One name springs to mind when we think of classic suspense films; Alfred Hitchcock. His silhouette is instantly recognisable as no one else has quite the same pouty lips and round, chubby face. The way he posed for photographs and his penchant for making cameo appearances in his films bear witness to his larger-than-life personality, but it was his ability to tell a spellbinding tale coupled with his technical brilliance that earned him the epithet of "Master of Suspense". His groundbreaking use of camera movement and the way he framed shots to maximise anxiety and fear place films like "Vertigo" among the very finest examples of creative achievement ever produced within the seventh art. In "Rear Window", he builds edge-of-your-seat tension by placing us in James Stewart's wheelchair and making us watch events unroll through his eyes, and the use of cutting-edge special effects in "The Birds" is almost as impressive as the fact that more than three thousand birds were trained for the film. What else do these three films mentioned have in common, along with "Psycho" and "Rebecca" and so many others? That's right...they were based on novels or short stories; the written word. In "A Hint of Hitchcock", we turn our attention back from the screen to the page, and bring you, the avid suspense reader, modern tales that chill and surprise, all inspired by the work of the master of suspense. Better Not Look Down - Josh Pachter, Golden Curls - Rebecca A. Demarest, More Than Suspicion - Joseph S. Walker, Paranoia - Paulene Turner, The Suitcase - Jason Fischer, Rebecca Redux - Elizabeth Elwood, Highwayman's Hitch - Cameron Trost, Relish - David Carroll, Karma is a Thief in the Night - Roger Johns, Scallion's Head - H.K. Stubbs, Closed Circuit - Mark Blackham, Vault - Andy Rausch

A Hint of Hitchcock: Stories Inspired by the Master of Suspense

Literature & Fiction

CARROLL, David

Elwood, Elizabeth

Pachter, Josh

Demarest, Rebecca A.

Walker, Joseph S.

Johns, Roger

Trost, Cameron

Turner, Paulene

Rausch, Andy

Fischer, Jason

Short Stories & Anthologies

Black Beacon Books

When Benjamin Grant’s son disappeared a year ago, he threw himself into the search, and his obsession left him without a home, wife, or job. Now, he’s managed to find work at the United States Postal Service’s Mail Recovery Center, which he hopes will prove an invaluable tool in his investigation. With the help of his coworker, Sylvia—a kleptomaniac artist—Ben learns the ins and outs of a warehouse full of lost mail, and explores every lead in his son’s case. But when it all points towards the monstrous Leonard Moscovich, Ben fears the worst. For each purchase of Undeliverable, a $1 donation is made to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to help fund the efforts to bring missing kids home. What people are saying about Undeliverable: Engaging, inventive and full of feeling, Demarest’s debut engagingly addresses what we lose when we lose someone we love. - Kirkus Review Undeliverable delivers a range of pleasures to its readers: a unique and fascinating setting, an urgent mystery, a cast of oddball characters, sharp and witty dialogue. But what makes it compelling above all else is its heartfelt exploration of one man’s grief and determination in the face of his son’s disappearance. We yearn for Ben to find his missing boy, but even more, we want him to find a path to fulfillment in a world full of trouble. In Rebecca Demarest’s hands, his journey is tense, thrilling, and deeply satisfying. - Scott Nadelson, author of Saving Stanley and The Cantor’s Daughter Herman Melville knew that the dead letter office of the U.S. Postal Service was a potent metaphor for modern life. His short story, “Bartleby the Scrivener,” harnessed the great sighs of humanity found there. Rebecca Demarest’s engaging tale of what has become the “Mail Recovery Center” picks up the beautiful sadness and loss of a place that contains letters to “Santa, Jesus, God, Satan, The Perfect Man, [and] The Easter Bunny…” Her tale is framed engagingly by the “Property Office Manual” instructions by the long gone Gertrude Biun, a ghost of bureaucracies past. Rebecca Demarest knows how tales work. She gives her readers spirited language, dead-on humor and a trip to the inner workings of despair and strangeness. Serious readers will love this book.  - Michael Strelow, author of The Greening of Ben Brown, and Henry: A Novel of Beer and Love in the West A modern noir with a social conscience, Demarest’s novel combines the page-turning qualities of the “man on a mission” thriller with the heart wrenching realities of child abduction. Publishers, and fans, of cinematic fiction with a something extra, take notice. - William Orem, playwright and author of Killer of Crying Dear

Undeliverable

Literary

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Not All Saints Are Holy  Lori Bacolo is a first-year interning surgeon at a small Midwestern hospital, struggling to deal with the rigors of her chosen career. Jonathan Prince is a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit, striving to fulfill the will of God as it’s laid out in holy visions before him.   John of God is a chilling medical thriller about a serial killer who believes he is following the instructions of his Creator for each Taking: a hazy kaleidoscope of colors that signals yet another patient’s heart must stop beating. Dr. Bacolo notices the increasingly suspicious decline of her patients' survival rate in Mercy Regional’s cardio ward and throws herself into a personal investigation. The question is, can Lori stop the murderer in time, or will the next Taking be her own?

John of God

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Riggenbach, Dane

Thrillers & Suspense

The Seattle Play Series presents their third collection of plays about Ballard by Seattle playwrights.

The Ballard Collection (The Seattle Play Series)

Chang, Ina

McNally, Susan

Kessler-Jeffrey, Courtney

Yim, Seayoung

Tumblin, J Michael

Townsend, Suzanne

Matthews, Parker

Dramas & Plays

A second novel, LESS THAN CHARMING tells the story of a world beyond a veil in which all of the characters writers have ever created are alive and living in their own society. As writers in the other—human world—constantly write new characters into existence, those characters emerge into this mirror world. A hierarchy evolves as every retelling of existing characters is layered onto the original, adding to and changing their personality, knowledge base, and sometimes their emotional stability. Prince Charming conspires to rule the society of characters, which includes every protagonist and foil you’ve ever found in a story or a book, and the prince is not as charming as you first imagine. One character sands in the Prince’s way—Princess Sophia from Grimm’s lesser known “12 Dancing Princesses.” She’s stable—mostly—but Prince Charming is most definitely not. The good Storyteller and the First Character have tasked Sophia with stopping the Prince from destroying their world, and, by extension, ours.

Less Than Charming: A Novel

Teen & Young Adult

Parkhurst Brothers Publishers Inc

The Best of 2023 Stories that Upend Genre ConventionsThis anthology showcases 21 genre-busting stories to surprise even the most avid reader. Discover what talented authors can do with urban fantasy, westerns, romance, horror, sci-fi, mysteries, thrillers, and dystopian fiction. This collection proves that genre fiction doesn't need to stay in one lane.* The repentant villain from a high fantasy tale goes on a blind date with a disillusioned heroine from a rom-com romance.* A wise-cracking detective seeks the missing Goddess of Spring.* In the height of the 80's tech boom, a teen boy finds his missing brother at the heart of an apocalypse.* An interview with a werewolf, a vampire, and Frankenstein's monster goes horribly wrong.* From inside a psychiatric ward, a girl named Goldie tells her side of an encounter with the three bears.* A cowboy and a talking raven take a wild and wacky ride on the back of a velociraptor.And Many More!Each entertaining tale offers you a chance to discover a new author of unconventional fiction that twists the tropes and crosses genre boundaries.

Tumbled Tales: An Anthology of Unconventional Stories

Zwicker, Richard

Engelhardt, Laura

De Voe, M. M.

Pichette, Marisca

Amati, Matthew F.

Wandering Wave Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Demarest, Rebecca A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Demarest, Rebecca A.