M. Keith Booker at the Los Angeles Review of Books:
EDITOR MAXIM JAKUBOWSKI has recently made something of a specialty of compiling collections of stories inspired by the work of his favorite writers, including Cornell Woolrich and J. G. Ballard. In his newest anthology, he has gathered 24 original (commissioned) stories inspired in one way or another by the life and work of Alfred Hitchcock. Such a collection is no surprise given the ongoing prominence in American film culture of Hitchcock’s work and of Hitchcock as an individual. Indeed, while it has now been a century since the release of the first feature film he directed and nearly half a century since his last, Hitchcock remains one of the most widely recognizable names (and silhouettes) in cinema history. In addition, the concept of the “Hitchcockian” is so well established that it provides a perfect starting point for such a themed collection.
It is little wonder, then, that Jakubowski has been able to assemble quite an impressive array of authors who are celebrated in various fields, especially crime and mystery fiction. The stories in the collection are excellent reads in their own right, though Hitchcock’s ongoing aura is such that the real fun resides in discovering exactly how each author has decided to carry out the “inspired by” charge they were given.
More here.
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