"Sumptuous. By the time Inspector Richard Queen and his bookish son Ellery arrive at Manhattan’s Roman theater to examine the dead body of crooked lawyer Monte Field, I was registering a distinct sense of well-being and contentment. This hefty volume opens with an essay by our preeminent authority on the mystery genre, Otto Penzler, followed by excellent brief introductions to each author and novel from Klinger. There’s a treasure house of illuminating and useful information here. What’s more, Pegasus has produced as handsome a volume as you could ask for, starting with the gold-embossed lettering on its cinema-marquee style dust jacket. The whole package cries ‘terrific holiday gift,’ which it is. Ideally, glamorous productions such as Klinger’s lead modern readers to good books worth rediscovering."
Description
Classic American Crime Writing of the 1920s—including House Without a Key, The Benson Murder Case, The Tower Treasure, The Roman Hat Mystery, The Tower Treasure, and Little Caesar—offers some of the very best of that decade’s writing. Earl Derr Biggers wrote about Charlie Chan, a Chinese-American detective, at a time when racism was rampant. S. S. Van Dine invented Philo Vance, an effete, rich amateur psychologist who flourished while America danced and the stock market rose. Edwin Stratemeyer, a man of mystery himself, singlehandedly created the juvenile mystery, with the beloved Hardy Boys series. The quintessential American detective Ellery Queen leapt onto the stage, to remain popular for fifty years. W. R. Burnett, created the indelible character of Rico, the first gangster antihero. Each of the five novels included is presented in its original published form, with extensive historical and cultural annotations and illustrations added by Edgar-winning editor Leslie S. Klinger, allowing the reader to experience the story to its fullest. Klinger's detailed foreword gives an overview of the history of American crime writing from its beginnings in the early years of America to the twentieth century.
Genres
Reviews
"A handsome, hefty volume, filled out by period illustrations (in both color and black-and-white), with a foreword by the knowledgeable Mr. Klinger. The book surveys a decade that delivered both the objective, ‘aesthetic’ puzzles of S.S. Van Dine and the hard-boiled, knuckle-busting sagas of Dashiell Hammett."
"A treasure chest, packed with gumshoes and dames, Colt-.45s and fedoras, townhouses and locked rooms. Resurrecting long-gone authors and restoring their finest work to the page, this gorgeous volume is indispensable for any mystery enthusiast."
"These five novels, all wildly popular when first published, offer a window on the world of manners and attitudes in America in the 1920s. They can still be enjoyed as mysteries, or they can be read as historic documents, enriched by Klinger’s copious annotations that help fix each in its time and place. A veritable buffet of food for thought for crime fiction fans."
