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Literary Noir: A Series of Suspense: Volume One
Literary A Series of Suspense is a collection of some of the finest short stories and novellas Cornell Woolrich wrote throughout his career. Some of the titles within this collection are well known amongst pulp-fiction and noir fans, while some have not been published in decades. Many of these titles have been made into television shows and feature films throughout the 40s, 50s, and 60s, and were the inspiration for many thrillers in the following years. Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich (4 December 1903 – 25 September 1968) is one of America's best crime and noir writers, and sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish or George Hopley. He invented and mastered the genre of "Pulp-Fiction" and wrote hundreds of short stories, novellas and full length novels. One of his most famous stories is It Had to be Murder which was adapted into the classic Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window in 1954. Each Volume within this series was curated thematically to give the reader a straightforward, no-nonsense Woolrich experience. Read at your own risk. Volume One of Literary Noir contains seven thrilling and bone-chilling Woolrich - Murder, Obliquely - All at Once, No Alice - Silent as the Grave - After Dinner Story - Death at the Burlesque - Red Liberty - Preview of Death Follow this title with Literary Noir Volume Out of This World, and Literary Noir Volume Race Against the Clock and Escape! Countless other Woolrich Novels, Novellas and Short Stories are also available as EBooks from the Estate of Cornell Woolrich and Renaissance Literary & Talent.
263 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 4, 2018
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43 people want to read
About the author
Cornell Woolrich
436 books470 followersCornell Woolrich is widely regarded as the twentieth century’s finest writer of pure suspense fiction. The author of numerous classic novels and short stories (many of which were turned into classic films) such as Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Waltz Into Darkness, and I Married a Dead Man, Woolrich began his career in the 1920s writing mainstream novels that won him comparisons to F. Scott Fitzgerald. The bulk of his best-known work, however, was written in the field of crime fiction, often appearing serialized in pulp magazines or as paperback novels. Because he was prolific, he found it necessary to publish under multiple pseudonyms, including "William Irish" and "George Hopley" [...] Woolrich lived a life as dark and emotionally tortured as any of his unfortunate characters and died, alone, in a seedy Manhattan hotel room following the amputation of a gangrenous leg. Upon his death, he left a bequest of one million dollars to Columbia University, to fund a scholarship for young writers.
Source: [http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books_bi...]
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 11, 2024
Because this collection contains two brilliantly crafted pieces of noir fiction, this one automatically deserves five stars simply on the strength of those two masterpieces. Because it also contains some other very good stories, it also makes it not a bad place to start if you’ve never read Woolrich’s pulp fiction and noir suspense.
That being said, I would switch up the reading order from how they are presented in this collection. Begin with All at Once, No Alice, then move on to Silent as the Grave. By the time you finish those, you’ll understand what Woolrich was about, and what he was capable of as a writer. Then you can simply relax and enjoy the various stories that all have something to offer, if not rising quite to the level of those aforementioned two gems of noir fiction.
ALL AT ONCE, NO ALICE
Cornell Woolrich first published this story in Argosy Magazine in March of 1940, under the name William Irish. Romantic, harrowing, and ultimately thrilling, All At Once, No Alice is without doubt one of the most satisfying examples of Woolrich’s genius at creating suspense — even in the shorter format.
A whirlwind romance and a shortage of hotel rooms leads to the unthinkable for a newly married man in this riveting short masterwork. When Jimmy returns in the morning after a night at the Y to pick up his bride from the tiny hotel storage room, she isn’t there. Worse, her name does not appear on the register. Both the clerk on duty that night and the bellboy claim not to remember either of the newlyweds.
With no evidence that she ever existed, the cops think he’s batty, and only their sympathy prevents him from being locked up in the loony bin. But a cop named Ainsley has a wife too, and can’t quite let Jimmy go down the tubes. When a sliver of proof — and that’s all it is, a sliver — is discovered indicating Alice might actually exist, it’s up to Ainsley and Jimmy to find her, and uncover the reason everyone is lying about Alice.
A thrilling ending caps off one of the most satisfying short stories of suspense you’ll ever read. This story is the basis for Return of the Whistler, based on the famous radio show.
SILENT AS THE GRAVE
"It was a night like any other night. The moon was out; and there were stars."
Widely regarded as one of his finest stories, Silent as the Grave is a truly beautifully written and conceived work of noir fiction. There is definitely something literary about it, Woolrich’s narrative rising far above pulp noir and suspense. If Eric Maria Remarque or Hans Fallada had decided to try their hand at noir suspense, while at the same time giving us a poignant look at the effect of the Great Depression on the average couple struggling to stay afloat, they might have come up with something like Silent as the Grave.
The opening scene, like a lot of Woolrich stories, is filled with a touching kind of romance. But immediately he plants the seed for future heartache and suspense through an off-screen murder. It is said murder, and a loving wife’s promise to never throw it back in the face of her beloved, at the heart of this nail-bitingly suspenseful story of a woman having to decide between a promise, and what she can live with when another murder occurs, and suspicion enters her heart.
The stark look at poverty Woolrich paints for the reader and the emotional suspense reaches a crescendo with a decision that will have consequences. To reveal more would be a crime, so I can’t. But there’s a reason this story is so highly regarded by fans and critics alike. You’ll never forget it.
AFTER DINNER STORY
Black Mask published this in January of 1938 and it was wildly popular. The beginning of After-Dinner Story, as a group of people are trapped in an elevator which has crashed is very exciting. It is the dinner party thrown by someone who has invited all the survivors, however, which becomes enthralling. After Dinner Story has a fabulous ending, and Woolrich later used it as the title of a collection.
DEATH AT THE BURLESQUE
This one first found the public in the June issue of Detective Fiction Weekly of 1941. A really good noir about cops taking a terrible, almost cavalier chance with someone’s life in order to catch a murderer. Something in here which I won’t talk about was Ian Fleming’s inspiration for Goldfinger.
PREVIEW OF DEATH
Martha Mansfield’s tragic demise on the set of The Warren’s of Virginia was the basis for this Woolrich story from Dime Detective in November of 1934. Woolrich would tweak this one and release it in a different form in one of his collection in the 1950s. Though well written, it’s more famous I believe for the thinly veiled fictional account of the actual freak tragedy. Still a good read, just not my favorite here.
RED LIBERTY
Originally slated to appear in a collection of stories about New York called Landmark Series, which never made it to print, this terrific little Woolrich gem was published in Dime Detective in July of 1935. It is a very fun pulp read which works as a detective story, a mystery, and a short story of suspense. Like Preview of Death, Woolrich gave Red Liberty a facelift in the 1950s and retitled it The Corpse in the Statue of Liberty. Red Liberty in its original form, however, remains a very enjoyable short pulp story.
Second-grade Detective Denton’s nagging wife, Katie, thinks he’s a lowbrow. She further believes it’s preventing him from moving up faster in the ranks, and suggests he spend some time appreciating statues, of all things. To appease her he hops the ferry to the biggest statue he can think of, the Statue of Liberty. On his way up he meets a wheezing fat man and has a bonding moment with him when he discovers the petite woman he’s with is always pushing him to do such things.
The moment becomes important when the young woman arrives at the top, but the fat man does not. Turns out he doesn’t arrive at the bottom either — not even by the quick but deadly scenic route. When Denton finds the fat man’s hat, he knows in his gut something is terribly wrong.
What follows is a fast-flowing and fun-to-read mystery as the second-grade detective, unsure of himself and his abilities at first, slowly comes into his own trying to discover what happened to the man. When Denton finally discovers what happened to the fat man, the story really takes wing, as the detective decides to figure it out before the Feds become involved.
Red Liberty is a nifty little gem for my money. It has a very 1930s New York vibe, and nice touches like Denton calling the elevator operator Suicide Johnny, because the young man would be almost grateful for a jumper, just to relieve his boredom.
What’s that strange thing the alleged wife wrote at the top of the Statue of Liberty? Can Denton figure it all out and make the collar before the Feds become involved? If he does, will it give him the confidence he needs?
In tone and pacing Red Liberty is a cross between Woolrich’s Mystery in Room 913, and Death Sits in the Dentist’s Chair. Definitely one that any true Woolrich fan won’t want to miss.
MURDER, OBLIQUELY
“Jean collects people, as a velvet evening wrap collects lint.”
This time out, we get the rewrite, as the first incarnation of this story was Death Escapes the Eye, from The Shadow Mystery Magazine of 1947. As mentioned in the forward to this one, it was one of the last stories where Woolrich chose to tell the story from the woman’s point of view — Annie Ainsley — because it suited the story best.
Murder, Obliquely is at once a tremendously fine piece of writing, but also a story that feels, well, oblique. It’s murder alright, but the reader comes at it sideways, and the angle is so sharp and obscuring neither we, nor the protagonist, ever see a body. No one is arrested, and perhaps never will be. Yet we know…
Annie Ainsley’s friend Jean Medill. Jean is married to Cipher, but quite cavalier about her flirtations. This leads to a friendly rivalry of sorts over Dwight Billings, whom Annie can easily see is in love with a gold digger. And of course, Annie falls desperately in love with him.
A door in a hallway, and a tremendously well written scene as Annie reveals her feelings to Dwight are the real highlights of this novelette. The ending remains true to the title. Though I’d have much preferred a more conclusive, traditional ending, and this isn’t a favorite of mine from the Woolrich canon, in it’s own way this is a stunning piece of short fiction.
SUMMATION
A must-have for Silent as the Grave and All at Once No Alice, everything else here is just a bonus, with Red Liberty being the most fun in my opinion, followed closely by After Dinner Party. Top-notch stuff.
That being said, I would switch up the reading order from how they are presented in this collection. Begin with All at Once, No Alice, then move on to Silent as the Grave. By the time you finish those, you’ll understand what Woolrich was about, and what he was capable of as a writer. Then you can simply relax and enjoy the various stories that all have something to offer, if not rising quite to the level of those aforementioned two gems of noir fiction.
ALL AT ONCE, NO ALICE
Cornell Woolrich first published this story in Argosy Magazine in March of 1940, under the name William Irish. Romantic, harrowing, and ultimately thrilling, All At Once, No Alice is without doubt one of the most satisfying examples of Woolrich’s genius at creating suspense — even in the shorter format.
A whirlwind romance and a shortage of hotel rooms leads to the unthinkable for a newly married man in this riveting short masterwork. When Jimmy returns in the morning after a night at the Y to pick up his bride from the tiny hotel storage room, she isn’t there. Worse, her name does not appear on the register. Both the clerk on duty that night and the bellboy claim not to remember either of the newlyweds.
With no evidence that she ever existed, the cops think he’s batty, and only their sympathy prevents him from being locked up in the loony bin. But a cop named Ainsley has a wife too, and can’t quite let Jimmy go down the tubes. When a sliver of proof — and that’s all it is, a sliver — is discovered indicating Alice might actually exist, it’s up to Ainsley and Jimmy to find her, and uncover the reason everyone is lying about Alice.
A thrilling ending caps off one of the most satisfying short stories of suspense you’ll ever read. This story is the basis for Return of the Whistler, based on the famous radio show.
SILENT AS THE GRAVE
"It was a night like any other night. The moon was out; and there were stars."
Widely regarded as one of his finest stories, Silent as the Grave is a truly beautifully written and conceived work of noir fiction. There is definitely something literary about it, Woolrich’s narrative rising far above pulp noir and suspense. If Eric Maria Remarque or Hans Fallada had decided to try their hand at noir suspense, while at the same time giving us a poignant look at the effect of the Great Depression on the average couple struggling to stay afloat, they might have come up with something like Silent as the Grave.
The opening scene, like a lot of Woolrich stories, is filled with a touching kind of romance. But immediately he plants the seed for future heartache and suspense through an off-screen murder. It is said murder, and a loving wife’s promise to never throw it back in the face of her beloved, at the heart of this nail-bitingly suspenseful story of a woman having to decide between a promise, and what she can live with when another murder occurs, and suspicion enters her heart.
The stark look at poverty Woolrich paints for the reader and the emotional suspense reaches a crescendo with a decision that will have consequences. To reveal more would be a crime, so I can’t. But there’s a reason this story is so highly regarded by fans and critics alike. You’ll never forget it.
AFTER DINNER STORY
Black Mask published this in January of 1938 and it was wildly popular. The beginning of After-Dinner Story, as a group of people are trapped in an elevator which has crashed is very exciting. It is the dinner party thrown by someone who has invited all the survivors, however, which becomes enthralling. After Dinner Story has a fabulous ending, and Woolrich later used it as the title of a collection.
DEATH AT THE BURLESQUE
This one first found the public in the June issue of Detective Fiction Weekly of 1941. A really good noir about cops taking a terrible, almost cavalier chance with someone’s life in order to catch a murderer. Something in here which I won’t talk about was Ian Fleming’s inspiration for Goldfinger.
PREVIEW OF DEATH
Martha Mansfield’s tragic demise on the set of The Warren’s of Virginia was the basis for this Woolrich story from Dime Detective in November of 1934. Woolrich would tweak this one and release it in a different form in one of his collection in the 1950s. Though well written, it’s more famous I believe for the thinly veiled fictional account of the actual freak tragedy. Still a good read, just not my favorite here.
RED LIBERTY
Originally slated to appear in a collection of stories about New York called Landmark Series, which never made it to print, this terrific little Woolrich gem was published in Dime Detective in July of 1935. It is a very fun pulp read which works as a detective story, a mystery, and a short story of suspense. Like Preview of Death, Woolrich gave Red Liberty a facelift in the 1950s and retitled it The Corpse in the Statue of Liberty. Red Liberty in its original form, however, remains a very enjoyable short pulp story.
Second-grade Detective Denton’s nagging wife, Katie, thinks he’s a lowbrow. She further believes it’s preventing him from moving up faster in the ranks, and suggests he spend some time appreciating statues, of all things. To appease her he hops the ferry to the biggest statue he can think of, the Statue of Liberty. On his way up he meets a wheezing fat man and has a bonding moment with him when he discovers the petite woman he’s with is always pushing him to do such things.
The moment becomes important when the young woman arrives at the top, but the fat man does not. Turns out he doesn’t arrive at the bottom either — not even by the quick but deadly scenic route. When Denton finds the fat man’s hat, he knows in his gut something is terribly wrong.
What follows is a fast-flowing and fun-to-read mystery as the second-grade detective, unsure of himself and his abilities at first, slowly comes into his own trying to discover what happened to the man. When Denton finally discovers what happened to the fat man, the story really takes wing, as the detective decides to figure it out before the Feds become involved.
Red Liberty is a nifty little gem for my money. It has a very 1930s New York vibe, and nice touches like Denton calling the elevator operator Suicide Johnny, because the young man would be almost grateful for a jumper, just to relieve his boredom.
What’s that strange thing the alleged wife wrote at the top of the Statue of Liberty? Can Denton figure it all out and make the collar before the Feds become involved? If he does, will it give him the confidence he needs?
In tone and pacing Red Liberty is a cross between Woolrich’s Mystery in Room 913, and Death Sits in the Dentist’s Chair. Definitely one that any true Woolrich fan won’t want to miss.
MURDER, OBLIQUELY
“Jean collects people, as a velvet evening wrap collects lint.”
This time out, we get the rewrite, as the first incarnation of this story was Death Escapes the Eye, from The Shadow Mystery Magazine of 1947. As mentioned in the forward to this one, it was one of the last stories where Woolrich chose to tell the story from the woman’s point of view — Annie Ainsley — because it suited the story best.
Murder, Obliquely is at once a tremendously fine piece of writing, but also a story that feels, well, oblique. It’s murder alright, but the reader comes at it sideways, and the angle is so sharp and obscuring neither we, nor the protagonist, ever see a body. No one is arrested, and perhaps never will be. Yet we know…
Annie Ainsley’s friend Jean Medill. Jean is married to Cipher, but quite cavalier about her flirtations. This leads to a friendly rivalry of sorts over Dwight Billings, whom Annie can easily see is in love with a gold digger. And of course, Annie falls desperately in love with him.
A door in a hallway, and a tremendously well written scene as Annie reveals her feelings to Dwight are the real highlights of this novelette. The ending remains true to the title. Though I’d have much preferred a more conclusive, traditional ending, and this isn’t a favorite of mine from the Woolrich canon, in it’s own way this is a stunning piece of short fiction.
SUMMATION
A must-have for Silent as the Grave and All at Once No Alice, everything else here is just a bonus, with Red Liberty being the most fun in my opinion, followed closely by After Dinner Party. Top-notch stuff.
February 5, 2022
Good to see Cornell Woolrich back on the shelves again courtesy of this new publisher. This edition collects a number of Whodunnit Noir short stories, some I had read before, others that were new to me.
November 2, 2024
Literary Noir: A Series of Suspense. Volume 1. Cornell Woolrich. 2020.
Woolrich's Night has a Thousand Eyes (1945) was one of the first crime novels I read in my youth. After having read some Agatha Christie, but before venturing into the works of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and their heirs. It hooked me on the genre. This is the first of a three volume set that focuses on short stories and novellas of Cornell Woolrich. The titles included in this volume are:
Murder, Obliquely (1958)
All at Once, No Alice (1940)
Silent as the Grave (1946)
After Dinner Story (1944)
Death at the Burlesque (1941)
Red Liberty (1935)
Preview of Death (1934)
This was the first time I've read his short fiction (Night, my introduction, was a full-length novel). He manages to do some fairly decent characterization with an economy of words. My personal favorites were the first two stories, Murder, Obliquely and All at Once, No Alice, but I enjoyed every one. There was a facing page for each story that included publication history and other interesting bits, which I found complimentary to my reading experience.
I will likely pick up the other two volumes in this series at some point.
Woolrich's Night has a Thousand Eyes (1945) was one of the first crime novels I read in my youth. After having read some Agatha Christie, but before venturing into the works of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and their heirs. It hooked me on the genre. This is the first of a three volume set that focuses on short stories and novellas of Cornell Woolrich. The titles included in this volume are:
Murder, Obliquely (1958)
All at Once, No Alice (1940)
Silent as the Grave (1946)
After Dinner Story (1944)
Death at the Burlesque (1941)
Red Liberty (1935)
Preview of Death (1934)
This was the first time I've read his short fiction (Night, my introduction, was a full-length novel). He manages to do some fairly decent characterization with an economy of words. My personal favorites were the first two stories, Murder, Obliquely and All at Once, No Alice, but I enjoyed every one. There was a facing page for each story that included publication history and other interesting bits, which I found complimentary to my reading experience.
I will likely pick up the other two volumes in this series at some point.
September 14, 2023
A magnificent Cornell Woolrich collection containing two masterpieces ("All at Once, No Alice" and "Silent as the Grave") and one respectable favorite ("After Dinner Story"). But about those masterpieces. "All at One, No Alice" not only sees Woolrich at the top of his game with the identity uprooted trope, but he throws in some of the wackiest twists you'll see in any noir story. "Silent as the Grave" is a brilliant tale showing the fine line between "hysteria" and fidelity. "Murder, Obliquely" sends up high society and almost reads as if John Cheever wrote for ARGOSY. If you're looking for an introduction to Woolrich, you can do no wrong with this volume. It's terrific!
Read
April 27, 2024The first of a three volume set of CW’s short stories and Novellas, this volume, which appears to be the best of the three, contains the two great stories: “All At Once, No Alice” (1940) and “Silent As the Grave” (1945). The latter is especially effective. The five additional stories, which I have not read, seem to be a variable quality.
August 18, 2021
I have read some Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Sayers and other well-known names but none of them has has caused me so much enjoyment and admiration as Cornell Woolrich, and he is not at all well-known. How these things happen, I'm not entirely sure, but Cornell Woolrich certainly merits much more attention. I am a fan. I much prefer his novels but, since quite a few of them are out of print, I make do with his short stories which have recently been gathered into three volumes. This is volume one.
Woolrich was mainly writing in the 1930s and 40s when I was not born yet. And I have never lived in America. Hence it is very interesting to read about the burlesque theatre atmosphere ("Death at the Burlesque") and about lift shafts ("The After Dinner Story"). He is altogether very strong on detail (superb description of the Statue of Liberty in "Red Liberty" and the film studio floor in "Preview of Death"). My favourite in this collection is "Silent as the Grave" - I found it very moving, accelerating the heroine's sense of panic as it was.
Perhaps the world has moved on and nobody wants to read about suspense. Maybe "suspense" is altogether an old-fashioned word now that we have stories about "grisly" murders and seem to appreciate the gore that goes with it. Woolrich's murders do not fit into "cosy" genre either. And as far as I am concerned, Woolrich provides a rich tapestry of characters of the era I don't know. The best of all, however, are his surprises.
Try him.
Woolrich was mainly writing in the 1930s and 40s when I was not born yet. And I have never lived in America. Hence it is very interesting to read about the burlesque theatre atmosphere ("Death at the Burlesque") and about lift shafts ("The After Dinner Story"). He is altogether very strong on detail (superb description of the Statue of Liberty in "Red Liberty" and the film studio floor in "Preview of Death"). My favourite in this collection is "Silent as the Grave" - I found it very moving, accelerating the heroine's sense of panic as it was.
Perhaps the world has moved on and nobody wants to read about suspense. Maybe "suspense" is altogether an old-fashioned word now that we have stories about "grisly" murders and seem to appreciate the gore that goes with it. Woolrich's murders do not fit into "cosy" genre either. And as far as I am concerned, Woolrich provides a rich tapestry of characters of the era I don't know. The best of all, however, are his surprises.
Try him.
July 8, 2021
Such a superb collection. I think I have a new short story to stick into my top-5 best stories ever, which is "Murder, Obliquely." (After the fact I found there's a 30-minute mini-movie based on it, with Alan Rickman) A masterpiece.
June 22, 2019
Typical great stories by Woolrich. Disappointed to learn, when I purchased the e book, that there was only one story I hadn't read. Seems that the same stories are in most of the books. I'd like to see a publisher put out the complete short stories.Would have be several volumes. His bibliography lists probably two hundred plus, along with several novels.
July 19, 2020
Really more like 4.5 stars.
Woolrich is just really good at writing short-story noir. Most of these are told from the vantage point of one person (even those that are not strictly first-person); there’s even one that is told where the first-person is female, a little unusual for Woolrich (and probably any other mid-20th century male writer), but it works quite well. Most are also of the form of a crime being committed (or attempted) where it is at first basically impossible to see how (or even whether) it was committed. They’re all good. And not really dated (well, the vocabulary a little), though they were all written before 1950 or so.
(A few spoilers below)
There’s Murder Obliquely (written in 1st-person female) where the narrator falls for a man who has fallen for another woman who seems to have been only after his money---did he kill her? Then All at Once, No Alice, where a new bride seems to have completely vanished, with little evidence she ever existed. Then Silent as the Grave (also told from the vantage point of a woman, but 3rd person), where a fully devoted wife is convinced her husband killed his old boss, in the midst of the Depression, where he needs a job but is disliked by said boss. Then After Dinner Story, where one man in a group of strangers dies of a gunshot wound in the midst of an elevator failure---the deceased’s father is convinced it’s murder, though the cops say suicide. Then Death at the Burlesque, where a stripper dies because the paint she covers her body with asphyxiates her (and inspired Ian Fleming to use the same mode of death in Goldfinger). Then Red Liberty, where our hero discovers and investigates a murder inside the Statue of Liberty. Finally, Preview of Death (probably the weakest of the bunch) where a cop assigned to bodyguard a movie star has to figure out how she spontaneously combusted in full view on camera,
Woolrich is just really good at writing short-story noir. Most of these are told from the vantage point of one person (even those that are not strictly first-person); there’s even one that is told where the first-person is female, a little unusual for Woolrich (and probably any other mid-20th century male writer), but it works quite well. Most are also of the form of a crime being committed (or attempted) where it is at first basically impossible to see how (or even whether) it was committed. They’re all good. And not really dated (well, the vocabulary a little), though they were all written before 1950 or so.
(A few spoilers below)
There’s Murder Obliquely (written in 1st-person female) where the narrator falls for a man who has fallen for another woman who seems to have been only after his money---did he kill her? Then All at Once, No Alice, where a new bride seems to have completely vanished, with little evidence she ever existed. Then Silent as the Grave (also told from the vantage point of a woman, but 3rd person), where a fully devoted wife is convinced her husband killed his old boss, in the midst of the Depression, where he needs a job but is disliked by said boss. Then After Dinner Story, where one man in a group of strangers dies of a gunshot wound in the midst of an elevator failure---the deceased’s father is convinced it’s murder, though the cops say suicide. Then Death at the Burlesque, where a stripper dies because the paint she covers her body with asphyxiates her (and inspired Ian Fleming to use the same mode of death in Goldfinger). Then Red Liberty, where our hero discovers and investigates a murder inside the Statue of Liberty. Finally, Preview of Death (probably the weakest of the bunch) where a cop assigned to bodyguard a movie star has to figure out how she spontaneously combusted in full view on camera,
June 21, 2023
Cornell Woolrich was one of those American authors, like Edgar Allan Poe and Dashiell Hammett, who had the misfortune to be dismissed as genre writers in their own country while in Europe they finally found (posthumously) the respect they deserved. Make no mistake. Woolrich was a master stylist. No other author has ever managed to recreate in a reader's mind the heartclutching sense of terror his stories inspired. The best of them are masterpieces of psychological insight.
April 19, 2023
Good, strong noir. Not a single dud. One interesting thing is that one story published in 1941 features
‘skin suffocation’ from the victim being covered with a gold leaf solution…much like in ‘Goldfinger’ written 18 years later.
‘skin suffocation’ from the victim being covered with a gold leaf solution…much like in ‘Goldfinger’ written 18 years later.
March 2, 2025
Another winner for Woolrich
I have read multiple stories by Cornell Woolrich and he was a truly gifted writer. Each story is so unique and intriguing. He is the King of Film Noir style stories in my humble opinion.
I have read multiple stories by Cornell Woolrich and he was a truly gifted writer. Each story is so unique and intriguing. He is the King of Film Noir style stories in my humble opinion.
January 22, 2020
Noir at its finest
Great short stories. A trip back in the golden age of noir. A fun read that goes by to fast.
Great short stories. A trip back in the golden age of noir. A fun read that goes by to fast.
July 18, 2020
Good stories with twists on twists.
November 26, 2022
My first Woolrich and I loved it. He was crazy prolific, so I'll definitely be back for me and soon.
June 16, 2021
An interesting collection of stories.
This is a plot that keeps one ooo-ing and ahh-ing over the twist, and an ending that surprises.
🟣
This is a plot that keeps one ooo-ing and ahh-ing over the twist, and an ending that surprises.
🟣
July 12, 2020
3.5 Stars Overall
This a great collection of whodunit stories. Most of the stories had good intrigue and twists. My favorite stories were All at Once, No Alice, Silent as the Grave, and After Dinner Story.
This a great collection of whodunit stories. Most of the stories had good intrigue and twists. My favorite stories were All at Once, No Alice, Silent as the Grave, and After Dinner Story.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews