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Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to Be Read With the Door Locked

US hardback

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to Be Read With the Door Locked

  • published in 1975 in the USA by Random House (hardback)
  • 368 pages

Tagline

  • Murder and Suspense That Will Chill, Excite, or Even Occasionally Amuse.

Contents

  1. Introduction by Alfred Hitchcock
  2. Hijack by Robert L. Fish
  3. Tomorrow and ... Tomorrow by Adobe James
  4. Funeral in Another Town by Jerry Jacobson
  5. A Case for Quiet by William Jeffrey
  6. A Good Head for Murder by Charles W. Runyon
  7. The Invisible Cat by Betty Ren Wright
  8. Royal Jelly novelette by Roald Dahl
  9. Light Verse by Isaac Asimov
  10. The Distributor by Richard Matheson
  11. How Henry J. Littlefinger Licked the Hippies' Scheme to Take Over the Country by Tossing Pot in Postage Stamp Glue by John Keefauver
  12. The Leak by Jacques Futrelle
  13. All the Sounds of Fear by Harlan Ellison
  14. Little Foxes Sleep Warm by Waldo Carlton Wright
  15. The Graft Is Green novelette by Harold Q. Masur
  16. View by Moonlight by Patricia McGerr
  17. There Hangs Death! by John D. MacDonald
  18. Lincoln's Doctor's Son's Dog by Warner Law
  19. Coyote Street by Gary Brandner
  20. Zombique by Joseph Payne Brennan
  21. The Pattern by Bill Pronzini
  22. Pipe Dream by Alan Dean Foster
  23. Shottle Bop novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
  24. The Magnum by Jack Ritchie
  25. Voices in the Dust by Gerald Kersh
  26. The Odor of Melting by Edward D. Hoch
  27. The Sound of Murder by William P. McGivern
  28. The Income Tax Mystery by Michael Gilbert
  29. Watch for It by Joseph N. Gores
  30. The Affair of the Twisted Scarf novelette by Rex Stout
US paperback

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to Be Read With the Door Locked - Volume 1

  • published in January 1977 in the USA by Dell Publishing (paperback)
  • 219 pages

Tagline

  • You can't hide from horror when Hitchcock comes with his skeleton keys!

Contents

  1. Hijack by Robert L. Fish
  2. Tomorrow and ... Tomorrow by Adobe James
  3. Funeral in Another Town by Jerry Jacobson
  4. A Case for Quiet by William Jeffrey
  5. A Good Head for Murder by Charles W. Runyon
  6. The Invisible Cat by Betty Ren Wright
  7. Royal Jelly novelette by Roald Dahl
  8. Light Verse by Isaac Asimov
  9. The Distributor by Richard Matheson
  10. How Henry J. Littlefinger Licked the Hippies' Scheme to Take Over the Country by Tossing Pot in Postage Stamp Glue by John Keefauver
  11. The Leak by Jacques Futrelle
  12. All the Sounds of Fear by Harlan Ellison
  13. Little Foxes Sleep Warm by Waldo Carlton Wright
  14. The Graft Is Green novelette by Harold Q. Masur

Inner Page

WHO'S THAT PEEKING THROUGH THE KEYHOLE?

Is it a nasty voyeur, looking for illicit views of depraved sensuality?

Is it a special agent of the CIA hunting for a sinister enemy operative?

Is it some tabloid snoop trying to uncover new Washington scandals?

No, Dear Reader, it's you—squinting with delicious dread at the houseful of horrors that Alfred Hitchcock has designed for your shivery delight. It's a nice place to look at—from a safe distance. But you wouldn't want to die there.

Stories to Be Read with the Door Locked

Fourteen skeletons in the closet

Acknowledgements

  • The editor gratefully acknowledges the invaluable assistance of Harold Q. Masur in the preparation of this volume

Introduction

Good evening.

I trust that you have been profitably occupied since our last meeting. My unemployed Uncle Albert often told me that idle hands lead one to mischief. So I myself have been busy in the interim preparing this new collection for your reading pleasure.

As you well know, I am in the business of entertainment, and in all the long years of relentlessly searching for likely material one's appetite is apt to become jaded. So the discovery of original stories, stories that can excite or delight, that will chill or perhaps even kill, provides a rare gratification.

Now the word "kill" may of course be somewhat of an exaggeration. The printed page is not generally fatal. On the other hand, no foundation or trust that I know of has ever financed any research into this area. It is not beyond the realm of possibility. It is a biological fact that excitement makes the heart beat faster. And an accelerated heartbeat could conceivably pump an existing embolism into some critical artery. This has been known to stop the works completely.

Caution, then, is the watchword. If you are a candidate for so gruesome a fate you should not be here in the first place. This introduction is as far as you go. You should donate this book at once to some worthy charity. I suggest instead that you read Ferdinand the Bull or Little Women.

A final word.

Unlike television, the editing of this volume requires no sponsors. As a consequence, we do not have to waste time listening to peddlers hawking deodorants or denture fixatives that permit octogenarians to chew salt-water taffy. We can get right down to the business at hand.

So, if you please, make sure the door is locked, then doublelock it, turn the page and start to read.

Back Page

HITCHCOCK HAS YOU WHERE HE WANTS YOU

You've drawn the blinds against the night. You've taken the phone off the hook. You've double-locked every door. But if you think you are safe, you're dead wrong. There's no escape once you open this book, and let loose the evil which Alfred Hitchcock has personally packed inside. Here are the most fearsome visitors ever to destroy your defenses and haunt your imagination—in two nerve-twisting novelettes and twelve terror tales...

US paperback

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to Be Read With the Door Locked - Volume 2

Contents

  1. View by Moonlight by Patricia McGerr
  2. There Hangs Death! by John D. MacDonald
  3. Lincoln's Doctor's Son's Dog by Warner Law
  4. Coyote Street by Gary Brandner
  5. Zombique by Joseph Payne Brennan
  6. The Pattern by Bill Pronzini
  7. Pipe Dream by Alan Dean Foster
  8. Shottle Bop novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
  9. The Magnum by Jack Ritchie
  10. Voices in the Dust by Gerald Kersh
  11. The Odor of Melting by Edward D. Hoch
  12. The Sound of Murder by William P. McGivern
  13. The Income Tax Mystery by Michael Gilbert
  14. Watch for It by Joseph N. Gores
  15. The Affair of the Twisted Scarf novelette by Rex Stout

Notes

Links

Image Gallery

Images from the Hitchcock Gallery (click to view larger versions or search for all relevant images)...

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