Don't Look Now and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier

Patrick McGrath's revelatory new selection of du Maurier's stories shows her at her most chilling and most psychologically astute: a dead child reappears in the alleyways of Venice routine eye surgery reveals the beast within to a meek housewife nature revolts against man's abuse by turning a benign species into an annihilating force a dalliance with a beautiful stranger offers something more dangerous than a broken heart.

Less known, though no less powerful, are her short stories, in which she gave free rein to her imagination in narratives of unflagging suspense. In books like Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn she transformed the small dramas of everyday life-love, grief, jealousy-into the stuff of nightmares. Recommended to du Maurier fans.Daphne du Maurier wrote some of the most compelling and creepy novels of the twentieth century. An electronics electronics engineer finds himself in the midst of his most unusual work assignment to date when he is sent to an experimental group at a former radar station. THE BREAKTHROUGH is an old school technological story that seems quaint today. A group of Church of England pilgrims to the Holy Land are the focus of du Maurier's jaded eye. THE WAY OF THE CROSS is an excellent satire. It is the lame story of a girl named Sheila who gets involved with something quite beyond her. It has so many elements I love to see in a story. He's working toward an exhibition and wants nothing more than to paint in solitude, but a loud-mouthed, swearing, drunken 'ugly American' puts paid to that ambition. A school teacher and amateur painter looks forward to a vacation in Crete. NOT AFTER MIDNIGHT is, I think, the most creative story here. Set in Venice, a couple looking for peace find anything but that in this tale of the paranormal, violence, and mystery. DON'T LOOK NOW is well known thanks to the Donald Sutherland - Julie Christie movie adaptation. The one thing that all these stories have in common is that Dame Daphne does not hesitate to put her characters right in the midst of hell. Good collection with moments of brilliance

Don't Look Now and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier