I started reading Cornell Woolrich stories and novels in the 1970s. All in all, I preferred Woolrich’s short stories to his novels. He was a master of generating angst and suspense. Just sample some of the classic stories in Nightwebs by Cornell Woolrich (Author), Francis M. Nevins Jr. (Editor).
The problem with Maxim Jakubowski’s Black Is the Night: Stories in Tribute to the Author Who Inspired Hitchcock’s Rear Window involves setting the bar for the stories at the Cornell Woolrich level. That’s really high! To me, the only two stories that reach Woolrich’s quality are Martin Edwards’s “The Woman Who Never Was” and Bill Pronzini’s “The Long Road Down.”
Edwards’s “The Woman Who Never Was” starts with two grifters who are squatting in an apartment in an abandoned building. The woman leaves, saying she’ll be back in 5 minutes. But, she disappears. Her lover searches for her and discovers a world shifting Reality. A very Cornell Woolrich-type story.
Bill Pronzini’s “The Long Road Down” amps up the stress and tension as a man with a dead body in the trunk of his vehicle is trying to reach the work site where he plans to bury the body. Of course, he’s stopped by a policeman despite all his caution. Woolrich would have loved this story!
However, there are more misses than hits in Black Is the Night. There was only one Cornell Woolrich. This tribute volume is proof that his style of storytelling is rare indeed. GRADE: B-
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION / Maxim Jakubowski — 1
Why cornell Woolrich matters / Neil Gaiman — 4
The black window / Joel Lane — 6
Missing sister / Joe R. Lansdale — 8
A thin slice of heaven / Vaseem Khan — 12
Two wrongs / Brandon Barrows — 29
The husband machine / Tara Moss — 38
Black window / Kim Newman — 45
The man in the sailor suit / Nick Mamatas — 51
People you may know / Mason Cross — 84
The woman who never was / Martin Edwards — 75
First you dream, then you die / Donna Moore — 82
Eyes without a face / James Grady — 102
The case of Baby X / Lavie Tidhar — 115
The phantom gentleman / Barry N. Malzberg — 130
Parkview / James Sallis — 133
The lake, the moon and the murder / A.K. Benedict — 139
The jacket / Warren Moore — 151
The woman at the late show / Max Décharné — 162
The bride hated champagne / Paul Di Filippo — 178
Institutional memory / M.W. Craven — 188
Sleep! Sleep! Beauty bright / Charles Ardai — 202
The invitation / Susi Holliday — 221
The long road down / Bill Pronzini — 234
Our opera singer / Kristine Kathbryn Rusch — 244
What happens after the end / Maxim Jakubowski — 262
A shade darker than gray / Joseph S. Walker — 274
Trophy wife / Samantha Lee Howe — 288
Blue moon over Burgundy / O’Neil de Noux — 298
Red / David Quantick — 309
Looking for you through the gray rain / Ana Teresa Pereira — 325
New York blues redux / William Boyle — 338
ABOUT THE EDITOR / 383
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS / 386
A lot of writers I like (Lansdale, Tidhar, Newman, Di Filippo, Sallis, Boyle). I notice a lot of the stories are rather short. I wonder if that could be a problem.
Steve, you are very perceptive! Yes, I found some of the really short stories in BLACK IS THE NIGHT lacking in the Cornell Woolrich suspense–a key element in his work.
I agree with your assessment, but it was a valiant attempt, wasn’t it?
Dan, I’m glad Maxim Jakubowski was able to assemble a tribute volume dedicated to Cornell Woolrich, one of the great suspense writers. But trying to write like Woolrich is a Hard Ask.
I saw this in a book store the other day and while it’s nice to see people keeping Woolrich’s name alive I gave it a pass. I agree with your assessment that Woolrich is at his best in the short story form. Like Lovecraft he had a thick, pungent style that worked best in short doses but became a slog over the course of a novel.
Byron, I really liked the Martin Edwards and Bill Pronzini stories in BLACK IS THE NIGHT. They came closest to a Cornell Woolrich style of story.
It is really hard to alter your style to emulate someone as distinctive as Woolrich-although I have only read two of his novels and none of his stories. These attempts always sound better in the planning stage then the execution. But I guess they earn enough money to make it worthwhile to a publisher.
Patti, I agree with you. The plan to produce a tribute anthology for a distinctive writer like Cornell Woolrich sounds good on paper…but having writers emulate Woolrich stories is a tough task.
It’s essentially the second in a series from the publisher, after last year’s WHEN THINGS GET DARK, an Ellen Datlow-edited tribute volume to Shirley Jackson, which just won Datlow a special award at (oddly enough) the Shirley Jackson Awards. However, that book was hoping to present stories somehow inspired by Jackson, rather than Jackson pastiches…I’ll see if I like this volume better than you have, George. And Woolrich’s novels range a bit, but Woolrich was rarely as over the top as Lovecraft usually was.
Datlow and Jakubowski commented on this post, about their books:
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2022/02/short-story-wednesday-in-tribute-to.html
Todd, I have that Ellen Datlow/Shirley Jackson anthology around here somewhere.
Nice coincidence! I was just looking up Jakubowski’s new collection of stories (THE PERFECT CRIME, edited with Vaseem Khan), and spotted this one. Like you, I way prefer Woolrich’s short stories to his novels. I’ve read all the collections Mike Nevins has done. I will probably at least give this a try, for the Pronzini and Edwards stories for sure.
Jeff, the Pronzini and Edwards stories resonated with me. But, some of the other stories missed the mark.
Cornell Woolrich was a discovery from my very first Bouchercon here in Milwaukee – I think that was 1981.
Mike Nevins did a program on him (Cap’n Bob might remember this) and, right after that, many of his books were reprinted so I didn’t feel bad about not buying some of the pricey older copies in the book room.
I enjoyed them but my sister just couldn’t suspend disbelief; one was all she could stand.
Beth, “Willing suspension of disbelief” is a requirement to enjoy Cornell Woolrich stories. And…a lot of coincidences!
I think I should read some short stories by Cornell Woolrich first, then come back to this book. I have at least one book of his short stories in an ebook edition, and my husband has a copy of Night & Fear.
I would like to read more stories by some of the authors in this book.
Tracy, the line-up of writers for BLACK IS THE NIGHT is impressive. I find Cornell Woolrich stories to be like potato chips: I can’t just stop at one!