Don’t Look Now and Other Stories is a collection of five short stories, most of which have a touch of suspense or the supernatural in them.

Don’t Look Now is quite chilling. It’s the best story of the book. The climax was completely surprising. One of the best supernatural/suspense tales I’ve ever read.

Not after Midnight is long drawn out and rather uninteresting. The climax is dull too. Yes, there are the occasional thrills but overall it is not as good as I had expected.

A Border-line Case was nauseating. It aspires to be a romance, a mystery, a political thriller but ends up being nothing but cheap. Its female protagonist is just plain silly. Her imaginary picture of Ireland is laughable to say the least. My point is, I don’t enjoy reading about women who behave like absolute nitwits. The ending left me feeling repulsed.

The Way of the Cross is more of a morality tale than anything else. It is the story about a group of people who have ordinary problems and instead of solving their problems try to find easy fixes for them. They end up finding redemption (at least for the time being) in the holy city of Jerusalem. The only one who is left untouched is the child, who is yet innocent of any crime. This story, though not keeping with the rest of the book, is quite nice.

The Breakthrough is a science fiction-style story. I have read stories like this before. It is nothing unique. But it is fairly enjoyable.

Overall, the best story in Don’t Look Now and Other Stories is the eponymous Don’t Look Now. The Way of the Cross and The Breakthrough are above average and enjoyable. Not after Midnight is just about okay while A Border-line Case is utterly unpleasant (well, for me at least). The book is above average for me. ( )

I have always enjoyed the works of du Maurier. She has a special talent for capturing the emotions of her characters while telling twisted tales. This book is a collection of five of her short stories.

Don't Look Now - A man and his wife happen on psychic twins who warn them of impending doom. But sometimes warnings can be misinterpreted...

The Breakthrough - Science is science...until it crosses into the realm of the truly unknown. Then what does it become?

Not After Midnight - Is it murder to kill a murderer? And what do you do when faced with the facts?

A Border-Line Case - Love is a beautiful emotion...until it is twisted by the truth.

The Way of the Cross - Pride goeth before the fall...and sometimes we fall all on our own.

Interesting reading, sometimes dark, sometimes with a bit of humor...or horror. You decide which. ( )

John and Laura lost their daughter. They went to trip because they wanted to forget about that. They met strange old sisters at the place where they are staying, Venice. The sisters said a message and that makes them confusion.
This story is really mysterious from first to last. I like this story. ( )

DuMaurier's short stories, the source for so many films, including The Birds, are gems. She is a gifted writer at building suspense and creating an eerie or disconcerting atmosphere.

Yet she also seems to tap into deeper human fears and her novels and short stories far surpass other writers of thrillers.

The Birds in particular is strikingly different than the film. Set in a remote British coastal town not long after the end of World War II the fears the bird evokes in the war veteran narrator resonate with his war experiences while still maintaining the mystery and fear of nature gone awry and at odds with humans.

The other stories include a woman who leaves her house and returns to find other people living there, a woman who recovers from eye surgery only to see the beast within others, a couple with escaping their grief over a dead child in Italy end up having an appointment in Samara.

DuMaurier's success has perhaps overshadowed her consummate skill as a writer and it is worth rediscovering that skill in these short stories. ( )

Well-written, well constructed, patient stories that nearly all veer into the supernatural. Some border on gimicks and a few are twilight zone material (one, "Blue Lenses," actually was made into a Twilight Zone episode). At least one exquisite little tale "La Sainte-Vierge" comes to perfect closure and then tacks on a superfluous "explanation" of something that is otherwise fully explained by the story itself. Such sporadic moments of questionable taste exihibit Du Maurier's populism, which otherwise works to her credit. "Don't Look Now" is perfect, and "The Birds" is horrifying in a very different way than Hitchcock's interpretation; "Split Second" and "Kiss Me Again Stranger" are very good. ( )