14 Suspense Stories to Play Russian Roulette By

by Alfred Hitchcock (Editor)

Mystery

Genres: Short Stories, Horror

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (1899-1980) was an iconic and highly influential film director and producer, who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres.

Following a very substantial career in his native Britain in both silent films and talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood and became an American citizen with dual nationality in 1956, thus he also remained a British subject.

Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career which spanned six decades, from the silent film era, through the invention of sound films, and far into the era of colour films. For a complete list of his films, see Alfred Hitchcock filmography.

Hitchcock was among the most consistently recognizable directors to the general public, and was one of the most successful film directors during his lifetime. He continues to be one of the best known and most popular filmmakers of all time.

Reviews

[Heath Lowrance · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was originally published in 1945 as SUSPENSE STORIES: COLLECTED BY ALFRED HITCHCOCK (making it the earliest) and re-published in 1964 with the addition of two new stories. But right out the gate, this collection is a bit different than the ones that would follow—the stories in it are much older, most of them from the 1930’s, and even one from 1909. If you’re a big reader, many of them will already be familiar to you as classics. In almost all of these anthologies, the introductions by “Alfred Hitchcock” are actually written by Robert Arthur; in this one, however, I’m half-convinced Hitch himself wrote it. But I’m guessing.
First is one of the “new” stories, “Never Kill for Love”, by C.B. Gilford. I’ve learned from past Hitchcock anthologies that Gilford is very reliable. Three men madly in love with an unattainable woman plot to kill her louse of a husband—of course, things go poorly.
In “The Liqueur Glass”, by Phyliss Bottom, a much-put-upon but outwardly-calm housewife poisons her bullying husband for the sake of her unhappy children. This one is oddly charming in its formality of style.
In A.D. Divine’s “Flood on the Goodwins”, a fisherman during WWI is forced by a German spy to ferry him to Belgium on a foggy night, but the fisherman has other plans. An excellent story.
“R.M.S. Titanic”, by Hanson W. Baldwin, stands out because it’s not fiction. It’s a very well-done piece of narrative non-fiction about the fateful night of the Titanic disaster.
Wilber Daniel Steele’s “Blue Murder” is an over-long but ultimately decent story about a seemingly dumb brute of a man tracking the devilish horse who killed his brother. Good ending, but needed to be about half as long. “House of Ecstasy”, by Ralph Milne Farley, appeared originally in Weird Tales, in ’37. It’s about an evil hunchbacked dwarf who hypnotizes men and makes them have crazy sex with a captive woman so the dwarf can watch. Oh, and it’s written in second-person. So there you go. “Fire in the Galley Stove”, by Captain (!!) William Outerson, is about a ship at sea attacked by giant octopuses and the crew behaving as if this is something that happens once in a great while as monstrous tentacles steal them overboard. Frank R. Stockton’s “The Lady, or the Tiger” is probably familiar to you on some level, or at least the phrase it inspired. Not really a story so much as a… I dunno. Open-ended fable? Metaphor?
“Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, by Ambrose Bierce, is of course a classic story. During the Civil War, a man faces hanging by Federal troops, until a seemingly miraculous escape changes everything. This is maybe the third time I’ve read this story in my life, and the last line still packs an enormous punch.
In Margery Sharp’s “The Second Step”, a wealthy young man begins to doubt the steadfast loyalty of his family’s line of Chinese manservants. Some of that casual racism of the ‘30’s, but a very good story for all that.
In “The Blue Paper”, by Albert Payson Turhune, a man picks up a note left by a captivating French woman, but the mysterious message written on it leads him to utter ruin. This is one of the best things I’ve read in a while; in only about a page and a half, it has more impact than most stories that fall in the 20 to 30 page range.
James M. Cain’s “The Baby in the Icebox” is an excellent story about what can go horribly wrong when the owner of a gas station/diner decides to have wildcats, mountain lions, and a particularly vicious tiger as a roadside attraction.
In “The Room on the Fourth Floor”, by Ralph Strauss, a young Englishwoman travelling with her mother in Paris is mystified when her mother vanishes and the hotel staff and everyone else tells her she has been travelling alone.
Rounding out the collection, Stephen Vincent Benet’s “Elementals” answers the question is love stronger than starvation when a sadistic tycoon puts two young lovers to the test.
Stand-out stories: “Flood on the Goodwins”, “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, “The Blue Paper”, and “The Baby in the Icebox”.