SUPERB COLLECTION OF CLASSIC MYSTERY TALES The Legendary Detectives II is a real treat for aficionados of classic detective fiction: Eight tales of the greatest fictional sleuths who prowled in search of murder and mystery through the era of gaslight and hansom cabs. A follow-up to the bestselling e-book, The Legendary Detectives, grand treats await inside. To wit: the rarest adventure of that legendary blind detective, Max Carrados, "The Bunch of Violets," never reprinted in any Carrados collection. Then for lovers of the exotic, Mr. Commissioner Sanders untangles a web of intrigue along the remote outposts of the Congo River, in "The Ghost Walker." The exotic as well as the scientific are in display in "The Silent Bullet," the very first story to feature that Golden Age scientific sleuth, Craig Kennedy. The exotic is also front and center in "The Headless Mummies," an adventure of Fu Manchu creator Sax Rohmer's extraordinary detective Moris Klaw. Next is a pair of tales featuring the two most famous brains among gaslight detectives: the Man in the Corner in "The York Mystery," and The Thinking Machine in "The Great Auto Mystery." Next, that inimitable, priest-detective, Father Brown, tackles the case of "The Head of Caesar." Included is the last adventure of the world's greatest detective, "His Last Bow: An Episode from the War Service of Sherlock Holmes." The aging sleuth is dragged from retirement to match wits with the Huns master-spy in the darkest days of World War I, in this story recorded by his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle. There are hours of mystery reading pleasure in this exclusive e-book, selected and introduced by Jean Marie Stine.

Hillerman, author of the Joe Leaphorn mysteries, and Herbert, editor of The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing, trace this short-story genre from its beginnings in the hands of Edgar Allen Poe through its development by the likes of Erle Stanley Gardner, Mary Roberts Rinehart and Anthony Boucher to its current practice by such masters as Marcia Muller. Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which established a great many of the whodunit conventions, is indispensable to such an overview. Raymond Chandler's "I'll be Waiting" emits a doom-laden atmosphere right from the first line; William Faulkner shows unexpected economy of language?and a transparent plot?in "An Error in Chemistry." Ed McBain scores high marks in "Small Homicide," in which the tiny details of a baby's untimely death resonate uncomfortably. As represented in this competent, unstartling collection, Linda Barnes ("Lucky Penny") easily outsasses Sue Grafton ("The Parker Shotgun"). Hillerman makes a solid appearance with "Chee's Witch," and in "Benny's Space" Muller captures the full subtle force of her novel-length vision.