Mike Finn’s Reviews > Birds, Strangers and Psychos: New Stories Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock > Status Update
Mike Finn
is 14% 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.
— Nov 08, 2025 03:49PM
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.
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Mike’s Previous Updates
Mike Finn
is 32% done
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.
— 3 hours, 28 min ago
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.
Mike Finn
is 27% done
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 a rapid and unexpected ending. The ending was amusing in the context of an Hitchcock-inspired story, but it felt too rushed for me.
— 3 hours, 35 min ago
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 a rapid and unexpected ending. The ending was amusing in the context of an Hitchcock-inspired story, but it felt too rushed for me.
Mike Finn
is 25% done
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.
— 4 hours, 30 min ago
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.
Mike Finn
is 22% done
A dream like story. Strong emotions. Vivid flashes of detail. A sense of threat/ dread from a lack of agency. I didn't understand everything in the story. That was OK. I don't think I was meant to. The MCman, 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 acknowledge his desires. He lives in pursuit of a ghost.
— 15 hours, 43 min ago
Mike Finn
is 18% done
PSYCHO GEOGRAPHY by Guy Adams ★
TThere 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.
— 17 hours, 24 min ago
TThere 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.
Mike Finn
is 15% done
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.
— 18 hours, 51 min ago
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.
Mike Finn
is 10% done
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.
— Nov 08, 2025 03:45PM
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.
Mike Finn
is 6% done
STRANGERS ON A SCHOOL BUS by Peter Swanson ★★★
A twist on Hitchcock's 1951 'Strangers On A Train', (195) adapted from Patricia Highsmuth's debut novel, but I didn't see the twist coming. A clever idea that slowly unfurled as a dectective interviewed teenager Jane Weir about her conversation on a School Bus with Lisa Kelly. The reveal was suprising but a little abrupt. Even so, the ending was satisfying.
— Nov 08, 2025 05:21AM
A twist on Hitchcock's 1951 'Strangers On A Train', (195) adapted from Patricia Highsmuth's debut novel, but I didn't see the twist coming. A clever idea that slowly unfurled as a dectective interviewed teenager Jane Weir about her conversation on a School Bus with Lisa Kelly. The reveal was suprising but a little abrupt. Even so, the ending was satisfying.
