Stories to be Read with the Lights On 29: Who's Got the Lady? by Jack Ritchie

Next up... 'Who's Got the Lady?' by Jack Ritchie. And I am nearly 100% certain I've never read this story before.

Okay, so this was another one that felt a little bit more familiar as I read it. The ending certainly felt like maybe I did remember it after all. But it's hard to tell if I'm just imagining that (again).

It's a neat little art heist story, with a (predictable? or just familiar from previous reading?) twist. Not sure there's a lot more to say about this one!

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 28: Only So Much to Reveal by Joan Richter

Let's see if 'Only So Much to Reveal' by Joan Richter is any more memorable than the last story!

Nope... no memories of this one either! I don't think it's any reflection on the story though, as this one has a good setup and a decent pay-off at the end.

This one feels very Tales of the Unexpected-y (like so many of the others in the book), with the bad guy having the loot he was willing to kill for literally trickle away before his eyes.

But, clearly, it didn't make much of an impression on Teenage Me! It's really very weird finding out what caught my imagination back then and what didn't.

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 27: It's a Lousy World by Bill Pronzini

I'm just pressing on with this now, as I've just realised that it's been nearly a year since I started my reread of this book! The next story is 'It's a Lousy World' by Bill Pronzini.

This one wasn't familiar at all. Hardly surprising, as it's a bit of an anonymous one. Sort of hardboiled, but without any real pay-off. Not one that sticks in your head, I'm afraid.

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 26: The One Who Got Away by Al Nussbaum

The next story in the book is 'The One Who Got Away' by Al Nussbaum. And I know this story! But I feel like I know it from somewhere else, maybe? I don't remember reading it as a teenager. I know what the punchline is though!

Maybe I'm remembering this one from when I first read the Hitchcock book, but if so I'm remembering it very clearly! It feels almost like one of those lateral thinking puzzles... a guy drives over the US/Mexico border each night, but never drives back again. What is he smuggling?

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 25: Ludmila by David Montross

The next story is 'Ludmila' by David Montross. And once again, the title itself is stirring up memories of reading it!

This was a bit weird, as the more I read this one, the less familiar it seemed. I started to think I might have jumbled it up with another story. It was a rollercoaster! First I thought I remembered it, then it seemed unfamiliar, then it came back to me again on the penultimate page.

I liked this one, mostly because it has an unreliable third-person narrator. We're being lied to, but with just enough of a hint to let us work out the real story. There's a verb switch at the end, as though the narrator has made a mistake, that's very clever.

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 24: The Strange Case of Mr Pruyn by William F. Nolan

Moving on... the next story is 'The Strange Case of Mr Pruyn' by William F. Nolan. Let's see if I remember this one...

This one isn't coming back to me. Isn't it weird which ones have stuck in the back of my mind, and which ones haven't?

What an odd little story! I don't remember it at all, but it's a strange one about a man who confesses to a murder. Kinda creepy, but in an off-beat way.

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 23: Crawfish by Ardath F. Mayhar

The next story is 'Crawfish' by Ardath F. Mayhar. The title alone feels familiar... but maybe I'm mixing it up with another story? Let's find out...

Yep... one sentence in and I know I've read this one before!

It's a pretty memorable story, given how downright nasty it is, so it's no surprise this one stuck in my head! It's a bold choice to have such an irredeemably unpleasant first-person narrator as well (I don't believe there's any attempt to evoke sympathy in the reader for him).

I also like the way that the story feels like there might be something supernatural going to happen, but then it resolutely resists this. It's the story of an unpleasant man, and although there's some small justice at the end, there are no ghosts.

In some ways, I feel like that's a more appropriate ending to this brutal little tale. He killed his wife, and she remains dead. She doesn't get to be an all-powerful ghost, because she was a victim of domestic violence that destroyed her. As I say, brutal.

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 22: The Man in the Well by Berkely Mather

Quite a few months have passed since I last read a story from my Hitchcock anthology, but I'm returning to it this week to see if I can finish it. Turns out I'm not great at doing a story-a-day, so let's see if I can binge it instead! So I'm getting back into it with 'The Man in the Well' by Berkley Mather.

And this one doesn't seem familiar at all...

It feels like there's something niggling at the back of my mind, telling me that I have read this one before, that I do know what happens at the end. But maybe I'm imagining it. This one definitely felt more familiar as it went on. But it's such a classic comeuppance-for-an-old-sin story, maybe I guessed the ending rather than remembered it?

I've also read quite a lot of stories where someone betrays their partner in the desert/wilderness for some jewels, so I know that never ends well! But I dunno... I think maybe I do remember reading this one before.

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 21: The $2,000,000 Defense by Harold Q. Masur

I've probably got time for one more story from my Hitchcock reread today. The next story in the book is 'The $2,000,000 Defense' by Harold Q. Masur. This story wasn't as immediately familiar as the previous ones, and I wasn't sure if I remembered reading it before when I started.

After a few pages, this one really wasn't ringing any bells. It's so weird the way I remember some stories and not others.

'The $2,000,000 Defense' is a typical 'Tales of the Unexpected'-type story that's very much in-keeping with the rest of the book. You can sort of see the ending coming, but there's an added sting in the final reveal that might be a surprise. I absolutely knew what was coming with this one, but it's because I guessed the ending, not because I remembered it. 'The $2,000,000 Defense' is a pretty standard story of someone getting their comeuppance. What I liked about it was the way you didn't realize it was comeuppance until right at the end (you think he's just a victim of something bad).

But, I have to say, I 100% do not remember reading this one before.

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 20: Guessing Game by Rose Million Healey

The next story in the book is 'Guessing Game' by Rose Million Healey. And after the last two I was curious to see whether I remember anything about this one. 'Guessing Game' continued my streak... it definitely seemed familiar from the start. It feels like I'm remembering the middle of this book more clearly than the beginning.

A couple of paragraphs in, and this one is totally came back to me. I even thought I remembered the ending! As I continued reading, the story came back clear as a bell. Now I'm wondering (as with some of the others) if I've read it in another anthology more recently. It was just so familiar!

And I was right about the ending. As soon as the creepy kid asked Martha to guess what was in his creepy kid box, I remembered the answer. I wonder why this one stuck so clearly in my head?

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 19: Agony Column by Barry Malzberg

Back to my Hitchcock reread this afternoon... the next story in the book is 'Agony Column' by Barry N. Malzberg. And even before I started reading, this story seemed familiar. It's very much about how people shouted into the void before social media existed. I feel like I definitely remember reading it the first time round.

I'm not sure where 'Agony Column' wants our sympathies to lie. There's a suggestion that we should relate to Martin Miller, who says he's just desperate to be "recognized as an individual" and whose frustration escalates as this doesn't happen. But, on the other hand, Martin Miller is sending unsolicited and sometimes uninformed opinions to a variety of people in an attempt to "correspond" with them. There's an incredible arrogance to his assumption that, if he has an opinion, he must be entitled to an audience.

You could literally reformat this story as a series of tweets, rather than letters, and it would feel very current. Weird to think that the last time I read it, I'd only just got my first email address!

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 18: Payment Received by Robert L. McGrath

I don't know why it's taking me so long to reread this book. Obviously, it's a collection that just wants to be savoured! Well, anyway, the next story is 'Payment Received' by Robert L. McGrath, so time to jump back in. And this one was very familiar. Have I read the story somewhere more recently? It felt like maybe I have.

'Payment Received' is only a short little story (about a slightly strange young boy and a debt to be repaid), but it felt very familiar. I know I've read it before - the details came back to me from the very first paragraph. The question is... am I remembering it from reading this anthology in the 90s? or have I read McGrath's story in another anthology more recently? I genuinely have no idea!

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 17: Killer on the Turnpike by William P. McGivern

I didn't finish my Hitchcock reread in 2021, and it's taken a bit of time to get back to it in 2022... but I'm not giving up yet! The next story in the book is 'Killer on the Turnpike' by William P. McGivern. I thought the title of this one seemed familiar, but I wasn't sure when I started it if I remembered it from before. It's the longest one yet, so there was plenty of time for it to come back to me.

I'm not sure at all if I remembered this one. Every so often I got a little glimmer of almost-déjà vu (like when the killer tips his coffee cup back to get the sugar at the bottom), but it didn't come back much more than that. Admittedly, the bit about the killer having a plan of how to get off the turnpike did seem a bit familiar, so I'm pretty sure I sort of remembered this one, even if the details were very fuzzy.

Even if I don't properly remember reading it the first time round, I enjoyed Killer on the Turnpike. It's a proper cat-and-mouse tale of... well... a killer on a turnpike, and it captures the atmosphere and conditions of the road in a really compelling way.

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 16: Man's Best Friend by Dee Stuart

The next story in my Hitchcock reread was 'Man's Best Friend' by Dee Stuart. I definitely remember reading this one before. This story just felt familiar all the way through, and I could even remember the ending.

It's hard to say where your sympathies are meant to lie with this one. With the wife displaced by the husband's beloved dog? With the dog who is distrusted for no reason (possibly) by the wife? Or with the husband who just loves his pet dog?

I definitely didn't sympathize with the husband. The bit where he tells his wife to give up her career of 25 years because she'd worked 'enough'. But then, I feel like the wife is projecting her feelings towards her husband onto the dog and that doesn't exactly elicit a lot of sympathy. Ultimately, this is a story about a dysfunctional couple with a dysfunctional dog. The ending is nicely unsettling, and it was clearly memorable enough to stick in the back of my mind for decades!

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 15: The Bitter Years by Dana Lyons

On to the next story... 'The Bitter Years' by Dana Lyon. This one felt very familiar, as though I've read it more recently. I don't think I have, though, so I guess it's just one of the stories that stuck in my head more firmly.

This one isn't particularly notable in terms of plot or structure. It's a classic 'Tales of the Unexpected' type of story, where the set-up (a woman looking forward to a happy retirement after 'the bitter years') is turned on its head. And there's plenty of just deserts in the story's ending, as you might expect for a story of this sort. I think this one may have stuck with me because of the writing style. I really like the way this one is told. It's so easy to picture the setting and the woman's life. For such a short story, it's really quite immersive.

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 14: Payoff on Double Zero by Warner Law

The next story I (re)read was 'Payoff on Double Zero' by Warner Law. I had a bit of a reversal with this one compared to the last story. It didn't seem the slightest bit familiar when I started, but the more I read the more I felt like maybe I'd read it before.

I couldn't remember anything more than the fact that the main character (a young man who gets a job at a Vegas casino) was not quite how he seemed, but that memory was a pretty strong one (and an accurate one, it turns out!). Law's story is pretty typical of this collection - and other collections like it. As promised in the title, it has a 'payoff' that's not quite a twist, but still pretty satisfying.

Don't mess with the smartest guy in Vegas is the moral here.

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 13: The Pile of Sand by John Keefauver

On to the next story: 'The Pile of Sand' by John Keefauver. Okay... this one felt really familiar from the off, but I didn't remember it well enough to know where it was going...

It's weird... I had no idea the story was going to end the way it did (and I loved the ending), but all the way through I had a strong sense of familiarity. I think I know why this one might have lodged itself somewhere at the back of my mind though. 'The Pile of Sand' opens with a sandcastle building competition on a beach, and at the time I would've read it we'd had a few family holidays to Cornwall where we often saw sand sculptures on the beach. That probably made that opening more memorable for me.

Keefauver's story is a charming little tale of the unexpected. Or, more accurately, the unexplained. The story is about the effect the titular pile of sand has on the beach-goers, but the pile itself is left resolutely unexplained. (When I say 'charming', I mean it's a story that casts a bit of a spell as you read. It's not cute, by any means, and the ending is just the right amount of unsettling.) I think 'The Pile of Sand' is one of my favourites so far!

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 12: I'd Know You Anywhere by Edward D. Hoch

The next story in my Hitchcock reread was 'I'd Know You Anywhere' by Edward D. Hoch. This one felt vaguely familiar, particularly the opening scene. But I didn't have any strong feeling of it coming rushing back to me as I read on.

It's a thoughtful little tale about war, or rather the cycle of war in the second half of the twentieth century. It starts in North Africa in WWII, travels to Korea, and then to the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, before ending in 1969. The story follows a series of encounters between two soldiers - Contrell and Grove - who serve together in WWII, but who have different ideas about their purpose (and the purpose of the military more broadly).

What I like about it is that, although the reader is generally seeing things from Contrell's perspective, the ending isn't unambiguous. It doesn't definitively state that Contrell's view is the correct one. Unsettling though it might be, Grove might be right about war and the purpose of military action. After all, other characters in the story openly agree with him (and disagree with Contrell's view). So I'm glad I read this one, even if I can't quite remember reading it the first time round. It's a good use of the short story form, and it leaves you with some lingering questions.

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 11: Social Climber by Robert J. Higgins

Okay, so my Hitchcock reread fell by the wayside a bit over the autumn. According to this thread, I haven't read any of the stories since October. Ooops. Time to put that right... I'm determined to finish rereading the book by the end of the year! Getting back into it, and the next story is 'Social Climber' by Robert J. Higgins. And... this one wasn't familiar at all. Nothing came back to me as I was reading it!

I wonder if this one isn't familiar because it's not one of the more memorable stories in the collection? So it might not have stuck in my mind as much as some of the others? Saying that, it's been weird finding out which stories I've remembered and which ones I haven't, so it's not like there's a set of hard and fast rules here.

Anyway, Higgins's story is an okay (if a little bland) tale of a wannabe cat burglar who goes to see the notorious 'King of the Cat Burglars' to persuade him to pull a job. It's quite obvious there's going to be a twist in the tale, and it's pretty easy to guess what that's going to be (though you may not guess the significance of the shoe polish). It's a pretty short and sweet tale, and it's not a bad read by any means. But clearly it didn't make a big impact on teenage me, and I don't think it's made much more of an impact on adult me either!

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Stories to be Read with the Lights On 10: Pin Money by James Cross

The next story in my Hitchcock reread is 'Pin Money' by James Cross. This is another one that feels very familiar. I don't think I've read it again since I was a teenager, but it feels like I might have read/seen something similar. It's the second one where I've wondered if there was a Twilight Zone episode with this plot.

Cross's story about two men who use nefarious means to get a promotion has a really satisfying ending that clearly stuck with me (it came back to me as soon as I started reading the story). But I did also immediately recall being a bit creeped out by the way both men use their wives to try and secure the boss's favour. And frustrated by the way the wives accept this.

But the clearest memory I have related to this story is that I'm sure I read it shortly after I first got interested in stories about Dr John Dee. I'd read a novel about Dee around the same time, I think. 'Pin Money' has an odd little version of Dee (or at least a character called 'Dr Dee') who is very much like the sort of goofy genie characters that crop up in some Twilight Zone episodes.

Isn't weird which stories are familiar on this reread and which ones I've completely forgotten? There doesn't seem to be much of a pattern to it!

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