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A review by macbean221b
Thirty Hours with a Corpse: And Other Tales of the Grand Guignol by Maurice Level
3.0
I received THIRTY HOURS WITH A CORPSE as an ARC through NetGalley.com.
3.5 STARS.
I think anyone who considers themselves a fan or especially a writer of mystery/thriller/suspense/horror should read this book. Not every story is a gem (one in particular made me flat-out angry, as a modern-day person with a disability) but they are all a fascinating look into the genre's history. Many of the Grand Guignol twists seem obvious because they've developed into tropes over the decades, but when you keep in mind that the style was new when these were written, the delightful shiver that they were written to inspire comes right back.
I only gave it 3.5 stars instead of 4 because I feel the collection would have been better off as two short volumes instead of one larger one. Some of the stories are very close in nature and content to others that are placed very near them in the book, and so it felt repetitive at times. Shuffling the stories and breaking the collection into two would have hidden that, I think.
3.5 STARS.
I think anyone who considers themselves a fan or especially a writer of mystery/thriller/suspense/horror should read this book. Not every story is a gem (one in particular made me flat-out angry, as a modern-day person with a disability) but they are all a fascinating look into the genre's history. Many of the Grand Guignol twists seem obvious because they've developed into tropes over the decades, but when you keep in mind that the style was new when these were written, the delightful shiver that they were written to inspire comes right back.
I only gave it 3.5 stars instead of 4 because I feel the collection would have been better off as two short volumes instead of one larger one. Some of the stories are very close in nature and content to others that are placed very near them in the book, and so it felt repetitive at times. Shuffling the stories and breaking the collection into two would have hidden that, I think.