The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories

An unstoppable anthology of crime stories culled from Black Mask magazine the legendary publication that turned a pulp phenomenon into literary mainstream. Black Mask was the apotheosis of noir. It was the magazine where the first hardboiled detective story, which was written by Carroll John Daly appeared. It was the slum in which such American literary titans like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler got their start, and it was the home of stories with titles like “Murder Is Bad Luck,” “Ten Carets of Lead,” and “Drop Dead Twice.” Collected here is best of the best, the hardest of the hardboiled, and the darkest of the dark of America’s finest crime fiction. This masterpiece collection represents a high watermark of America’s underbelly. Crime writing gets no better than this. CONTENTS Erle Stanley Gardner: Come and Get It Fredric Brown: Cry Silence Peter Collison: Arson Plus Fredrick Nebel: Doors in the Dark Lester Dent: Luck Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon Stewart Sterling: Ten Carats of Lead Wyatt Blassingame: Murder Is Bad Luck Talmadge Powell: Her Dagger Before Me Charles G. Booth: One Shot Richard Sale: The Dancing Rats Katherine Brocklebank: Bracelets Thomas Walsh: Diamonds Mean Death Roul Whitfield: Murder in the Ring Walter C. Brown: The Parrot That Wouldn’t Talk Merle Constiner: Let the Dead Alone Carrol John Daly: Knights of the Open Palm William Cole: Waiting for Rusty Ramon Decolta: Rainbow Diamonds William Rollins Jr.: The Ring on the Hand of Death Theodore A. Tinsley: Body Snatcher D wight V. Babcock: Murder on the Gayway Cleve F. Adams: The Key William Campbell Gault: The Bloody Bokhara Brett Halliday: A Taste for Cognac Day Keene: Sauce for the Gander W.T. Ballard: A Little Different Charles M. Green: The Shrieking Skeleton Hank Searls: Drop Dead Twice Dale Clark: The Sound of the Shot Frederick C. Davis: Flaming Angel Don M. Mankiewicz: Odds on Death Norvell Page: Those Catrini Hugh B. Cave: Smoke in Your Eyes Robert Reeves: Blood, Sweat and Biers Whitman Chambers: The Black Bottle Milton K. Ozaki: The Corpse The Didn’t Kick Raymond Chandler: Try the Girl Norbert Davis: Don’t You Cry for Me Ray Cummings: T. McGuirk Steals A Diamond Steve Fisher: Wait For Me Frank Gruber: Ask Me Another Horcase McCoy: Dirty Work Julius Long: Merely Murder John D. MacDonald: Murder in One Syllable H.H. Stinson: Three Apes from the East D.L. Champion Death Stops Payment Richard Connell: The Color of Honor Bruno Fischer: Middleman for Murder Richard Deming: The Man Who Choose the Devil C.M. Kornbluth: Beer-Bottle Polka Cornell Wollrich: Borrowed Crime