For me, Alfred Hitchcock's films are the gold standard for suspense and noir, with Psycho, The Birds, and Rear Window holding a much revered placed in my heart. As fascinating are Hitch's works, so are the actresses he chose to portray his often ill-fated female leads. Laurence Learner's Hitchcock's Blondes promises to take us behind the scenes of these women's lives on and off set, peeking in on what it was like to work with the world-famous director.

As it turns out, Hitchcock's Blondes is not the book I expected to read. Written in what is basically a series of mini-biographies, Learner's work explores the lives of eight of Hitch's blondes, discussing everything from their childhoods to their latter years. Learner even goes off on tangents, examining the husbands, parents, and children of the stars.

Surprisingly, the information surrounding these women and their actual time on the sets of Hitchcock's films is few and far between. Rather, Learner goes into great detail about the plots of these films, giving away major points, twists, and turns, so if you have not seen all of Hitch's movies, proceed with caution. While there are intimate snippets of life on set, I wanted more ... this is, after all, what I came here for.

Hitchcock's Blondes is an informative, entertaining book if you know what you are getting into. If you want to learn more about the general lives of Hitchcock's actresses, this is a great place to look. On the other hand, if you are looking for more of an expose about what it was like to be a woman working for the legendary director, you may need to search elsewhere. For a book titled Hitchcock's Blondes, there's very little mention of said blondes and Hitch in the same sentence.