"Cornell Woolrich's novels define the essence of noir nihilism."-Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review One of Cornell Woolrich's most famous novels, this classic noir tale of a con man struggling with his ability to see the future is arguably the author's best in its depiction of a doome...
this is one of those books that defy the star-rating system, offering a reading experience composed of equal parts fascination and repulsion. it's a noir novel in the true sense of the term, where the protagonist is the victimizer (and, here, also the victim) and the ending is one that offers sat...
I’ve been wanting to read Cornell Woolrich’s “Rear Window,” the story Hitchcock based his film on, since I found a copy of this collection years ago, and finally got around to it. (Apparently, the other four stories in this collection were filmed as episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents…”) Hard ...
Frank Townsend is knocked unconscious by a falling piece of plaster. When he comes to, he wanders home to find his apartment empty and his wife gone. He tracks his wife down to find that three years are missing from his memories and that he ran out on her sometime after the last day he can reme...
"Η νύφη φορούσε μαύρα", εκδόσεις Λιβάνη.Κλασικό αμερικάνικο νουάρ της δεκαετίας του '40, που διαβάστηκε σε λιγότερες από τρεις ώρες μέσα στο λεωφορείο. Είναι το πρώτο βιβλίο του Κόρνελ Γούλριτς που διαβάζω, σαφώς οι εντυπώσεις είναι θετικές, αλλά κάποια πράγματα θα μπορούσαν να γίνουν καλύτερα. Η...
not quite as much carnage as 'rendezvous in black,' still my fave of the 2 woolrich books i've read so far, mainly for the sheer outlandishness & fantastic nature of its bloodshed. despite some obvious cinematic noir conventions (which, admittedly, he helped invent) woolrich's plots are generally...
Black Alibi (1942) by Cornell Woolrich is less a mystery story than a creepy suspense tale. It all starts when a singer's press agent arranges for her to parade up and down the streets of the "third largest city south of the Panama Canal" with a "tame" black jaguar. Kiki Walker is a second-rate A...
Alberta Murray is convinced her husband is having an affair. Imagine her shock when her husband is arrested for his mistress's murder! Alberta happened upon the crime scene before the police and the only clue is a matchbook with the letter M embossed on the cover. She pilfers the victim's addr...
Still reading random Woolrich stories and Inter-library loan supplied me with this, from which I read two stories, "The Corpse And The Kid" and "Walls That Hear You" - although it also contains two stories I've previously reviewed in another collection, so let's repurpose those reviews first..."...
Written in 1948, "I Married a Dead Man" by Cornell Woolrich (1903 -- 1968) is a noir novel of suspense and murder. The book is much more than formulaic genre writing as Woolrich explores themes of guilt, loneliness, and personal identity. The pacing of the story changes masterfully with the vario...
Cornell Woolrich was a favorite of moviemakers: his novels and stories were adapted into more than 25 motion pictures, with Rear Window as probably the most famous. Two (Francois Truffaut’s 1969 film Mississippi Mermaid and 2001’s Original Sin—which, though it is already largely forgotten in whol...
"To get him away from himself," as they would have put it. They had a girl with them whom they introduced simply as Vinnie. That he mightn't want to go out, or if he did, that he mightn't want to go out with them, didn't enter into their calculations at all. They couldn't imagine anyone not wan...
--ROBERT BROWNING CONTENTS BOOK I The Curtain BOOK II The Curtain Lifts BOOK III Behind the Curtain BOOK I The Curtain 1 First everything was blurred. Then he could feel hands fumbling around him, lots of hands. They weren't actually touching him; they were touching things that to...
Jeff," was all he said. First, for awhile, there was no sign of life over there. Then suddenly I saw his head bob up from somewhere down out of sight in the living room, so I knew I'd been right; he'd spent the night on a sofa or easy chair in there. Now, of course, he'd look in at her, to see...
When he came back, ignoring the blazing look she gave him, he said unconcernedly to his partner, "Not a fur in there." But once she'd allowed herself to cool off sufficiently, she understood why he'd done it. He hadn't seriously expected to find anything in there. It was just a psychological tric...
There was a piano, black and neurotic. Giraldy could play and frequently did, light things of the music halls, his ring dashing about over the keys like a mad jewel. He made a captivating host, having a certain male charm about him, very difficult to describe, that made him efface himself as much...