"Hitchcock Blondes Have More Fun," by Lily Samson, in Birds, Strangers, and Psychos, edited by Maxim Jakubowksi, Penguin Random House, 2025.
As I have said before one of the fun things about themed anthologies is seeing how different authors play with the theme. In a few cases in this book, I don't see the connection to Hitchcock. That's not a problem with this one.
It was written in the stars, my collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock. We met when we were both young and unknown, yet to be appreciated by the public.
Quite an opening paragraph. We soon learn that the narrator, Rebecca (hah) is a bored English housewife. Her big introduction to the Master of Suspense came in 1926 when she was roped in as a last-minute extra in The Lodger. She becomes convinced that she was his favorite extra, as crucial to his movies as his own cameo appearances.
What we're talking about here is obsession about a person, and that is a theme of both Hitch's work and his life, so it is highly appropriate for the book. A very neat story with a lovely bit of foreshadowing (because the Master believed in suspense, not surprise).
