A few days ago I wrote about painting a picture with words. Contemporaries (Laura by Caspary was written in 1943 and Rebecca by Du Maurier was written in 1938) it is not the mystery that is commanding but the story, the atmosphere created by the authors, the surroundings described by the authors. I find that Du Maurier’s stories and Vera Caspary’s writings have a similarity in their feel. You see, the stories are all over the place, but once started, I couldn’t put the book down. The Little Photographer is about a vacation liaison turned bad and No Motive is about a suicide. The Apple Tree is about a tree taking revenge. Kiss Me Again, Stranger, the story, is about GIs being murdered.

I’d tell you my favorite story, but they are all so different and as I look at the titles to write this, they all conjure up the story lines and I like them all. I must admit the original story is quite compelling. One is about survival and the other isn’t. That and the fact that Du Maurier wrote the story and the screenplay is almost where the similarity ends. Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds was based on a Du Maurier story of the same name. I did learn something from the book, though. Housed in the mystery section of the antiquarian bookstore Westsider Rare and Used Books on Broadway and 78th Street (give or take a block or two), some stories were mysteries and some were just odd, for lack of a better term. “Where have I been all these years?”, I asked myself. I’d never read Daphne Du Maurier until I read Kiss Me Again, Stranger, a collection of 8 short stories. The ending provoked me even though I knew something like that was coming. The Old Man struck me as being a school assignment. I was done with them long before they were over.

Of the other four, The Little Photographer, Monte Verita, and The Apple Tree dragged for me.

Each leaves you wanting more, thinking beyond the tale, and yet each is a finished story. In my opinion, four of these stories are very strong and perfect short stories Kiss Me Again, Stranger, The Birds, The Split Second (this one did go on too long, and it was repetitive, but a nice story) and No Motive. We see their vanity, pride, greed or envy and the ugly spot it makes in their life simply because the character will not see it. The author is adept at portraying people as they see themselves, but letting the reader see beneath the veneer as well. Not that the stories are particularly scary. Eight in all, they have the creepy, tuck your feet under you so something doesn't grab you under the chair feel. This is one of the better collections of du Maurier's short stories.

Kiss me again stranger