. My whole understanding of the story shifted. It was wonderfully well done.
DANIELLE'S THE DEAD ONE by Sophie Hannah ★
This one didn't work for me. I could see it was meant to be amusing, but I found it tedious. It was a joke that took so long to get to the punchline that I no longer cared. The only part that made me smile was the discussion about whether a director can have more than one masterpiece.
SPLIT YOUR SILVER TONGUE by S A Cosby ★★★★★
Short, intense, surprising, horrifying and memorable. The siutation went from ambiguous to potentially erotic to truly and unexpectedly horrific as smoothly as changing up through the gears on a powerful car.
PSYCHO GEOGRAPHY by Guy Adams ★
There are stories where the words "clever", "artful" and "concept-rich" are not praise. This is one of them. More of a lecture than a story. So laden with semiotics that it collapsed in on itself.
IT'S RAINING VIOLETS by Ana Teresa Pereira ★★★★
This story felt like a dream. Strong emotions. Vivid flashes of detail against a blurred background. A sense of threat or dread from a lack of agency. I didn't understand everything in the story but that was OK. I don't think I was meant to. The man in story, a short story writer, doesn't really live in the present. He lives in his imagination and the shadow cast by his past. He refuses to admit his motives or openly acknowledge his desires. He lives in pursuit of a ghost. I liked that the girl he fixed on saw through him.
LIKE A BUN AT BEWLEY'S by David Thomson ★
I must be missing something. This story made no sene to me. It was like listening to a guy in the pub who thinks he's a raconteur but who keeps losing the thread, adding more swagger than story. I couldn't figure out which Hitchcock movie or TV episode it was inspired by or what the ending meant.
THE BIRDS ON A TRAIN by Lee Child ★★
I liked the set-up of the story: the train journey, the arrival at Hastings, the establishment of the kind of man our assassin for hire was. I wanted to see where it was going to go. Then there was a sudden, unexpected event, and everything was thrown off course, giving a rapid and unexpected ending. The ending was amusing in the context of an Hitchcock-inspired story, but it felt too rushed for me.
THE KARPMAN DRAMA TRIANGLE by Denise Mina ★★★★★
This was excellent. In a single, short video call, Denise Mina told the story of a dysfunctional family AND delivered a tense drama. She even cleverly used the roles in the Karpman Drama Triangle to do it. I'm impressed.
THE MOUNTAIN EAGLE by Xan Brooks ★★★
This tale held me all the way through. It had the feel of a story written in the early 20th Century, when it was set, but with a 21st Century sensibility with regard to how the powerful treat outsiders. Perhaps that's why the 20th Century ending I was expecting didn't happen. Perhaps that was the point.
HICTCHCOCK BLONDES HAVE MORE FUN by Lily Samson★★★★★
A bizarre idea, beautifully executed. It kept me engaged and it kept me guessing. I got some fascinating background on Hitchcock and a story the became more disturbing as it went along.
COAT CHECK by Keith Lansdale & Joe R. Lansdale ★★★★
A mistake by a coatcheck girl at a restaurant is all it takes for the lives of these violent, always-looking-for-an-edge men to unravel. I liked the chaos of it and the feeling of self-imposed doom. Not to mention the open grave in the dark of the night and a small clever twist at the end, like a knife turning in flesh.
KILLING HITCH by Peter Lovesey
I abandoned this one. I can see that the script format is appropriate to something Hitchcock-inspired but it's not engaging which me the, I-know-you-don't-know-what's-going-on-here-but-trust-me pitch harder to land.
THE MARK by Anne Billson ★★★★★
Great first line: "On the whole, he preferred not to have to kill them, but sometimes it was necessary." Dark, clever, orignal and surprising, it was everything Hitchcock was at his best. The surface glittered but everything beneath was corrupt. I spotted the references to "Frenzy" and "Dial M For Murder" but I'm sure there were others that I missed. I loved the calm, quiet cruelty of the ending.
HITCHCOCK PRESENTS by Kim Newman ★★★
This was fun. I loved the dual meaning of the title, the way the main character's job as a lecturer in film provided me with an education in Hitchcock movies while also ratcheting up the tension with each parcel that arrived. It was told with a light touch and at just the right pace.
THE NEST by Jeff Noon ★★★
This was original and creepy but a little too long and, for me, too far-fetched to be engaging.
THE MIGRATORY PATTERN OF BIRDS by M W Craven ★★★
This had the feeling of a Washington Poe Christmas special with a nod to 'Frenzy'. I haven't read the Washington Poe books (I've been put off by people being burned alive in the first one) but that didn't stop m enjoying this story. It was light, fast, ingenious and amusing.
CAMEO by Donna Moore ★★★
Nicely crafted for this anthology, this story is about a filandering film director with a strong preference for his blonde leading ladies, who is carefull NOT called Hitchcock. I liked the tough-cookie character of the vengeful wife, mixed with humorous Hitchcock-related crossword clues, a demonstration of the difference between thriller and suspense and clever ending that I didn't see coming.
EMPIRE BUILDER by James Grady ★
An experiment with form?
With comedic intent?
That went on...
...far too long.
PRIVATE BROWSER by A K Benedict ★★★★
If there was a 2025 version of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, this story would be perfect for it. The plot was clever. The ending was a surprise. The people felt real. I liked that it was a very up-to-the-minute take on murder and finding a killer.
RUSSIAN HILL by Jerome Charyn ★★
A hard-boiled tale with a complex plot with a couple of clever twists. A strong sense of place (San Francisco in a time when men stll wore Fedora's) but the I'm-too-cool-to show-any-emotion movie voice-over style of storytelling meant I didn't connect with any of the people in the story.
CHEST by Ragnar Jónasson ★★★
Short but suprisingly tense. An homage to Hitchcock where the suspense came in part from knowing Hitchcock's films.
THE FALCON HOTEL by Nadine Matheson ★★★
I've spent a lot of time in airport hotels. This story captures the sense of dislocation that I often experienced in them; of being in a bubble that sealed off from the world. It builds on this to create a sense of threat and finally fear that arises partly from the situation and partly from the slowly dawning realisation that the main character may have lost her grip on reality.
ARLENE by William Boyle ★★★★
I admire the way this started so firmly grounded in an almost mundane reality and then slowly slid first into grief and pain, then into transgression an finally into something almost supernaturally strange. The control of pace and tone was excellent.
Hitchcock also had an eye for talent. He was the first editor to promote Roald Dahl's short stories. He made Patricia Highsmith's debut novel into a movie within a year of it being published. I grew up with his TV series, and I've seen many of his movies, some of them as reruns at the cinema.
The twenty-four stories in this collection vary greatly in style and content, but they each do they're part to evoke the spirit of Hitchcock's movies and TV shows. Not all of them matched my taste, but I'm sure other readers will have different favourites.
Below, I've commented on each story in the order that Maxim Jakubowski presented them. I've rated each story, very subjectively, of course. I rated four as five stars, three as four stars, seven as three stars, two as two stars, and four as one star. There was one I didn't rate because I abandoned it partway through.
STRANGERS ON A SCHOOL BUS by Peter Swanson ★★★
The title told me that this was going to be a twist on Hitchcock's 1951 movie, 'Strangers On A Train', adapted from Patricia Highsmuth's debut novel, 'Strangers On A Train' (1950), but I didn't see the twist coming. It was a clever idea that slowly unfurled as Detective Marchard interviewed teenager Jane Weir about her conversation on a School Bus with Lisa Kelly. The school trip and the teenage bullying were neatly rendered. The reveal was suprising but a little abrupt. Even so, the ending was satisfying.
THE HUNTER by Vaseem Khan ★★★★
I thought I knew where this one was going, right up to the point where it went somewhere else entirely. The ending was shocking and very very good. My whole understanding of the story shifted. It was wonderfully well done.
DANIELLE'S THE DEAD ONE by Sophie Hannah ★
This one didn't work for me. I could see it was meant to be amusing, but I found it tedious. It was a joke that took so long to get to the punchline that I no longer cared. The only part that made me smile was the discussion about whether a director can have more than one masterpiece.
SPLIT YOUR SILVER TONGUE by S A Cosby ★★★★★
Short, intense, surprising, horrifying and memorable. The siutation went from ambiguous to potentially erotic to truly and unexpectedly horrific as smoothly as changing up through the gears on a powerful car.
PSYCHO GEOGRAPHY by Guy Adams ★
There are stories where the words "clever", "artful" and "concept-rich" are not praise. This is one of them. More of a lecture than a story. So laden with semiotics that it collapsed in on itself.
IT'S RAINING VIOLETS by Ana Teresa Pereira ★★★★
This story felt like a dream. Strong emotions. Vivid flashes of detail against a blurred background. A sense of threat or dread from a lack of agency. I didn't understand everything in the story but that was OK. I don't think I was meant to. The man in story, a short story writer, doesn't really live in the present. He lives in his imagination and the shadow cast by his past. He refuses to admit his motives or openly acknowledge his desires. He lives in pursuit of a ghost. I liked that the girl he fixed on saw through him.
LIKE A BUN AT BEWLEY'S by David Thomson ★
I must be missing something. This story made no sene to me. It was like listening to a guy in the pub who thinks he's a raconteur but who keeps losing the thread, adding more swagger than story. I couldn't figure out which Hitchcock movie or TV episode it was inspired by or what the ending meant.
THE BIRDS ON A TRAIN by Lee Child ★★
I liked the set-up of the story: the train journey, the arrival at Hastings, the establishment of the kind of man our assassin for hire was. I wanted to see where it was going to go. Then there was a sudden, unexpected event, and everything was thrown off course, giving a rapid and unexpected ending. The ending was amusing in the context of an Hitchcock-inspired story, but it felt too rushed for me.
THE KARPMAN DRAMA TRIANGLE by Denise Mina ★★★★★
This was excellent. In a single, short video call, Denise Mina told the story of a dysfunctional family AND delivered a tense drama. She even cleverly used the roles in the Karpman Drama Triangle to do it. I'm impressed.
THE MOUNTAIN EAGLE by Xan Brooks ★★★
This tale held me all the way through. It had the feel of a story written in the early 20th Century, when it was set, but with a 21st Century sensibility with regard to how the powerful treat outsiders. Perhaps that's why the 20th Century ending I was expecting didn't happen. Perhaps that was the point.
HICTCHCOCK BLONDES HAVE MORE FUN by Lily Samson★★★★★
A bizarre idea, beautifully executed. It kept me engaged and it kept me guessing. I got some fascinating background on Hitchcock and a story the became more disturbing as it went along.
COAT CHECK by Keith Lansdale & Joe R. Lansdale ★★★★
A mistake by a coatcheck girl at a restaurant is all it takes for the lives of these violent, always-looking-for-an-edge men to unravel. I liked the chaos of it and the feeling of self-imposed doom. Not to mention the open grave in the dark of the night and a small clever twist at the end, like a knife turning in flesh.
KILLING HITCH by Peter Lovesey
I abandoned this one. I can see that the script format is appropriate to something Hitchcock-inspired but it's not engaging which me the, I-know-you-don't-know-what's-going-on-here-but-trust-me pitch harder to land.
THE MARK by Anne Billson ★★★★★
Great first line: "On the whole, he preferred not to have to kill them, but sometimes it was necessary." Dark, clever, orignal and surprising, it was everything Hitchcock was at his best. The surface glittered but everything beneath was corrupt. I spotted the references to "Frenzy" and "Dial M For Murder" but I'm sure there were others that I missed. I loved the calm, quiet cruelty of the ending.
HITCHCOCK PRESENTS by Kim Newman ★★★
This was fun. I loved the dual meaning of the title, the way the main character's job as a lecturer in film provided me with an education in Hitchcock movies while also ratcheting up the tension with each parcel that arrived. It was told with a light touch and at just the right pace.
THE NEST by Jeff Noon ★★★
This was original and creepy but a little too long and, for me, too far-fetched to be engaging.
THE MIGRATORY PATTERN OF BIRDS by M W Craven ★★★
This had the feeling of a Washington Poe Christmas special with a nod to 'Frenzy'. I haven't read the Washington Poe books (I've been put off by people being burned alive in the first one) but that didn't stop m enjoying this story. It was light, fast, ingenious and amusing.
CAMEO by Donna Moore ★★★
Nicely crafted for this anthology, this story is about a filandering film director with a strong preference for his blonde leading ladies, who is carefull NOT called Hitchcock. I liked the tough-cookie character of the vengeful wife, mixed with humorous Hitchcock-related crossword clues, a demonstration of the difference between thriller and suspense and clever ending that I didn't see coming.
EMPIRE BUILDER by James Grady ★
An experiment with form?
With comedic intent?
That went on...
...far too long.
PRIVATE BROWSER by A K Benedict ★★★★
If there was a 2025 version of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, this story would be perfect for it. The plot was clever. The ending was a surprise. The people felt real. I liked that it was a very up-to-the-minute take on murder and finding a killer.
RUSSIAN HILL by Jerome Charyn ★★
A hard-boiled tale with a complex plot with a couple of clever twists. A strong sense of place (San Francisco in a time when men stll wore Fedora's) but the I'm-too-cool-to show-any-emotion movie voice-over style of storytelling meant I didn't connect with any of the people in the story.
CHEST by Ragnar Jónasson ★★★
Short but suprisingly tense. An homage to Hitchcock where the suspense came in part from knowing Hitchcock's films.
THE FALCON HOTEL by Nadine Matheson ★★★
I've spent a lot of time in airport hotels. This story captures the sense of dislocation that I often experienced in them; of being in a bubble that sealed off from the world. It builds on this to create a sense of threat and finally fear that arises partly from the situation and partly from the slowly dawning realisation that the main character may have lost her grip on reality.
ARLENE by William Boyle ★★★★
I admire the way this started so firmly grounded in an almost mundane reality and then slowly slid first into grief and pain, then into transgression an finally into something almost supernaturally strange. The control of pace and tone was excellent.
October 23, 2025
Short stories based on Alfred Hitchcock movies… right up my alley. I especially enjoyed Peter Swanson, Washington Poe and Lee Child’s stories.
December 13, 2025
I love anthologies, and I love Alfred Hitchcock movies, and his old TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I haven't seen all of his movies, or every single episode of the series, not by a long shot, but I've seen quite a few. In fact, the night I started reading this anthology, Psycho was on TV and I just had to watch it again. 🎥
I'm guessing you can see why Birds, Strangers and Psychos appealed to me. They had me at "inspired by Alfred Hitchcock". This collection contains 24 stories, any of which would be right at home on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. They are atmospheric and chilling, with twists you don't see coming. 🎥
While I enjoyed all but one of them, there were a few that stood out:
Strangers by Peter Swanson
The Migratory Pattern of Birds by MW Craven
Cameo by Donna Moore
Chest by Ragnar Jónasson
If you're a fan of short, twisty, psychological thrillers inspired by Hitchcock, then this is the book for you. 🎥
I'm guessing you can see why Birds, Strangers and Psychos appealed to me. They had me at "inspired by Alfred Hitchcock". This collection contains 24 stories, any of which would be right at home on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. They are atmospheric and chilling, with twists you don't see coming. 🎥
While I enjoyed all but one of them, there were a few that stood out:
Strangers by Peter Swanson
The Migratory Pattern of Birds by MW Craven
Cameo by Donna Moore
Chest by Ragnar Jónasson
If you're a fan of short, twisty, psychological thrillers inspired by Hitchcock, then this is the book for you. 🎥
December 9, 2025
Finally got this one finished. Thirty short stories based on Alfred Hitchcock or his films. I don’t think short stories are really my thing. I maybe liked two of the thirty. The others were just meh.
October 12, 2025
I found this book by accident while browsing Overdrive for my library, but a collection of short stories based on/inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock definitely grabbed my attention. On top of that, it featured tales by authors I read - Peter Swanson, Lee Child, Sophie Hannah - plus a couple others I'm familiar with - S.A. Cosby, Joe R. Lansdale, Kim Newman. But what a disappointment the book turned out to be. I have often found that short fiction just doesn't work that well for mysteries and thrillers (Sherlock Holmes aside) and that was mostly the case here. Some authors were ridiculously heavy handed with the Hitch movie references and others were sooooo subtle that nothing about it felt Hitchcockian, save for maybe a "twist" at the end. Even the authors I like had stories that started off interesting, but ultimately failed to stick the landing. From now on I guess I need to just stay away from mystery/thriller short story anthologies because they rarely satisfy.
December 9, 2025
This anthology is a collection of over 20 stories by different authors that pay homage to Hitchcock as a uniting theme. Among the collection are a few standout stories with Hitchcock Blonde Have More Fun, The Mark, and The Migratory Pattern of Birds taking the top spots in my opinion. Averaged out I gave the stories a mean score of approximately 3 stars. Overall the collection was entertaining with a few stories standing out.
Strangers on a School Bus - 3.5 stars. A girl makes a new friend on a bus. Both relegated to be unpopular, and outcasts. Revenge is implimented and a murder is committed.
The Hunter - 3 stars. Kal, a father and his daughter are on a cross country trip across America as they stop in the woods. As bigotry and racism make an appearance, the two are confronted by a pair of unsavory hunters. A woman is found dead in the woods. Will the two escape the killers?
Danielle's the Dead One - 2 stars. A woman calls a policeman over to confess to a crime. She insists that he watch Vertigo before she tells him what she has done. She blames karma for causing her to kill her friend. Despite this it was observed that her friend died without her pushing her under the car. What really happened? Who is to blame?
Split your silver tongue-2 stars. A man visits a grieving mother to collect something her daughter left him after her death.
Psycho Geography-1 star. A madman obsessed with Psycho and its cultural impact decides to recreate it's most iconic scene.
It's Raining Violets- 2 stars. A disillusioned writer blending fact with fiction finds himself a muse.
Like a Bun at Bewley's- 2 stars. An actor playing a criminal in a new role meets the muse in a coffeeshop.
Hitchcock Blondes Have More Fun- 5 stars. An extra becomes obsessed with Hitchcock.
Coat Check - 2 stars. A man and his prospering old friend go to a restaurant and leave with another man's coat. Things spiral out of control as the man claims that they have stolen his coat.
Killing Hitch - 2 stars. Written like a TV script, this short story has to do with Hitchcock being killed off. Who is to blame?
The Mark - 5 stars. A conman and murderer is trying to setup his next con. Who will set who up?
Hitchcock Presents - 3 stars. Alfred Hitchcock themed presents with a date contain references to his films.
The Nest- 1 star. Too weird for me. Slugs that read the subconcious show an alternate reality in which Hitchcock wasn't famous.
The Migratory Pattern of Birds - 5 stars. A police officer and his morticianist wife attend a fancy dinner at an entitled estate. More than meets the eye is taking place at the dinner table.
Cameo - 4 stars. A play on Alfred Hitchcock's love of the Hitchcock Blondes. A disgruntled former actress and her shot at revenge.
Empire Builder - 1 star. I read the words in this short story. I don't know what it was about. Told in a weird way that I couldn't follow anything going on.
Private Browser - 4 stars. Sex worker is privy to a murder. Who dun it?
Russian Hill - 4 stars. A woman is possessed by the ghost of her great grandmother. A man is hired to follow her.
Chest - 1 star. A play on the plot of Rope. Lacked innovation or anything interesting.
The Falcon Hotel - 3 stars. A wife is sure her husband is cheating on her. How much of it is the alcohol and how much is real life?
Arlene - 2 stars. A mother and wife dies too suddenly and her best friend swoops in to take her place.
Strangers on a School Bus - 3.5 stars. A girl makes a new friend on a bus. Both relegated to be unpopular, and outcasts. Revenge is implimented and a murder is committed.
The Hunter - 3 stars. Kal, a father and his daughter are on a cross country trip across America as they stop in the woods. As bigotry and racism make an appearance, the two are confronted by a pair of unsavory hunters. A woman is found dead in the woods. Will the two escape the killers?
Danielle's the Dead One - 2 stars. A woman calls a policeman over to confess to a crime. She insists that he watch Vertigo before she tells him what she has done. She blames karma for causing her to kill her friend. Despite this it was observed that her friend died without her pushing her under the car. What really happened? Who is to blame?
Split your silver tongue-2 stars. A man visits a grieving mother to collect something her daughter left him after her death.
Psycho Geography-1 star. A madman obsessed with Psycho and its cultural impact decides to recreate it's most iconic scene.
It's Raining Violets- 2 stars. A disillusioned writer blending fact with fiction finds himself a muse.
Like a Bun at Bewley's- 2 stars. An actor playing a criminal in a new role meets the muse in a coffeeshop.
Hitchcock Blondes Have More Fun- 5 stars. An extra becomes obsessed with Hitchcock.
Coat Check - 2 stars. A man and his prospering old friend go to a restaurant and leave with another man's coat. Things spiral out of control as the man claims that they have stolen his coat.
Killing Hitch - 2 stars. Written like a TV script, this short story has to do with Hitchcock being killed off. Who is to blame?
The Mark - 5 stars. A conman and murderer is trying to setup his next con. Who will set who up?
Hitchcock Presents - 3 stars. Alfred Hitchcock themed presents with a date contain references to his films.
The Nest- 1 star. Too weird for me. Slugs that read the subconcious show an alternate reality in which Hitchcock wasn't famous.
The Migratory Pattern of Birds - 5 stars. A police officer and his morticianist wife attend a fancy dinner at an entitled estate. More than meets the eye is taking place at the dinner table.
Cameo - 4 stars. A play on Alfred Hitchcock's love of the Hitchcock Blondes. A disgruntled former actress and her shot at revenge.
Empire Builder - 1 star. I read the words in this short story. I don't know what it was about. Told in a weird way that I couldn't follow anything going on.
Private Browser - 4 stars. Sex worker is privy to a murder. Who dun it?
Russian Hill - 4 stars. A woman is possessed by the ghost of her great grandmother. A man is hired to follow her.
Chest - 1 star. A play on the plot of Rope. Lacked innovation or anything interesting.
The Falcon Hotel - 3 stars. A wife is sure her husband is cheating on her. How much of it is the alcohol and how much is real life?
Arlene - 2 stars. A mother and wife dies too suddenly and her best friend swoops in to take her place.
December 10, 2025
An anthology of short stories in the style of and paying homage to Alfred Hitchcock, each one written by a well-known name in the mystery/thriller genre – Lee Childs, M W Craven, Denise Mina, Sophie Hannah and S A Cosby to name but a few. It’s an interesting and entertaining book, featuring inventive variations on Rope, Strangers on a Train, Vertigo and The Birds etc. Some stories work better than others, a couple tried too hard and fizzled and burned, and there were a few outstanding ones that really hit the mark. It’s the kind of book where you need to read a couple of stories, walk away from it for a while and then go back with a cleansed palate, otherwise the high incidence of blondes with bright red lipstick will begin to grate as will the wise-cracking asides. M W Craven’s story will please constant readers as it fits in chronologically with the Poe and Tilly books.
October 27, 2025
I really enjoyed this book. I bought it to read the Tilly/Poe story by MW Craven (and was pleased to see that it sits chronologically between The Final Vow and the upcoming Tilly/Poe 8) but also enjoyed the stories by Lily Samson, Donna Moore and William Boyle.
October 20, 2025
3.5 Entertaining anthology.
Favorite stories:
Split Your Silver Tongue
Karpman Drama Triangle
Hitchcock Blondes Have More Fun
Coat Check
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Favorite stories:
Split Your Silver Tongue
Karpman Drama Triangle
Hitchcock Blondes Have More Fun
Coat Check
Private Browser
October 20, 2025
Closer to 3.5 - some great stories, a lot of good stories, and a few terrible stories.
October 25, 2025
Mostly enjoyed these. Only one story I couldn’t finish, and one I wondered why I bothered.
October 31, 2025
Some bizarre stories great read before Halloween. Boo!
November 5, 2025
I could not get into this book. It was just a little too quirky for me.
December 1, 2025
As with most collections of short stories by different authors, a couple shine, a couple are really bad and the rest are neither one nor the other but mostly instantly forgettable. Some have very tenuous links to Hitchcock. Certainly not my favourite read of 2025.
October 15, 2025
Read this because I liked a couple of the authors
Skimmed a lot of the stories - did not hold my interest for quite a few of the stories. I borrowed it from the library and am glad I didn’t buy it!
Skimmed a lot of the stories - did not hold my interest for quite a few of the stories. I borrowed it from the library and am glad I didn’t buy it!
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