Don’t Look Now

Daphne du Maurier’s occasional volumes of short stories have always shown how compellingly she can make our flesh creep (think of the brilliant ‘The Birds’, and that truly horrifying story ‘Kiss Me Again, Stranger’). This new collection, which contains five long stories, makes exactly the same stunning, sinister impact. Not After Midnight-the title gives warning that here are no cosy tales for reading to a maiden aunt or an elderly cousin.

Venice… Crete… Ireland… Jerusa- lem… East Anglia: the settings are as varied as the plots. A married couple enjoying a holiday in Venice are swept helplessly into a tragedy played out against a back-drop of murky canals and back- alleys. A middle-aged schoolmaster gets involved with an American couple whose fishing expeditions are very far from being what they appear. A young actress, setting out on an impulsive but innocent quest, blunders into a situation which sweeps away all the roots of her youthful self- confidence. One story, subtly mocking, follows the vicissitudes of an ill-assorted little party of pilgrims in Jerusalem; another explores the meaning of life and death in a brilliantly original tale.

Such unremarkable people, following their unexceptionable paths-yet all caught up in situations beyond the boun- daries of their experience and outside their control. Compelling, exciting, this collec- tion shows once again what mastery of the short story Daphne du Maurier has.