Will I love Hitchcock?

Probably the #1 challenge for me as a mystery writer is holding the readers’ attention and keeping them engaged from Page One to The End. The answer is: create suspense. Keep the reader wondering What’s going to happen next. Ask unanswered questions. Not so much “Whodunnit?” but the more complex: “What’s going on here?”

This book contains interviews with Alfred Hitchcock, the premier master of suspense, talking to the great director Francois Truffaut and dissecting the how-to of creating suspense. His examples and explanations made me truly understand the choices I make when I structure a plot, a scene, or… show more.

If one wants to hear Hitchcock’s voice, this set of interviews provides the gold standard. The book, which was also important for Hitchcock’s reception, includes discussions of every major film.

Hitchcock talks informally about what his intentions were, how he created individual scenes, and what kinds of meanings lie hidden in the works. Most readers are drawn to Hitchcock criticism after being engaged by an individual film, and they will find welcome orientation here.

I love the films of Alfred Hitchcock. After reading a few pages, I knew this was the book for me.

It’s a series of interviews the French filmmaker François Truffaut had with Alfred Hitchcock about his films. I’ve always wanted to ask Hitchcock questions about his movies, and now Truffaut has done that for me.

How often do you get to sit in on a discussion like this? For example, I was fascinated to learn that the famous shower scene in Psycho took seven days to film with seventy camera setups. All for forty-five seconds of film.

I can be… show more.