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– O. P.

elmore leonard

Even with the respect finally granted to the art of the best mystery writers in recent years, it still has been rare for authors who write about violent crimes to be taken seriously by critics and sophisticated readers. Probably no crime or mystery writer in history has received the (deserved) acclaim of his contemporaries accorded El-more Leonard.

Hammett and Chandler were recognized for their powerful influence on American fiction only after they died. Ross Macdonald tasted it only near the end of his career. But for more than fifteen years, the most distinguished critics and the most popular and powerful cultural media have recognized the singular achievement of Elmore Leonard's unique prose style.

After years as a western writer (Hombre, The Tall T, Last Train to Yuma, among others), Leonard moved his stories into the present. He didn't change his style, which he describes by saying, "I try to leave out the parts that people skip, " but the subject matter, and he has enjoyed a string of more than a dozen consecutive bestsellers, including Bandits, Glitz, Maximum Bob, Pronto, and Riding the Rap.

This is Elmore Leonard's first short story in more than thirty years. (In a special fiction issue of The New Yorker two years ago, there was a superb piece by him, but it was an excerpt from Riding the Rap.) You will like some of the characters you are about to meet; happily, they will show up again in later work.

– O. P.

michael malone

Every small town has its legends. Thermopylae, North Carolina, gave Stella Dora Doyle to the world and then, with little choice in the matter-four husbands, one murder trial, and a European exile later-took her back. For young Buddy Hayes, a boy who has grown into manhood while Stella's fabled beauty has only ripened, his father's assessment of her powerful aura lingers in his mind long past his first glimpse of the woman herself.

Never to have desired Stella, his dad solemnly tells him as they watch her climb the courthouse steps, accused of killing Hugh Doyle, her childhood sweetheart and latest husband, is to have missed out on being alive. Haunted by the memory of this fearful glamor, Buddy is nonetheless equal to the occasion when his path and Stella's later cross.

Acclaimed novelist Michael Malone, no stranger to the mysteries of the human heart, understands that the combination of memory, myth, and sudden violent death is an irresistible one. In addition to his bestselling novels of small-town southern life, he has written two superb mystery novels about Justin Savile and Cuddy Mangum, Uncivil Seasons and Time's Witness. He recently won an Emmy as the writer of the daytime drama One Life to Live.

– O. P.

bobbie ann mason

Girl detectives are supposed to discover secrets, not harbor them. No one should know this better than Nancy Drew, whose attic adventures and crumbling castle conundrums were more than a match for any swarthy villain. But what happens when her universe-the River Heights that exists beyond the carefully controlled pages of the series so beloved by generations of women-begins to fray a bit about the edges? Clearly, Nancy 's long-proven methods for vanquishing the forces of evil aren't of much use when it comes to protecting her against change and decay and, even worse, revisionism.

Who is Draco S. Wren? And why does he seem so eerily familiar? In this affectionate parody by acclaimed novelist and short-story writer Bobbie Ann Mason, whose own first published book was a history of America's teenage girl detectives titled The Girl Sleuths, Nancy Drew is an altogether willing captive of her own myth. But even Nancy eventually must acknowledge that crimes of the heart don't make for open-and-shut cases.

Once named by Elmore Leonard as his favorite writer, Bobbie Ann Mason has won numerous literary prizes for her insightful fiction about southern life, including the bestselling In Country.

– O. P.

ed mcbain

The story that follows is true. Well, not exactly, but the events described did take place, and the characters are based on real-life people. The time and the places described are real, too, and you'll recognize them from the gangster movies and television programs you've seen over the years.

A period piece is not the story one would have expected from Ed McBain, who is best known for his landmark series about the 87th Precinct, and in more recent years for the bestselling Matthew Hope novels.

But, under his real name of Evan Hunter, the author has a wide range of books to his credit, including The Blackboard Jungle, written when he was only twenty-eight, Love, Dad, a variety of science fiction novels, children's books, Lizzie, a superb fictional account of the Lizzie Borden murder case, and the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

What you didn't know is that this hugely versatile and popular writer started his professional life as a jazz musician who dreamed of a different career-he wanted to be a painter. When one is born with talent, it simply finds a way to manifest itself. Evan Hunter was born with more talent than any one person deserves!

– O. P.

joyce carol oates

Customarily, the well-known writers of an era achieve their stardom, if you will, by one of two means. One is to be prolific and popular with readers, the other is to create a distinctive prose style that is applauded by critics. It is very rare indeed to be able to satisjy the demands of reviewers and literary aesthetes, who mainly seem to want authors to fail, as well as a large number of readers, who mainly want to be entertained.

Joyce Carol Oates, of course, is one of those rare hybrids whose work is eagerly sought by discerning readers, yet who receive glowing reviews from the most sharp-clawed critics. The great astonishment is that she writes so much so brilliantly, with hundreds of short stories tucked among dozens of novels, with some nonfic-tion on the side to round out the collection.

Ranging from the clear beauty o/ Belle-Fleur to the Gothic intensity o/ The Mysteries of Winterthorn to the psychological suspense novels she writes under the pseudonym Rosamunde Smith, Joyce Carol Oates brings to an extraordinary spectrum of work both originality and professionalism. When you have finished reading "At the Paradise Motel, Sparks, Nevada, " for example, try to forget it. You will fail.