--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, DJ-Anonyme@... wrote:
>
> Found a stack of Woolriches in a used bookstore
today, picked up every
> one. I suppose I could go into the archives and
reread entries from the
> recent Woolrich month, but I'm lazy. So would anyone
like to recommend
> any of these more highly than others:
>
> Night Has A Thousand Eyes (as Hopley)
> I Married A Dead Man (as Irish)
> Phantom Lady (as Irish)
> Rear Window and Four Short Novels
> The Black Path of Fear
> The Black Curtain
> Rendezvous in Black
> The Bride Wore Black (which I've read)
> Vampire's Honeymoon
>
As I've said several times on this list, Rendezvous in Black
is my favorite Woolrich. Similar outline/arch to Bride but
better detail and execution. I don't recall precisely the
four short novels with Rear Window but (IIRC) that was more
of a "best" collection than the more recent Vampire's
Honeymoon, which was a bit more of the scrapping the bottom.
If my memory is correct then, the Rear Window collection
would be next on my list. Woolrich mixed and mingled short
stories from collection to collection and from one byline to
another. It was hard to keep up and even Woolrich experts
Fred Dannay and Hans Santesson ended up buying as new stories
that had appeared before. Oddly enough, some of his stronger
shorter stories came late in his career. The opposite was
true of his novels.
Phantom Lady has lost some luster because of the many, many
imitations that have come along in the last 66 years but it
still packed some power when I read it and it certainly
maintained a fast pace. Night Has a Thousand Eyes would be my
next choice. I never got into I Married...something put me
off.
I wouldn't recommend reading more than three Woolrich books
in a row unless you have a Suicide Hotline on your speed
dial. Many years ago I loaned a Woolrich novel to a close
friend of mine who was a big mystery fan and wanted to sample
more of the field. He eventually sold his own novel. But his
default mood was a bit down and he could sink into some black
holes. He practically threw the book at me when he returned
it saying that he didn't care what name the book might be
published under, he never wanted to read another one by
Woolrich.
He was a bit extreme but I commonly follow a real downer with
a Wodehouse or one of Westlake's humorous novels.
Richard Moore
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 12 Jun 2008 EDT