This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Skull Sessions
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 161
Words: 62.5K

Synopsis:

From the Inside Cover & TOC

THE DO-IT-YOURSELF MURDER KIT

To do a good, honest job of murder (and nowadays you pretty much have to do it yourself, labor costs being what they are) you need several all-important ingredients.

Choose a weapon. That’s hard. There are just so many of them. But remember, a workman is no better than his tools.

Find a victim. That’s easy. There are just so many of them. But remember, an artist is no better than his material.

Then a plan.

That’s where this book will come in handy. . .

SKULL SESSION

A DEGREE OF INNOCENCE—Helen Nielsen

ONE UNNECESSARY MAN—Talmage Powell

KILL ME, MY SWEET—C.B. Gilford

SAM’S HEART—Henry Slesar

THE INCOMPLETE CORPSE—Jack Webb

LUCK IS NO LADY—Robert Bloch

SWEET SPIRIT—Donald Honig

THE ONLY BAD POLICEMAN—Paul Eiden

THE WITNESS WAS A LADY—Fletcher Flora

THE EPISODE OF THE TELEPHONE NUMBER—Charles Einstein

COME BACK, COME BACK—Donald E. Westlake

ADVENTURES OF THE SUSSEX ARCHERS—August Derleth

FAT JOW—Robert Alan Blair

VACATION—Mike Brett

My Thoughts:

The only fly in the ointment was the “Pons & Parker” story by Derleth (P&P are a complete ripoff of Sherlock Holmes and Watson, not even trying to cover it up at all) and the Fat Jow story by Blair. I just don't like Jow, as I experienced him in another Hitchcock collection.

Other than that, this was a great collection of crime stories and nasty things happening to unpleasant people. Of course, not all of them followed that formula. “The Only Bad Policeman” is the perfect example. A man defends himself and his 2 boys against a drunk policeman with a martial art from his home country. Everyone cheers him on but the story ends with him getting arrested as he accidentally killed the policeman. Now that's a downer of a story!

★★★✬☆ ( )