Was Peter Haining 'Alfred Hitchcock'?

[dem]

Alfred Hitchcock – The Graveyard Man (NEL, October 1968)

Josh Kirby

C. B. Gilford - The Cemetery Man
Clark Howard - Spook House
W. Sherwood Harman - Poltergeist
Robert Bloch - A Killing In The Market
C. B. Gilford - Never Marry A Witch
Avram Davidson - A Shot From The Dark Night
Henry Slesar - Murder Delayed
Lawrence Treat - Shoot A Friendly Bullet
William Link & Richard Levinson - The Man In The Lobby
Robert Edmon Alter - The Shunned House

Blurb:
"Some of the best and most eerie story material in the world can be found in the locale where I am pictured on the cover.'
So writes Alfred Hitchcock, King of Chills and Master of the Macabre, in the introduction to this latest unholy collection of tales.
And he backs up his claim by presenting herein for your delectation stories by such literary ghouls as

Robert Bloch
Avram Davidson
Lawrence Treat
Henry Slesar
and many more.
We suggest you check on your nerves before ven­turing into this domain of death.

At 96 pages all in, minimalist even by NEL standards and doubtless much of the material is more crime than horror-supernatural orientated, though where there are titles like The Cemetery Man and Poltergeist there is hope. i've heard only good things about Carney Kill author Robert Edmon Alter's haunted house story and Clark Howard wrote the occasional horror short including the ghoulish The Keeper Of The Crypt, which enlivened a summer of love issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Columbo co-creators Link & Levinson contributed a minor 'when seafood attacks' effort to Fred Pickersgill's And Graves Give Up Their Dead. Bloch's is only one of three stories i didn't write up from his Fear & Trembling collection, meaning it was either too complex or routine for me to desecrate.

[Johnlprobert]

"Clark Howard" sounds suspiciously like a pseudonym to me!

[dem]

That's a strong possibility. Robert Arthur contributed to AHMM under a variety of pseudonyms, though i don't think Clark Howard was one of his. i just re-read his Keeper Of The Crypt to see if i still rated it. I did. It has a winning EC feel to it which usually helps.

Finch, the grave-tender is jealous of handsome chauffeur Gerald Stander who gets to wear a snazzy uniform, drive a limo, and has a fleshy young wife to return home to while he, Finch, festers alone in his ugly caretakers cottage. The grass is always greener and Stander, for his part, envies the stooped old misery-guts his freedom. If only he could be rid of his shrewish other half, get him a nice little place like Finch's and invite round that big knockered barmaid from the pub for some fun and games.

The occasion is the funeral of Stander's employer, Tyron Murfee, the Earl of Sheel, finally pronounced dead after one epileptic seizure too many. As the last of the family line, the old tartar willed that the accumulated family jewellery be buried with him. After the ceremony, the crypt will be sealed for all time.

That's handy! thinks Finch, who has spent a year excavating a tunnel from this cottage to the crypt in anticipation of this eventuality.

That's handy! thinks Stander, who has procured the key ....

If Spook House is another cut from the same cloth then that's 50p well spent!

[dem]

The Robert Arthur edited 'Hitchcocks' are a treat for horror and supernatural fans, but i've never been quite sure what audience the Haining-NEL variant were aimed at as those i've sampled are mostly comprised of competent murder/ crime/ mystery pulps with the odd mild shocker or ghost story thrown in. The Graveyard Man is par for the course and, even at just under the hundred pages, i doubt i'll finish it.

C. B. Gilford - The Cemetery Man: Ed Jenson operates a bulldozer at a remote sanitary landfill site. Having disposed of, first the remains of a stranger he accidentally killed in a drunken brawl and then his cheating wife, Naomi, Ed decides to expand the operation. What if he were to provide a bootleg funeral and cemetery service for those who need rid of a corpse on a no questions asked basis? Vicious gangster Nicky Albert sends plenty business his way. Fun right up to the thoroughly dull ending.

Clark Howard - Spook House: On the last night before the Carney packs up for what is already threatening to be a bitterly cold winter, huckster Sam is chased into the Haunted House by switchblade-wielding juvenile delinquents after he refuses to hand over a cheap radio to their brutal leader, Frankie. After taking a beating, Sam escapes into the Haunted House with the hoodlums in close pursuit. Once he has them locked in, Sam bolts down the solid steel shutters. Much better than the opener, but it could and should have been really horrible instead of merely a bit grim.

W. Sherwood Harman - Poltergeist: The giggling ghost of the Trotting Inn, Pennsylvania, finally comes good when it intervenes on behalf of the landlord to prevent a robbery.

Robert Bloch - A Killing In The Market: Albert Kessler dreams of making it big on Wall Street. Lou Mariner is a shabby, nondescript investor with the Midas touch. It's clear that Mariner has insider knowledge and Kessler trails him to a Chicago hotel thinking to muscle in on the action. But Mariner is merely a disposable front-man for a powerful nationwide syndicate and they're ready to snuff him out. Kessler finds himself in above his head. Miss Fairborn, a big-titted blond looker with hypnotic powers, gives the story a slight 'supernatural' angle.

[dem]

Found another Haining Hitchcock - and something far, far worse - in Bethnal Green yesterday -

Alfred Hitchcock (Peter Haining) - Meet Death At Night & Other Tales Of Terror (Four Square, May 1967)

Clark Howard - Keeper Of The Crypt
D. A. Coleman - The Nightmare
C. B. Gifford - Meet Death At Night
Leo R. Ellis - Dead Giveaway
August Derleth - The Amateur Philologist
Pauline K. Prilucik - Mirror, Mirror
Ed Lacy - The Black-Eyed Denominator
Hilda Cushing - She Loved Funerals
James M. Gilmore - Avery's Ghost
Fletcher Flora - For Money Recieved
Talmage Powell - Drawer 14
Joseph Caida - The 79 Murders Of Martha Hill Gibbs


Blurb:
Whilst reading this book you may notice a quickening of your heart-beat, a slight clamminess in the palms of your hands, a certain dryness in your mouth and a peculiar sensation at the back of your neck.
Dear reader:
You are in the grip of fear!
In this collection Alfred Hitchcock presents stories by C. B. Gifford, August Derleth, Ed Lacy, Clark Howard and other masters of the macabre.

Kicks off with the ghoulish Clark Howard story mentioned two posts up, and Talmage Powell provides morgue drawer action. These aside, and for all that the subtitle promises 'Tales of Terror', the bulk again looks suspiciously crime-detection orientated to these eyes. The Derleth is another case for Solar Pons of whom i've grown rather fond.