Читать онлайн "101 Mystery Stories" - Alter Robert Edmond - RuLit

Rice (THE MAN WHO SWALLOWED A HORSE) — Copyright 1953 by Flying Eagle Publications Inc. Originally published as THE DEAD MR. DUCK. Reprinted by permission of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Ave., New York, NY 10022.

Queen (DIAMONDS IN PARADISE) — Copyright 1954 by Mercury Publications, Inc.; copyright renewed © 1982 by Ellery Queen. First published in ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE. Reprinted by permission of the agents for the author’s Estate, the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Ave., New York, NY 10022.

Woolrich (SOMEBODY ON THE PHONE) — Copyright 1937 by Frank A. Munsey Company; copyright renewed © 1966 by Cornell Woolrich. Reprinted by permission of the agents for the author’s Estate, the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Ave., New York, NY 10022.

Queen (E^MURDER)-Copyright © 1960, 1965 by Ellery Queen. First published in THIS WEEK. Reprinted by permission of the agents for the author’s Estate, the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Ave., New York, NY 10022.

Foreword

Variety is the key word for this collection of mystery and suspense stories. The book you are holding is the largest ever compiled in terms of the number of stories included, and is also one of the largest in length. It includes outstanding stories by writers from several countries, as well as from various time periods, ranging from the nineteenth century to the 1980s.

You will find such classic early practitioners of the mystery-writer’s art as Edgar Allan Poe, the father of the modern mystery; Guy de Maupassant; Charles Dickens; O. Henry (William Porter), of the twist ending; the multitalented Jack London; Stephen Crane; and a hard-to-find gem by Frank R. Stockton.

The authors of the “classic” period of the 1920s to the 1940s (some of whom are still active) are also well represented with stories by Georges Simenon of Belgium (now resident in Switzerland); Leslie Charteris; the immortal Ellery Queen (Fred Dannay and his cousin Manfred Lee); the undeservedly forgotten Fletcher Flora; the prolific but excellent Erie Stanley Gardner; and Melville Davisson Post, among many others.

Suspense in the “hard-boiled” tradition made famous by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler is particularly well represented here by such men as John D. MacDonald (with two of his least known stories); Fredric Brown; Gil Brewer; Cornell Woolrich, the “Poet of the Shadows,” who set a pattern for suspense writing that has been widely imitated but never equaled; William Campbell Gault, still going strong after all these years; the late Jack Ritchie, one of the true masters of the short mystery story; Robert Bloch, famous for writing Psycho, an achievement that has unfortunately overshadowed his other excellent works; and John Jakes, a fine mystery/suspense writer who has moved on to bigger things with his Bicentennial series and such best sellers as Love and War.

We have not forgotten the contemporary scene, which is currently enjoying a burst of wonderful writing. Here you will find Donald E. Westlake; Edward D. Hoch, the most prolific of all mystery short story writers and one of the very best; Brian Garfield; Isaac Asimov, a fine mystery writer better known for his science fiction and science writing; Robert Randisi, he of the fast and good typewriter; Evan Hunter, here found as himself and as “Ed McBain,” the modern master of the police procedural; Lawrence Block; John Lutz; Harry Kemelman of Rabbi Small fame; Joyce Harrington and Marcia Muller, excellent representatives of a large group of outstanding women mystery writers; Michael Gilbert of Great Britain; and dozens of others.