A celebration of the hard-boiled detective, a true American folk hero who stands with one foot firmly planted in the imagination of writers & the other in the reality of 20th-century urban America. Here is a healthy sampling of the genre, including twenty-five stories from some of the finest writers of detective fiction. Meet the gumshoe heroes of Raymond Chandler, Hugh B. Cave, Robert F. Howard, Erle Stanley Gardener, John D. MacDonald, & Leigh Brackett. Sail / Lester Dent The magician murder / Raoul Whitfield Black / Paul Cain The king in yellow / Raymond Chandler Chains of darkness / Frederick Nebel The arm of Mother Manzoli / Merle Constiner Murder in the red / Norbert Davis Brand of Kane / Hugh B. Cave Two biers for Buster / William Campbell Gault Blond cargo / Fred MacIsaac Mr. Sinister / Carroll John Daly The kid clips a coupon / Erle Stanley Gardner Tarantula bait / Paul Chadwick The sinister sphere / Fred C. Davis The lady is a corpse! / John D. MacDonald The lunatic plague / Donald Wandrei Slack wires / Arthur J. Burks Homicide hunch / Robert Leslie Bellem Power of the puppets / Fritz Leiber Death is a vampire / Robert Bloch Death at the Main / Frank Gruber I feel bad killing you / Leigh Brackett The case of the frozen corpses / Ray Cummings Names in the black book / Robert E. Howard