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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.听
听
Black Mask was the apotheosis of noir.听 It was the magazine where the first hardboiled detective story, which was written by Carroll John Daly appeared.听 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 鈥淢urder Is Bad Luck,鈥� 鈥淭en Carets of Lead,鈥� and 鈥淒rop Dead Twice.鈥� Collected here is best of the best, the hardest of the hardboiled, and the darkest of the dark of America鈥檚 finest crime fiction. This masterpiece collection represents a high watermark of America鈥檚 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鈥檛 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鈥檛 Kick
Raymond Chandler: Try the Girl
Norbert Davis: Don鈥檛 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
听
Black Mask was the apotheosis of noir.听 It was the magazine where the first hardboiled detective story, which was written by Carroll John Daly appeared.听 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 鈥淢urder Is Bad Luck,鈥� 鈥淭en Carets of Lead,鈥� and 鈥淒rop Dead Twice.鈥� Collected here is best of the best, the hardest of the hardboiled, and the darkest of the dark of America鈥檚 finest crime fiction. This masterpiece collection represents a high watermark of America鈥檚 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鈥檛 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鈥檛 Kick
Raymond Chandler: Try the Girl
Norbert Davis: Don鈥檛 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
1136 pages, Paperback
First published September 21, 2010
203 people are currently reading
815 people want to read
About the author
Otto Penzler
370听books516听followersOtto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.
Otto Penzler founded The Mysteriour Press in 1975 and was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years.
Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, for The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977, and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994, and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.
Otto Penzler founded The Mysteriour Press in 1975 and was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years.
Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, for The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977, and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994, and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
February 17, 2013
Discovering The Black Mask was like finding a pot of gold.
After realizing how much I enjoyed reading specific authors, I found a common thread, that many were published early in their career by a pulp magazine called The Black Mask.
It was first published in 1920 and continued regular publication with some interruptions until 1951. Many noted authors were able to have their first stories published in the originally 10 cent (I believe) magazine and again, I believe it was similar to a comic book form, however, with covers which were descriptive and bright much like the cover of the anthology here. No surprise that the art covers and the magazines are collector items.
This information above is from me and is sketchy, so anyone who can add with more definitive information, is certainly welcome to do so.
The book itself weighs almost three pounds, so holding it to read is a challenge in itself. However, it is my 'go to' book especially after finishing a book early in the evening. Happily it has The Maltese Falcon which I have wanted to read for a very long time within its covers.
The editor is Otto Penzler and found it quite interesting that he would dedicate the 2010 publication For Michael Connelly: Whose generous friendship can never be repaid. Michael Connelly is one of my favorite current writers.
Since there are 53 stories, I have not read every one yet, but intend to do so in the future. Unfortunately, I did not check off the ones I have read. When I read them (or discover I have read them) I will enter them below in alphabetical order with their own individual rating.
Expect them all to have five stars, well maybe a couple with four stars.
*
Chandler, Raymond - Try The Girl - Five Stars
MacDonald, John D. - Murder in One Syllable Five Stars
After realizing how much I enjoyed reading specific authors, I found a common thread, that many were published early in their career by a pulp magazine called The Black Mask.
It was first published in 1920 and continued regular publication with some interruptions until 1951. Many noted authors were able to have their first stories published in the originally 10 cent (I believe) magazine and again, I believe it was similar to a comic book form, however, with covers which were descriptive and bright much like the cover of the anthology here. No surprise that the art covers and the magazines are collector items.
This information above is from me and is sketchy, so anyone who can add with more definitive information, is certainly welcome to do so.
The book itself weighs almost three pounds, so holding it to read is a challenge in itself. However, it is my 'go to' book especially after finishing a book early in the evening. Happily it has The Maltese Falcon which I have wanted to read for a very long time within its covers.
The editor is Otto Penzler and found it quite interesting that he would dedicate the 2010 publication For Michael Connelly: Whose generous friendship can never be repaid. Michael Connelly is one of my favorite current writers.
Since there are 53 stories, I have not read every one yet, but intend to do so in the future. Unfortunately, I did not check off the ones I have read. When I read them (or discover I have read them) I will enter them below in alphabetical order with their own individual rating.
Expect them all to have five stars, well maybe a couple with four stars.
*
Chandler, Raymond - Try The Girl - Five Stars
MacDonald, John D. - Murder in One Syllable Five Stars
July 26, 2018
May I introduce to readers Katherine Brocklebank (criminally listed nowhere within goodreads until right now!), the creator of Tex, a female border patrol agent of 1928, was the only woman writer identified as such (unless there were other women writers writing under male psuedonyms) "in the 32 year history of Black Mask magazine even when it was under the control of a female editor, Fanny Ellsworth, from 1936 to 1940," writes Otto Penzler, editor of the terrific "Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories." I've been only able to locate and identify a few women crime writers, so here goes:
BOOK 43: Mid-20th Century American Crime Readathon
"Bracelets" by Katherine Brocklebank (unable to find/identify a separate ISBN number)
Hook=5 stars: "A tale of Tia Juana after the closing hour of the Border and all the good folks have gone home. Tex [a female border patrol agent] watched from the corners of her eyes..." Absolutely original for this genre and a work one simply can't set aside.
Pace=3: Solid
Plot=5: A villain called "The Eel" is using poisonous bracelets to murder for money and for twisted pleasure. Again, absolutely original.
People:4: Tex, a female border patrol agent, "The Eel", his sidekick Pancho, a girl of the night named Mame, and a few rich Texans populate the story. All interesting, but readers, ridiculously, were not enthusiastic about women crime writers or of Tex, so we don't get to know much about anyone.
Place=3: Mexico bordellos are a dime a dozen in crime literature.
Summary=My overall rating is 4.0. How great it would have been had Brocklebank become an overnight sensation! But this author is an original, and I had to include her in my readathon. So cheers to Katherine Brocklebank and to this, perhaps her only formal review on goodreads.
BOOK 43: Mid-20th Century American Crime Readathon
"Bracelets" by Katherine Brocklebank (unable to find/identify a separate ISBN number)
Hook=5 stars: "A tale of Tia Juana after the closing hour of the Border and all the good folks have gone home. Tex [a female border patrol agent] watched from the corners of her eyes..." Absolutely original for this genre and a work one simply can't set aside.
Pace=3: Solid
Plot=5: A villain called "The Eel" is using poisonous bracelets to murder for money and for twisted pleasure. Again, absolutely original.
People:4: Tex, a female border patrol agent, "The Eel", his sidekick Pancho, a girl of the night named Mame, and a few rich Texans populate the story. All interesting, but readers, ridiculously, were not enthusiastic about women crime writers or of Tex, so we don't get to know much about anyone.
Place=3: Mexico bordellos are a dime a dozen in crime literature.
Summary=My overall rating is 4.0. How great it would have been had Brocklebank become an overnight sensation! But this author is an original, and I had to include her in my readathon. So cheers to Katherine Brocklebank and to this, perhaps her only formal review on goodreads.
September 24, 2017
My library's multiple audio books are apparently part of this book. Rather than create more books which would be confusing, I'll just list those I read. I'll probably need to reopen this review for later ones, although I'm not sure. There are a lot of different Black Mask books edited by Penzler. It looks like #10 & #11 of this collection, which I've already read & reviewed, are listed separately.
All were very well narrated. Kudos to whoever matched the narrator to the story.
Black Mask Stories, Volume 2
"Ten Carats of Lead" by Stewart Sterling; read by Alan Sklar was fairly well done since I didn't guess who the bad guy was.
"Murder Is Bad Luck" by Wyatt Blassingame; read by Oliver Wyman features a jockey turned detective. Shades of , but before his time I think.
"Her Dagger Before Me" by Talmadge Powell; read by Pete Larkin was typical & that's about it.
"One Shot" by Charles G. Booth; read by Alan Sklar was a pretty good closed room mystery.
"The Dancing Rats" by Richard Sale; read by Jeff Gurner was WWII on Hawaii after Pearl Harbor with the Japs & Germans involved in a heinous plot. It was pretty good, but the use of too much slang hurt.
All were very well narrated. Kudos to whoever matched the narrator to the story.
Black Mask Stories, Volume 2
"Ten Carats of Lead" by Stewart Sterling; read by Alan Sklar was fairly well done since I didn't guess who the bad guy was.
"Murder Is Bad Luck" by Wyatt Blassingame; read by Oliver Wyman features a jockey turned detective. Shades of , but before his time I think.
"Her Dagger Before Me" by Talmadge Powell; read by Pete Larkin was typical & that's about it.
"One Shot" by Charles G. Booth; read by Alan Sklar was a pretty good closed room mystery.
"The Dancing Rats" by Richard Sale; read by Jeff Gurner was WWII on Hawaii after Pearl Harbor with the Japs & Germans involved in a heinous plot. It was pretty good, but the use of too much slang hurt.
November 21, 2010
Black Mask was the most important and influential pulp magazine of the detective fiction genre during the first half of the 20th-Century. Publishing the major authors of the literary field, some of whom would be among the most talented and seminal authors in American literature, it was the cornerstone of a then emerging style of writing termed the "hardboiled" school of fiction which highlighted a world of tough, wisecracking private eyes, sultry and troubled dames, and criminals of varying degrees of nefariousness.
is the most comprehensive anthology of the landmark magazine published and it's a wide-ranging sweep on the mag's 1920-1951 run. Stories from each decade chart a timeline that's in some way a chronicle of American history: Ku Klux Klan and Flapper tales from the Roaring Twenties; narratives of jobless woe from the Depression-era; wartime-influenced adventures in the '40s; and other stories all unified in the cohesive theme of law vs. society's bad men with the former saving the day.
There are no classics here like it's predecessor which this book serves somewhat as a sequel to, but it's a more consistent read. Some notable tales stand out though, memorable stories like Raymond Chandler's "Try the Girl"; Frederick Nebel's "Doors in the Dark"; Frederick C. Davis' "Flaming Angel"; and Hugh B. Cave's "Smoke in Your Eyes". Some interesting features included in this massive collection are Lester Dent's "Luck", published in book form for the first time; same as Ramon Decolta's ( pseudonym of Raoul Whitfield ) "Rainbow Diamonds"; and the complete "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett in it's original serialized form. The illustrations which originally accompanied the tales appear here, and they're quite a delight.
My only qualms on the book are: the work could have been divided by the decades the magazine existed, with the first page of the section containing an artwork of the mag from the decade featured, and an introduction on how the magazine was during the particular time. It would have given the book a more important, somewhat monumental feel, rather than the mish-mash of stories mixed together with no order, leaving it a little bit haphazard and formless. Carroll John Daly's "Three-Gun Terry" should have been included, as it's considered the first hardboiled detective story. Regardless of it's literary quality, it deserves a place in this collection for it's historical importance. There are pages in the book where alone, a small image of a dead man's hand appears near a gun beside a pool of blood. Nice look, and most fitting for the subject, yet it appears sporadically throughout the tome instead of uniform, making it look like poor and sloppy editing on the part of the publisher. Finally, some stories appear from the same issue, giving the impression that the editor probably got lazy in his research hence probably missing out on other good stories which he could have included in the book had he been more patient in his research.
A huge part of the appeal of reading these fictive snapshots of a bygone age is not only the literary and historical aspects but also a romantic one: reading these tales one could almost see a white man in a buttoned shirt and slacks with a cigar/cigarette in mouth and a bottle of liquor at the side of the table, pounding at the typewriter way into the night.
An important document of and an important contribution to American and world literature, is a lavish tribute to the foremost pulp mag of it's genre and it's authors, many forgotten and brought back to life after decades of neglect in these generous pages.
is the most comprehensive anthology of the landmark magazine published and it's a wide-ranging sweep on the mag's 1920-1951 run. Stories from each decade chart a timeline that's in some way a chronicle of American history: Ku Klux Klan and Flapper tales from the Roaring Twenties; narratives of jobless woe from the Depression-era; wartime-influenced adventures in the '40s; and other stories all unified in the cohesive theme of law vs. society's bad men with the former saving the day.
There are no classics here like it's predecessor which this book serves somewhat as a sequel to, but it's a more consistent read. Some notable tales stand out though, memorable stories like Raymond Chandler's "Try the Girl"; Frederick Nebel's "Doors in the Dark"; Frederick C. Davis' "Flaming Angel"; and Hugh B. Cave's "Smoke in Your Eyes". Some interesting features included in this massive collection are Lester Dent's "Luck", published in book form for the first time; same as Ramon Decolta's ( pseudonym of Raoul Whitfield ) "Rainbow Diamonds"; and the complete "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett in it's original serialized form. The illustrations which originally accompanied the tales appear here, and they're quite a delight.
My only qualms on the book are: the work could have been divided by the decades the magazine existed, with the first page of the section containing an artwork of the mag from the decade featured, and an introduction on how the magazine was during the particular time. It would have given the book a more important, somewhat monumental feel, rather than the mish-mash of stories mixed together with no order, leaving it a little bit haphazard and formless. Carroll John Daly's "Three-Gun Terry" should have been included, as it's considered the first hardboiled detective story. Regardless of it's literary quality, it deserves a place in this collection for it's historical importance. There are pages in the book where alone, a small image of a dead man's hand appears near a gun beside a pool of blood. Nice look, and most fitting for the subject, yet it appears sporadically throughout the tome instead of uniform, making it look like poor and sloppy editing on the part of the publisher. Finally, some stories appear from the same issue, giving the impression that the editor probably got lazy in his research hence probably missing out on other good stories which he could have included in the book had he been more patient in his research.
A huge part of the appeal of reading these fictive snapshots of a bygone age is not only the literary and historical aspects but also a romantic one: reading these tales one could almost see a white man in a buttoned shirt and slacks with a cigar/cigarette in mouth and a bottle of liquor at the side of the table, pounding at the typewriter way into the night.
An important document of and an important contribution to American and world literature, is a lavish tribute to the foremost pulp mag of it's genre and it's authors, many forgotten and brought back to life after decades of neglect in these generous pages.
December 20, 2018
Pulp fiction collection with some gems and some selections I was surprised at. I want to emphasize that this is a large, inclusive collection available in one tome for the great convenience of the reader. No searching through old magazines or records. There are some I wish I had not read though - like a Klan story? Was not expecting that.
Enjoy the gems and skip the ugly.
Enjoy the gems and skip the ugly.
September 3, 2014
This is a beautiful and enormous collection but, sadly, my only purpose was to read the Cornell Woolrich tale herein, and then back to ILL it goes. Coincidentally, it was the last story in the book.
The story was "Borrowed Crime" and I think it ended up on my list because its set-up features Woolrich using the abject poverty of the Depression as his plot prompt. A poor man discovers that his son *must* receive treatment (actually, the treatment is being sent out to hot, dry western climes) or surely die. But he is absolutely poverty-stricken. Then, spying a headline, he concocts a scheme to lie to a paper offering a thousand dollar reward for information about a crime - his lie will be that he himself committed the crime, but he'll get the money first and then cool his heels in jail until his wife and doctor prove he couldn't possibly have done it. Then, things go bad, when the only witness, the rich victim's daughter, identifies him positively as the stranger seen by her moments before the deed. And then, things get worse...
It's not a very good story. The set-up is good, and the scene with the witness identification is very nicely done, but the central plot hook of the reward money seems highly dubious (even Woolrich seems to think so, as he rushes past it pretty quickly) and the second half of the story features an extended sequence of a character disguised as another, but because of that central section there's never any doubt that the character is someone is disguise. It's a pretty simple crime caper tale, when you get right down to it, nothing special. I'm surprised it's included here - perhaps it's the only story Woolrich ever sold to BLACK MASK? Ah, well...
The story was "Borrowed Crime" and I think it ended up on my list because its set-up features Woolrich using the abject poverty of the Depression as his plot prompt. A poor man discovers that his son *must* receive treatment (actually, the treatment is being sent out to hot, dry western climes) or surely die. But he is absolutely poverty-stricken. Then, spying a headline, he concocts a scheme to lie to a paper offering a thousand dollar reward for information about a crime - his lie will be that he himself committed the crime, but he'll get the money first and then cool his heels in jail until his wife and doctor prove he couldn't possibly have done it. Then, things go bad, when the only witness, the rich victim's daughter, identifies him positively as the stranger seen by her moments before the deed. And then, things get worse...
It's not a very good story. The set-up is good, and the scene with the witness identification is very nicely done, but the central plot hook of the reward money seems highly dubious (even Woolrich seems to think so, as he rushes past it pretty quickly) and the second half of the story features an extended sequence of a character disguised as another, but because of that central section there's never any doubt that the character is someone is disguise. It's a pretty simple crime caper tale, when you get right down to it, nothing special. I'm surprised it's included here - perhaps it's the only story Woolrich ever sold to BLACK MASK? Ah, well...
October 5, 2015
This is a great example of a collection that is flawed, but achieves exactly what it set out to do in the foreword.
This is a collection of stories (mostly short, but some novella-length and The Maltese Falcon is the serialized version of the novel) from Black Mask magazine, perhaps the biggest name in pulp/noir publishing in the heyday of the genre. Each author chosen is represented only once, so there is a lot of variety I style within this narrow genre. The stories selected are not necessarily the best by these authors or their most famous work; many were chosen because they have not been reprinted before. That causes this to be a little uneven, but the mini-bios for each author can point any interested reader toward more of what they like. Besides, it's cool to read stories that have been undeservedly lost to the ages.
At its best, this collection shows some of the best pulp fiction ever published. At its worst, there are 3 or 4 stories with enough blatant racism to make you pull your collar, Dangerfield-style. The overall quality is high, though, and the quantity is abundant. I will be using this volume for years as a reference tool for digging up more obscure noir stories from the period.
This is a collection of stories (mostly short, but some novella-length and The Maltese Falcon is the serialized version of the novel) from Black Mask magazine, perhaps the biggest name in pulp/noir publishing in the heyday of the genre. Each author chosen is represented only once, so there is a lot of variety I style within this narrow genre. The stories selected are not necessarily the best by these authors or their most famous work; many were chosen because they have not been reprinted before. That causes this to be a little uneven, but the mini-bios for each author can point any interested reader toward more of what they like. Besides, it's cool to read stories that have been undeservedly lost to the ages.
At its best, this collection shows some of the best pulp fiction ever published. At its worst, there are 3 or 4 stories with enough blatant racism to make you pull your collar, Dangerfield-style. The overall quality is high, though, and the quantity is abundant. I will be using this volume for years as a reference tool for digging up more obscure noir stories from the period.
April 23, 2017
If vintage noir is your cup of tea this book will be right up your alley. Hammett, Chandler, etc. There is an author here named Frederick Brown whose writing I like a lot. I have a SF anthology of short stories by him (Parodox Lost) that I pick up now and then. He wrote for tv in the 50s and his stories are reminiscent of that. In Black Mask the tales also are reminiscent of tough guy 50s tv and 30s thru 50s noir films. As I've mentioned before - I love this kind of stuff!
June 19, 2013
Okay, this book is the size of War and Peace. That being said it took over a year to get through it. There were a lot of memorable stories by many well-known authors, only four of which have appeared in other anthologies. The original, anthologized version of the Maltese Falcon is here in its entirety.
December 30, 2020
Wow...this took me a loooooooooooong time to get through, but I'm glad I stuck with it as there are some true gems of the noir genre in here. I will miss reading you slowly, you massively heavy, wrist breaking book!
July 15, 2023
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December 2, 2015
It's a huge collection of stories ranging from trashy (in a good way, mostly) to classic.
One quibble, and it's a slightly alarming one. The editor says in the bio of Katherine Brocklebank (a great story, by the way - one of four she wrote for BLACK MASK - but she seems to have done nothing else, as far as I can find...) that, other than hiding behind initials and pseudonyms, no other women seem to have written for BLACK MASK, despite its having a female editor for many years.
It happens not to be true, though there are no other examples in this compilation. At least nine women wrote for BLACK MASK, according to a sourced citation in Wiki (yes, it can be wrong, but still...). Just in the name of accuracy, I felt it should be pointed out.
One quibble, and it's a slightly alarming one. The editor says in the bio of Katherine Brocklebank (a great story, by the way - one of four she wrote for BLACK MASK - but she seems to have done nothing else, as far as I can find...) that, other than hiding behind initials and pseudonyms, no other women seem to have written for BLACK MASK, despite its having a female editor for many years.
It happens not to be true, though there are no other examples in this compilation. At least nine women wrote for BLACK MASK, according to a sourced citation in Wiki (yes, it can be wrong, but still...). Just in the name of accuracy, I felt it should be pointed out.
September 26, 2020
Read this one long ago. Even as a compilation, this one was too much of a mixed bag. The lay-out and illustrations were enjoyable. Font and overall presentation was also rather retro, with the introductory write-up placing things in perspective. But...
Unfortunately most of the stories remained tied to their time. There were a few jewels, expectedly. The rest, in my humble opinion, were entirely forgettable.
In case you are looking for period pieces, this one is good. Otherwise, if you are looking for good reads with crime and punishment at their centre, stick to Hammett, Chandler and McDonald. There's a reason why they are giants.
Your call.
Unfortunately most of the stories remained tied to their time. There were a few jewels, expectedly. The rest, in my humble opinion, were entirely forgettable.
In case you are looking for period pieces, this one is good. Otherwise, if you are looking for good reads with crime and punishment at their centre, stick to Hammett, Chandler and McDonald. There's a reason why they are giants.
Your call.
June 5, 2015
Review title: Sears catalog of Black Mask mysteries
This 1100-page collection of Black Mask murder mysteries is as thick as the Sears catalog of its day, and just as chock full of goods--good guys, gory gangsters, and grand dames. The stories are all collected from the Black Mask magazine form the 20s, 30s, and 40s, by authors as famous as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, John D. MacDonald, and Cornell Woolrich.
As in any omnibus collection like this, the quality of the stories tend to be uneven. It is easy to see why some authors were more famous than others. Also, from the biographies introducing each story and its author (no author is represented more than once) it appears that in most cases these are not the author's best-known stories or even best-known characters. Perhaps it was Penzler's intention to showcase lesser known stories (many stories are do appear here in anthology form for the first time) but sometimes I was left feeling cheated.
Some things are consistent in these stories--the language is tough and colorful, the cars are long and fast, the women are cold, bold, and beautiful. I was also struck by how the historical contest of the times when these stories were written and first published shaped their style, content, and outcomes:
* The go-go years of the 20s whose surface prosperity was driven by the casual law-breaking of the Prohibition era.
* The down years of the Depression where every level of society was under pressure to survive financially, and some succumbed to temptations to crime, and even those tho didn't fed off the desperation.
* The war years of the 40s where a living was easier to earn but life was cheaper and violence an easy answer to too many questions.
While most of these stories still stand on their own as entertainment and literature, they all stand out in these contexts with the darker relevance of cultural and political history
This 1100-page collection of Black Mask murder mysteries is as thick as the Sears catalog of its day, and just as chock full of goods--good guys, gory gangsters, and grand dames. The stories are all collected from the Black Mask magazine form the 20s, 30s, and 40s, by authors as famous as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, John D. MacDonald, and Cornell Woolrich.
As in any omnibus collection like this, the quality of the stories tend to be uneven. It is easy to see why some authors were more famous than others. Also, from the biographies introducing each story and its author (no author is represented more than once) it appears that in most cases these are not the author's best-known stories or even best-known characters. Perhaps it was Penzler's intention to showcase lesser known stories (many stories are do appear here in anthology form for the first time) but sometimes I was left feeling cheated.
Some things are consistent in these stories--the language is tough and colorful, the cars are long and fast, the women are cold, bold, and beautiful. I was also struck by how the historical contest of the times when these stories were written and first published shaped their style, content, and outcomes:
* The go-go years of the 20s whose surface prosperity was driven by the casual law-breaking of the Prohibition era.
* The down years of the Depression where every level of society was under pressure to survive financially, and some succumbed to temptations to crime, and even those tho didn't fed off the desperation.
* The war years of the 40s where a living was easier to earn but life was cheaper and violence an easy answer to too many questions.
While most of these stories still stand on their own as entertainment and literature, they all stand out in these contexts with the darker relevance of cultural and political history
Read
August 12, 2015An 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.
Featuring
Deadly Diamonds
Dancing Rats
A Prize Fighter Fighting for His Life
A Parrot that Wouldn't Talk
Including
Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon as it was originally published
Lester Dent's Luck in print for the first time
July 21, 2014
Fun, fun and more fun, with some disturbing elements along the way. Black Mask is a legendary magazine, and this collection put together by the wonderful people at Black Lizard preserves its riches for all. The quality of the content is uneven, as it must be, but it's a delight to dip in and read something at random -- you truly don't know what you'll find. Modern sensibilities may reel here at the casual racism, sexism, misogyny, misanthropy, homophobia, ethnic slurring, etc. in many of the tales (as is also the case in the companion volume, The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps), but that comes with the fact that the stories are not of the present and are true to their times. Reading them is a not-always pleasant journey to the past, like watching the original Bugs Bunny cartoons before they were altered to eliminate the unquestioned prejudices of the era. There is good writing here, and there are many good stories; be prepared for the unsavory aspects and you'll find much to admire in the writing.
June 12, 2016
This is a huge book, and pretty much everything in it is choice, being some of the best stories from thirty years of Black Mask magazine, the number one source of hard-boiled detective and crime fiction in the pulp days.
I especially liked some of the shorter stories that sneaked a punch into a few pages.
As was the trend at the time, there are both overt and contextual racism and sexism in some of the stories; it's noted in one introduction that Black Mask readers were not fond of independent, competent female leads. The story "The Color of Honor" especially turns upon the lead character's racism, in a way that makes his mindset nearly incomprehensible to some modern readers.
Still, the wide collection of authors and types of stories make this a rewarding read and the page to price ratio makes this an excellent bang for your buck.
For more anthology reviews, see
I especially liked some of the shorter stories that sneaked a punch into a few pages.
As was the trend at the time, there are both overt and contextual racism and sexism in some of the stories; it's noted in one introduction that Black Mask readers were not fond of independent, competent female leads. The story "The Color of Honor" especially turns upon the lead character's racism, in a way that makes his mindset nearly incomprehensible to some modern readers.
Still, the wide collection of authors and types of stories make this a rewarding read and the page to price ratio makes this an excellent bang for your buck.
For more anthology reviews, see
May 15, 2024
Regarding the original serialised version of The Maltese Falcon contained in this book:
It's very interesting to compare the novel with this first form. The overall story is the same but there are a large number of text differences.
It lacks some asides in conversation and incidental details. This is what makes the storytelling in this version tighter and a little pacier than the book version.
Some of the differences are unimportant - a substitution of "sharp" for "determined", or a change of word order. For example, "eyes opened suddenly" versus "eyes suddenly opened".
Other differences are arguably significant. For example, after saying of Wilmer "He makes me nervous", Spade adds in this version, "I'm afraid of him".
If you are a fan of the novel, I would say this rare version is a must-read and worth getting this book for alone. The huge wealth of other stories is a bonus.
It's very interesting to compare the novel with this first form. The overall story is the same but there are a large number of text differences.
It lacks some asides in conversation and incidental details. This is what makes the storytelling in this version tighter and a little pacier than the book version.
Some of the differences are unimportant - a substitution of "sharp" for "determined", or a change of word order. For example, "eyes opened suddenly" versus "eyes suddenly opened".
Other differences are arguably significant. For example, after saying of Wilmer "He makes me nervous", Spade adds in this version, "I'm afraid of him".
If you are a fan of the novel, I would say this rare version is a must-read and worth getting this book for alone. The huge wealth of other stories is a bonus.
January 17, 2012
If you are interested in the historical base for todays detective/ suspense genre this book is for you. The pulp magazines ( Black Mask-- the longest running and most sucessful)were the proving ground for many key writers of the genre. Some of the stories will appear dated and use language the is not politically correct in today's world, but they reflect the time they were written. The book is worth it alone for the original serial version of " The Maltese Falcon"--- the magazine version differs from the novel version in over 2000 text instances. At over 1100 pages, this is a long term project but worth the time if literary history is important to you.
January 1, 2015
Good book. Entertaining and illustrative. Being an omnibus, not all stories have the same level of quality, but the general average is quite high. A very nice experience if you want to capture the style of the Black Mask type of short stories. It is addictive. In general, they are stories depicting a hard-boiled private dick. Some dialogues are in the best Chandler style. But you also have some instances of English-style crime story. All in all, a good anthology and a lasting (well over 1000 pages) entertainment.
November 1, 2019
In any anthology this massive (1100+ pages), there are bound to be hits and misses. And after taking some three years to wend my way through, I can't even remember which ones were which! Although I wouldn't recommend this book as an entre into the pulp detective field, the mix of classic (Hammett, Chandler, Woolrich) and forgotten (Champion, Fisher, Sale) authors and the bias towards seldom- or never-reprinted stories makes this a must for anyone who doesn't live in a house that smells like moldering pulp magazines, but wishes they did.
September 8, 2013
An 1100 page short story anthology that I picked up from my local library. I was turned on to this by a review of a story by Cornell Woolrich posted by one of my GR friends. Thanks, Cathy, for that.
Anyone who is a fan of noir is sure to find several stories in this collection that will pique their interest.
Anyone who is a fan of noir is sure to find several stories in this collection that will pique their interest.
January 22, 2016
Love the oldies....love the older lingo.... but I do prefer the old movies. I need to see the attire, the cars, the curling cigarette smoke, the buildings, and only in black and white of course.
Want to read
February 26, 2024Read so far:
Come and get it / Erle Stanley Gardner
Cry silence / Fredric Brown --2
Arson plus / Peter Collinson
Fall guy / George Harmon Coxe
Doors in the dark / Frederick Nebel
*Luck / Lester Dent
The Maltese falcon / Dashiell Hammett--see separate rating
Ten carats of lead / Stewart Sterling
Murder is bad luck / Wyatt Blassingame
Her dagger before me / Talmadge Powell --3
*One shot / Charles G. Booth
The dancing rats / Richard Sale
Bracelets / Katherine Brocklebank
Diamonds mean death / Thomas Walsh
Murder in the ring / Raoul Whitfield
The parrot that wouldn't talk / Walter C. Brown
Let the dead alone / Merle Constiner
Knights of the Open Palm / Carroll John Daly
Waiting for Rusty / William Cole
Rainbow diamonds / Ramon Decolta
The ring on the hand of death / William Rollins, Jr
Body snatcher / Theodore A. Tinsley
Murder on the Gayway / Dwight V. Babcock
The key / Cleve F. Adams
*The bloody bokhara / William Campbell Gault
*A taste for cognac / Brett Halliday
Sauce for the gander / Day Keene
A little different / W. T. Ballard
The shrieking skeleton / Charles M. Green
Drop dead twice / Hank Searles
*The sound of the shot / Dale Clark
Flaming angel / Frederick C. Davis
Odds on death / Don M. Mankiewicz
Those Catrini / Norvell Page
Smoke in your eyes / Hugh B. Cave
Blood, sweat and biers / Robert Reeves
The black bottle / Whitman Chambers
The corpse didn't kick / Milton K. Ozaki
*Try the girl / Raymond Chandler
Don't you cry for me / Norbert Davis
T. McGuirk steals a diamond / Robert Cummings
Wait for me / Steve Fisher
*Ask me another / Frank Gruber
Dirty work / Horace McCoy
Merely murder / Julius Long
Murder in one syllable / John D. MacDonald
The apes from the East / H.H. Stinson
*The color of honor / Richard Connell
Middleman for murder / Bruno Fischer
*The man who chose the devil / Richard Deming
Beer-bottle polka / C.M. Kornbluth
Borrowed crime / Cornell Woolrich
Come and get it / Erle Stanley Gardner
Cry silence / Fredric Brown --2
Arson plus / Peter Collinson
Fall guy / George Harmon Coxe
Doors in the dark / Frederick Nebel
*Luck / Lester Dent
The Maltese falcon / Dashiell Hammett--see separate rating
Ten carats of lead / Stewart Sterling
Murder is bad luck / Wyatt Blassingame
Her dagger before me / Talmadge Powell --3
*One shot / Charles G. Booth
The dancing rats / Richard Sale
Bracelets / Katherine Brocklebank
Diamonds mean death / Thomas Walsh
Murder in the ring / Raoul Whitfield
The parrot that wouldn't talk / Walter C. Brown
Let the dead alone / Merle Constiner
Knights of the Open Palm / Carroll John Daly
Waiting for Rusty / William Cole
Rainbow diamonds / Ramon Decolta
The ring on the hand of death / William Rollins, Jr
Body snatcher / Theodore A. Tinsley
Murder on the Gayway / Dwight V. Babcock
The key / Cleve F. Adams
*The bloody bokhara / William Campbell Gault
*A taste for cognac / Brett Halliday
Sauce for the gander / Day Keene
A little different / W. T. Ballard
The shrieking skeleton / Charles M. Green
Drop dead twice / Hank Searles
*The sound of the shot / Dale Clark
Flaming angel / Frederick C. Davis
Odds on death / Don M. Mankiewicz
Those Catrini / Norvell Page
Smoke in your eyes / Hugh B. Cave
Blood, sweat and biers / Robert Reeves
The black bottle / Whitman Chambers
The corpse didn't kick / Milton K. Ozaki
*Try the girl / Raymond Chandler
Don't you cry for me / Norbert Davis
T. McGuirk steals a diamond / Robert Cummings
Wait for me / Steve Fisher
*Ask me another / Frank Gruber
Dirty work / Horace McCoy
Merely murder / Julius Long
Murder in one syllable / John D. MacDonald
The apes from the East / H.H. Stinson
*The color of honor / Richard Connell
Middleman for murder / Bruno Fischer
*The man who chose the devil / Richard Deming
Beer-bottle polka / C.M. Kornbluth
Borrowed crime / Cornell Woolrich
February 19, 2025
Finally
Over 1100 pages. I started it back in March, but it was mostly so incredibly shitty that I stopped whenever I got something else in my hands.
The Keene, Chandler, and MacDonald stories were good; the only memorable ones to be sure. Probably a few others too.
One good thing you can say about short stories though: it's nearly impossible to shoe-horn the Ragtag-Band-of-Misfits gimmick into something this brief.
Getting So Crappy, I Had to Bail at 38%
These stories are getting worse and worse. I was a little disappointed to have to slog through a Spy Story, but shortly after came a Female Detective ... now a guy who thinks he's really funny (not the character, the author).
I'm out.
I just looked at the Table of Contents. There're still 3 stories I'd like to try: one by Day Keene, one by Horace McCoy, and one by John D. MacDonald. So I won't abandon this just yet. I'm just not gonna take a chance on people I never heard of. Not for no 1200 pages I'm not.
Over 1100 pages. I started it back in March, but it was mostly so incredibly shitty that I stopped whenever I got something else in my hands.
The Keene, Chandler, and MacDonald stories were good; the only memorable ones to be sure. Probably a few others too.
One good thing you can say about short stories though: it's nearly impossible to shoe-horn the Ragtag-Band-of-Misfits gimmick into something this brief.
Getting So Crappy, I Had to Bail at 38%
These stories are getting worse and worse. I was a little disappointed to have to slog through a Spy Story, but shortly after came a Female Detective ... now a guy who thinks he's really funny (not the character, the author).
I'm out.
I just looked at the Table of Contents. There're still 3 stories I'd like to try: one by Day Keene, one by Horace McCoy, and one by John D. MacDonald. So I won't abandon this just yet. I'm just not gonna take a chance on people I never heard of. Not for no 1200 pages I'm not.
June 7, 2017
Although I didn't read every single story in this collection, I did read enough to know that these authors were fantastic storytellers. It's small wonder that so many of them provided content for the burgeoning movie industry of their time.
FWIW, there's one female author who wrote stories for Black Mask about a woman detective, which was apparently not well-received by the magazine's readership. I found that an interesting contrast to the early film industry, which embraced women storytellers. A lot of that was due to the desire to keep film "clean and proper", a role that men then thought suitable for women. So, the idea that women could write about tough women might have put the men who read these stories off. Or even the women who read them.
My, how times have changed, huh?
Anyway, I recommend this book highly, not only as great reading, but as a great way to study the techniques of story.
FWIW, there's one female author who wrote stories for Black Mask about a woman detective, which was apparently not well-received by the magazine's readership. I found that an interesting contrast to the early film industry, which embraced women storytellers. A lot of that was due to the desire to keep film "clean and proper", a role that men then thought suitable for women. So, the idea that women could write about tough women might have put the men who read these stories off. Or even the women who read them.
My, how times have changed, huh?
Anyway, I recommend this book highly, not only as great reading, but as a great way to study the techniques of story.
September 26, 2021
I'm only halfway through this mammoth anthology, but it's already worth 5 stars. The collection is so large (more than 1,100 pages), so broad, and so impressive in quality that it provides as much entertainment as 4 or 5 regular anthologies. For hardboiled fans, the book includes the complete version of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon that appeared in serialized form in Black Mask in 1929 and 1930. In addition to Hammett, nearly every great pulp writer is represented, including Fredric Brown, George Harmon Coxe, Frederick Nebel, Lester Dent, Carroll John Daly, William Campbell Gault, Brett Halliday, Day Keene, Hugh B. Cave, Raymond Chandler, Norbert Davis, Steve Fisher, Horace McCoy, John D. MacDonald, Cornell Woolrich, and many others.
August 8, 2020
Like any anthology, some stories were great, some were good, and some stunk. The highlight of the anthology for me was the serial Dashiell Hammett wrote of "The Maltese Falcon" before the edited it to make the novel version. Because these stories were written in the 30s and 40s the racism and prejudices of the time are rampant. "The Color of Honor" was the worst in this aspect and probably could have been left out of the anthology altogether. The editor did give an attempt at a trigger warning in the introduction to the story.
Read
May 5, 2022After reading a few of Hammett's stories in The Big Book Of The Continental Op, including the serialized novel The Cleansing of Poisonville, I was about to start on the novel The Maltese Falcon when I learned that it too was originally published as a serial in Black Mask magazine. So I got this hefty volume, nearly twice the size of The Big Book Of The Continental Op, so I could read the original serial version of Maltese Falcon. This book includes the stories as they originally appeared including illustrations, which The Big Book Of The Continental Op did not have.
August 9, 2017
Over a thousand pages of the best stories you'll ever read: that's The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories. It includes a version of The Maltese Falcon that was serialized in Black Mask -- and has never before been published outside of that magazine. In my opinion, it's a far better novel than is the more well-known cousin.
This book is without doubt the best collection of mysteries and detective stories you'll find between two covers.
This book is without doubt the best collection of mysteries and detective stories you'll find between two covers.
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