I just finished a book called Dial H For Hitchcock by Susan Kandel. It’s part of my “Gosh that’s an intriguing title!” system of choosing books. It worked well with Honestly Dearest, You’re Dead by Jack Fredrickson and pretty well with Crazy Fool Kills Five by Gwen Freeman. Anyway, I am a huge Hitchcock fan, so I thought what’s to loose. Not much. This was a very light, very frothy little book about a woman writing a biography of Hitch and having her identity stolen. She is confused with another person (North by Northwest), taunted by a cell phone (Dial M for Murder), stranded on a deserted highway (NBN again) and dies her hair to look more like another woman (Vertigo). And the reason for all this is not at all what she or anyone else thinks. Not great, but not bad, either. And it’s a series!
What I found really fascinating were
the bits of Hitchcock trivia thrown in. The blue parties, Carole Lombard bringing cows and a cowpen on set after Hitch’s comment about all actors are cattle, and the famous Tallulah Bankhead comment. (Censored) He hated Kim Novak because she wouldn’t fall for his stuff. And he played horrendous practical jokes on his daughter Pat.
All in all, it was a good entry in the interesting title category. I may stick with this plan.
