Recommended reading - Golden Age Whodunits

 

Golden Age Whodunits

Golden Age Whodunits
Edited by Otto Penzler.
 
Short story anthology.
 
Published by American Mystery Classics.
Published 2024.
Paperback.
ISBN-10: 1613165420
ISBN-13: 978-1613165423
 
Description:
 

Depending on who you ask, the term "whodunit" was first coined sometime around 1930, but the literary form predates that name by several decades. Still, it was in the years between the two World Wars--the so-called "Golden Age" of mystery fiction--that the style flourished. Short mysteries were published far and wide by a variety of authors, not just those primarily associated with the genre. They appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, The New Yorker, and other high-end periodicals that still exist today. These tales were, in short, among the most popular diversions in literature and were of the highest caliber.

 

Fifteen puzzling tales from the masters of the mystery genre Depending on who you ask, the term “whodunit” was first coined sometime around 1930, but the literary form predates that name by several decades. Still, it was in the years between the two World Wars – the so-called “Golden Age” of mystery fiction – that the style flourished. Short mysteries were published far and wide by a variety of authors, not just those primarily associated with the genre. They appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, The New Yorker, and other high-end periodicals that still exist today. These tales were, in short, among the most popular diversions in literature and were of the highest caliber.

 

In this volume, Edgar Award–winning anthologist Otto Penzler collects some of the finest American whodunits of the era, including household names and welcome rediscoveries. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ellery Queen, and Mary Roberts Rinehart are all included, as are Ring Lardner, Melville Davisson Post, and Helen Reilly. The result is a cross section of the whodunit tale in the years that made it a staple in mystery fiction.

 

"Stellar . . . there’s not a weak link in the bunch. For classic mystery fans, this is a must." – Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW.
 
"Guaranteed to make Americans prouder of their country than any episode in its recent political history." – Kirkus.
 
"You simply can’t go wrong with any anthology that has [Otto Penzler’s] name on it." – Parade Magazine.
 
"Penzler’s depth of knowledge of the genre is in full evidence in this volume . . . This anthology is sure to contain something to surprise even the most diehard mystery fan." – Toronto Star.

Recommended reading - Pulp Fiction: The Dames

 

Pulp Fiction: The Dames

Pulp Fiction: The Dames

Omnibus.

Edited by Otto Penzler.

Introduced by Laura Lippman.

Published 2008.

Published by Quercus.

Paperback.

 

ISBN-10: 1847242316

ISBN-13: 978-1847242310

 

Description:

 

Laura Lippman introduces 23 dames, femmes fatales, avenging angels, broads, molls and dolls from the golden age of pulp fiction and the dawn of modern crime writing.

 

From Sally the Sleuth to The Girl Who Knew Too Much, these women knew how to steal a guy’s heart – or his gun – and they weren’t afraid to use their fists if their charms couldn’t get them what they wanted. Risking their lives and ending others, these dames are certain to set your heart racing, whether you’re a pulp novice or a hard-boiled fan.

 

With stories from Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich and Dashiell Hammett, and a strip cartoon from Adolphe Barreau, Pulp Fiction: The Dames shows that some writing has an edge that time just can’t dull.

 

Contents: Preface, by Otto Penzler; Introduction, by Laura Lippman; Angel Face, by Cornell Woolrich; Chosen to Die, by Leslie T. White; A Pinch of Snuff, by Eric Taylor; Killer in the Rain, by Montanye; Snowbound, by C. B. Yorke; The Girl Who Knew Too Much, by Randolph Barr; The Corpse in the Crystal, by D. B. McCandless; He Got What He Asked For, by D. B. McCandless; Gangster's Brand, by P. T. Luman; Dance Macabre, by Robert Reeves; The Girl with the Silver Eyes, by Dashiell Hammett; The Jane from Hell's Kitchen, by Perry Paul; The Duchess Pulls a Fast One, by Whitman Chambers; Mansion of Death, by Roger Torrey; Concealed Weapon, by Roger Torrey; The Devil's Bookkeeper, by Carlos Martinez; Black Legion, by Lars Anderson; Three Wise Men of Babylon, by Richard Sale; The Adventure of the Voodoo Moon, by Eugene Thomas; Brother Murder, by T. T. Flynn; Kindly Omit Flowers, by Stewart Sterling.

 

Pulp Fiction to Film Noir: The Great Depression and the Development of a Genre (2012)

 

Pulp Fiction: The Crimefighters (2006).

Edited by Otto Penzler.

Published by Quercus.
Hardcover.
 
ISBN-10: 1905204566
ISBN-13: 978-1905204564
 
Description:
 
“These stories still cut, still tear, still even shock … These guys went places maybe they shouldn’t and we love them for it.” – Harlan Coben.
 
Some writing has an edge that time just can’t dull.
Welcome to the world of pulp fiction.
Within these pages are the very best crime stories from the pulp magazines of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
These are stories of the mean streets of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
These are stories in which danger and death are always just around the corner.
These are the stories which created crime fiction as we know it today.

Recommended reading - The Best American Noir Of The Century (2011)

 

Best American Noir of the Century (2011).

Edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler.

Paperback.

 
ISBN-10: 0547577443
ISBN-13: 978-0547577449
 
Back cover description:
“Well worth its impressive weight in gold, it would be a crime not to have this seminal masterpiece in your collection.” – New York Journal of Books.

In his introduction to The Best American Noir of the Century, James Ellroy writes, “Noir is the most scrutinized offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction… It’s the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad.” Offering the best examples of literary sure things gone bad, this collection ensures that nowhere else can readers find a darker, more thorough distillation of American noir fiction.

James Ellroy and Otto Penzler mined the past century to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories, with selections from James M. Cain, Mickey Spillane, Elmore Leonard, Patricia Highsmith, Harlan Ellison, Jeffrey Deaver, Joyce Carol Oates, Dennis Lahane, and many more.

“Delightfully devilish . . . A strange trek through the years that includes stories from household names in the hard-boiled genre to lesser-known authors who nonetheless can hold their own with the legends.” – Associated Press.

James Ellroy is the author of the Underworld U.S.A. trilogy – American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s a Rover – and the L.A. Quartet novels, The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. His most recent book is The Hillicker Curse, a memoir.

Otto Penzler is the founder of the Mysterious Bookshop and Mysterious Press, has won two Edgar Allan Poe Awards (most recently for The Lineup), and is series editor of The Best American Mystery Stories.
 
Contents:
 
Foreword by Otto Penzler; Introduction by James Ellroy; Spurs, by Tod Robbins; Pastorale, by James M. Cain; You'll always remember me, by Steve Fisher; Gun crazy, by MacKinlay Kantor; Nothing to worry about, by Day Keene; The homecoming, by Dorothy B. Hughes; Man in the dark, by Howard Browne; The lady says die!, by Mickey Spillane; Professional man, by David Goodis; The hunger, by Charles Beaumont; The gesture, by Gil Brewer; The last spin, by Evan Hunter; Forever after, by Jim Thompson; For the rest of her life, by Cornell Woolrich; The dripping, by David Morrell; Slowly, slowly in the wind, by Patricia Highsmith; Iris, by Stephen Greenleaf; A ticket out, by Brendan DuBois; Since I don't have you, by James Ellroy; Texas city, by James Lee Burke; Mefisto in onyx, by Harlan Ellison; Out there in the darkness, by Ed Gorman; Hot spings, by James Crumley; The weekender, by Jeffery Deaver; Faithless, by Joyce Carol Oates; Poachers, by Tom Franklin; Like a bone in the throat, by Lawrence Block; Crack, by James W. Hall; Running out of dog, by Dennis Lehane; The paperhanger, by William Gay; Midnight emissions, by F.X. Toole; When the women come out to dance, by Elmore Leonard; Controlled burn, by Scott Wolven; All through the house, by Christopher Coake; What she offered, by Thomas H. Cook; Her lord and master, by Andrew Klavan; Stab, by Chris Adrian; The hoarder, by Bradford Morrow; Missing the morning bus, by Lorenzo Carcaterra.

Recommended reading – The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps (2007)

 

The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps (2007).

The Best crime stories from the pulps during their golden age - the '20s, '30s, & '40s.

Edited by Otto Penzler.

Publisher: Vintage Crime / Black Lizard.

 
ISBN-10: 0307280489
ISBN-13: 978-0307280480
 
Paperback.
Unabridged.
Anthology of short stories.
 
Back cover description:
 
The biggest, the boldest, the most comprehensive collection of Pulp writing ever assembled.

Weighing in at over a thousand pages, containing over forty-seven stories and two novels, this book is big baby, bigger and more powerful than a freight train—a bullet couldn’t pass through it. Here are the best stories and every major writer who ever appeared in celebrated Pulps like Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, and more. These are the classic tales that created the genre and gave birth to hard-hitting detectives who smoke criminals like packs of cigarettes; sultry dames whose looks are as lethal as a dagger to the chest; and gin-soaked hideouts where conversations are just preludes to murder. This is crime fiction at its gritty best.

Including:

• Three stories by Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Dashiell Hammett.
• Complete novels from Carroll John Daly, the man who invented the hard-boiled detective, and Fredrick Nebel, one of the masters of the form.
• A never before published Dashiell Hammett story.
• Every other major pulp writer of the time, including Paul Cain, Steve Fisher, James M. Cain, Horace McCoy, and many, many more of whom you’ve probably never heard.
• Three deadly sections–The Crimefighters, The Villains, and Dames–with three unstoppable introductions by Harlan Coben, Harlan Ellison, and Laura Lippman.

Featuring:

• Plenty of reasons for murder, all of them good.
• A kid so smart–he’ll die of it.
• A soft-hearted loan shark’s legman learning–the hard way–never to buy a strange blonde a hamburger.
• The uncanny “Moon Man” and his mad-money victims.

 
Contents:

Otto Penzler: Foreword. Part One: The Crimefighers. Harlan Coben: Introduction. Paul Cain: One, Two, Three. Dashiell Hammett: The Creeping Siamese. Erle Stanley Gardner: Honest Money. Horace McCoy: Frost Rides Alone. Thomas Walsh: Double Check. Charles G. Booth: Stag Party. Leslie T. White: The City of Hell! Raymond Chandler: Red Wind. Fredrick Nebel: Wise Guy. George Harmon Coxe: Murder Picture. Norbert Davis: The Price of a Dime. William Rollins, Jr.: Chicago Confetti. Cornell Woolrich: Two Murders, One Crime. Carroll John Daly: The Third Murderer. Part Two: The Villains. Harlan Ellison: Introduction. Erle Stanley Gardner: The Cat Woman. Cornell Woolrich: The Dilemma of the Dead Lady. Richard B. Sale: The House of Kaa. Leslie Charteris: The Invisible Millionaire. Steve Fisher: You’ll Always Remember Me. James M. Cain: Pastorale. Frank Gruber: The Sad Serbian. Dashiell Hammett: Faith. Raymond Chandler: Finger Man. Erle Stanley Gardner: The Monkey Murder. Raoul Whitfield: About Kid Deth. Frederick C. Davis: The Sinister Sphere. Paul Cain: Pigeon Blood. C. S. Montanye: The Perfect Crime. Norbert Davis: You’ll Die Laughing. Frederick Nebel: The Crimes of Richmond City: i) Raw Law. ii) Dog Eat Dog. iii) The Law Laughs Last. iv) Law Without Law. v) Graft. Part Three: The Dames. Laura Lippman: Introduction. Cornell Woolrich: Angel Face. Leslie T. White: Chosen to Die. Eric Taylor: A Pinch of Snuff. Raymond Chandler: Killer in the Rain. Adolphe Barreaux: Sally the Sleuth. C. S. Montanye: A Shock for the Countess. C. B. Yorke: Snowbound. Randolph Barr: The Girl Who Knew Too Much. D. B. McCandless: The Corpse in the Crystal. D. B. McCandless: He Got What He Asked For. P. T. Luman: Gangster’s Brand. Robert Reeves: Dance Macabre. Dashiell Hammett: The Girl with the Silver Eyes. Perry Paul: The Jane from Hell’s Kitchen. Whitman Chambers: The Duchess Pulls a Fast One. Roger Torrey: Mansion of Death. Roger Torrey: Concealed Weapon. Carlos Martinez: The Devil’s Bookkeeper. Lars Anderson: Black Legion. Richard Sale: Three Wise Men of Babylon. Eugene Thomas: The Adventure of the Voodoo Moon. T. T. Flynn: Brother Murder. Stewart Sterling: Kindly Omit Flowers.

Recommended reading - The Best American Mystery Stories 2001 (2001)

 

The Best American Mystery Stories 2001 (2001).

 

The Best American Series.

 

Edited by Lawrence Block and Otto Penzler.

 
ISBN-10: 0618124918
ISBN-13: 978-0618124916
 
Contents:
 

Foreword; Introduction by Lawrence Block; Things that make your heart beat faster, by Jennifer Anderson; Lobster night, by Russell Banks; Prison food, by Michael Downs; In the zone, by Leslie Edgerton; Paperhanger, by William Gay; Book of Kells, by Jeremiah Healy; Erie's last day, by Steve Hockensmith; Under suspicion, by Clark Howard; Her Hollywood, by Michael Hyde; Family, by Dan Leone; Blood sport, by Thomas Lynch; Carnie, by David Means; Tides, by Kent Nelson; Girl with the blackened eye, by Joyce Carol Oates; Easy street, by T. Jefferson Parker; Big bite, by Bill Pronzini; Missing in action, by Peter Robinson; Face-lift, by Roxana Robinson; Big ranch, by John Salter; Push comes to shove, by Nathan Walpow.

 

Description:
 

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected – and most popular – of its kind.

 

The Best American Mystery Stories 2001 will thrill fans of all reached of the genre. The legendary mystery writer Lawrence Block offer chilling tales from best-selling writers as well as talented up-and-comers. Ranging from traditional detective cases to psychological studies to atmospheric scene-setters, these stories illustrate the variety and scope of styles, plots, and characters Block admires. With Block as guest editor and a stellar roster of suspense veterans and rising stars, the 2001 edition will delight mystery afficionados and all lovers of great fiction.