I bought this collection a few months back and then never got around to finishing it until now. Apparently insomnia has claimed me again, and I finally finished some books and put some others on the DNF list. Per usual, here are my ratings for each story in the collection. Overall I gave this 4 stars since some of the stories were baffling to me. I don’t know what message I was supposed to be getting.
“Don’t Look Now” (5 stars)-John and Laura are a married couple trying to rediscover each other after the lost of a child. However, something or someone still seems to be with them. I loved the Gothic elements in this story and the ending.
“Not after Midnight” (5 stars)-This story was a bit long, but I liked how it played out. A school teacher who is away on vacation to Crete starts to realize there is something sinister with a married couple that is located nearby where he is staying. He finds out the person who stayed in his chalet came to a bad end and now he’s wondering if the couple could have had something to do with it. There are some horror/supernatural elements afoot here. I still wonder about the married man. But once again, solid ending.
“A Border-Line Case” (4 stars)-What a long story. A young woman and actress who decides to embark to meet a man that her late father used to be friends with. I was confused for a bit of it and wondered where du Maurier was going with things. But once again, that ending saved things.
“The Way of the Cross” (3 stars)-It started off interesting but then just meandered. Reading about a group of travelers to Jerusalem was not that interesting in the end. I kept thinking something bad was going to befall them and it just felt a bit too like a comedy of errors in the end. Also may be I am too bloodthirsty? I was like, eh no one died.
“The Breakthrough” (4 stars)-I honestly thought this one was very good. We get a nice echo of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with a question of can a soul be captured?
