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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