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The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century
The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century Author:Otto Penzler (Editor), Tony Hillerman (Editor) In THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES OF THE CENTURY, best-selling author Tony Hillerman and mystery expert Otto Penzler present an unparalleled treasury of American suspense fiction that every fan will cherish, 55 stories from 1903 to 1999. Offering the finest examples from all reaches of the genre, this collection charts the mystery's eminent h... more »istory from the turn-of-the-century puzzles of Futrelle, to the seminal pulp fiction of Hammett and Chandler, to the mystery story's rise to legitimacy in the popular mind, a trend that has benefited masterly writers like Westlake, Hunter, and Grafton. Nowhere else can readers find a more thorough, more engaging, more essential distillation of American crime fiction.
Penzler, the Best American Mystery Stories series editor, and Hillerman winnowed this select group out of a thousand stories, drawing on sour's Mystery Magazine and Esquire, Collier's and The New Yorker. Giants of the genre abound -- Raymond Chandler, Stephen King, Dashiell Hammett, Lawrence Block, Ellery Queen, Sara Paretsky, and others -- but the editors also unearthed gems by luminaries rarely found in suspense anthologies: William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Damon Runyon, Harlan Ellison, James Thurber, and Joyce Carol Oates. Mystery buffs and newcomers alike will delight in the thrilling stories and top-notch writing of a hundred years' worth of the finest suspense, crime, and mystery writing.
Contents, 55 stories:
-- A Retrieved Reformation / O. Henry;
-- Pauls Case / Willa Cather;
-- The Problem of Cell 13 / Jacques Futrelle;
-- Blind Mans Buff / Frederick Irving Anderson;
-- Naboths Vineyard / Melville Davisson Post;
-- A Jury of Her Peers / Susan Glaspell;
-- The Gutting of Couffignal / Dashiell Hammett;
-- Haircut / Ring Lardner;
-- Blue Murder / Wilbur Daniel Steele;
-- The Perfect Crime / Ben Ray Redman;
-- The Baby in the Icebox / James M. Cain;
-- The Murder / John Steinbeck;
-- Sense of Humor / Damon Runyon;
-- Ransom / Pearl S. Buck;
-- Red Wind / Raymond Chandler;
-- The Catbird Seat / James Thurber;
-- Rear Window / Cornell Woolrich;
-- An Error in Chemistry / William Faulkner;
-- The Nine Mile Walk / Harry Kemelman;
-- The Adventure of the Presidents Half Disme / Ellery Queen;