An anthology of storiesA new anthology of twenty-nine short stories features an array of baffling locked-room mysteries by Michael Collins, Bill Pronzini, Susanna Gregory, H. R. F. Keating, Peter Lovesey, Kate Ellis, and Lawrence Block, among others.

Pulp fiction has been looked down on as a guilty pleasure, but it offers the perfect form of entertainment: the very best storytelling filled with action, surprises, sound and fury. In short, all the exhiliration of a roller-coaster ride. The 1920s in America saw the proliferation of hundreds of dubiously named but thrillingly entertaining pulp magazines in America: Black Mask, Amazing, Astounding, Spicy Stories, Ace-High, Detective Magazine, Dare-Devil Aces. It was in these luridly-coloured publications, printed on the cheapest pulp paper, that the first gems began to appear. The one golden rule for writers of pulp fiction was to adhere to the art of storytelling. Each story had to have a beginning, an end, economically-etched characters, but plenty going on, both in terms of action and emotions. Pulp magazines were the TV of their day, plucking readers from drab lives and planting them firmly in thrilling make-believe, successors...

Evan Tanner can’t sleep. Ever. Which gives him plenty of free time to get involved in lots of interesting endeavors in all sorts of exotic locales. Now Tanner’s in Thailand with a partially baked plan and a butterfly net, hoping to snare a beautiful missing chanteuse who’s metamorphosed into an international jewel thief. Tanner hopes everyone will buy his disguise as a rare butterfly researcher. And everyone does… Except the guerilla band holding him captive. They intend to remove his head when the sun rises, so Tanner must put his fate in the hands of a randy Thai youth who will do anything for a woman, even set a suspected spy free. Soon they’re running through the jungle together, chased by bandits, soldiers, and yellow fever, and racing headlong into the heart of darkness – and into the flames of war.

This time it started with a call girl.She came running to Eddie Manso scared stiff. A bad scene with some sadistic hood. The guy had told the girl he was a rich banker. That's what interested Eddie. The guy had said he owned the banks.A hood who owned banks?Eddie called the colonel and the colonel called the others...There were six of them. Specialists. Ex-soldiers, each with a unique talent. There game was getting to a special kind of vermin, the kind that preyed on innocents... the kind the law never seemed to be able to grab.There was always trouble, but this one was going to be really rough. The "banker" was no ordinary hood. And he had his own army of specialists.

From Library JournalBlock introduced Evan Tanner, specialist in lost political causes, in this rousing, often comic 1966 yarn. Unable to sleep for 15 years following a Korean War head wound, Tanner devotes his considerable free time to reading, learning languages, and turning his affliction into a livelihood by writing theses and dissertations for graduate students in New York. Then he learns of hidden Armenian gold in Turkey and sets off on an unlikely adventure that makes him the most wanted fugitive in the world as well as the accidental leader of a Macedonian revolt. Block's tale gets off to an engaging start, sags in the middle partly because of some bone-jarring violence, and recovers neatly at the end. Nick Sullivan handles the characters' many accents quite well. Highly recommended.

El crimen es el crimen, pero el asesinato es algo mayor, diferente. Nadie tiene derecho a arrojar al río la cabeza de un pequeño ladrón y chantajista. Por lo menos según el codigo de honor de Matt Scudder…Giros Jablon, un delincuente de poca monta, acude a donde un antiguo policía al que respetaba, Matt Sudder, para entregarle un sobre que debe abrir tan sólo si muere violentamente. Cuando es asesinado Scudder lo abre y averigua que estaba chantajeando a tres personas importantes una de las cuales, con casi total seguridad, es el responsable de su asesinato.

Matt Scudder ha pasado muchos de sus días sumergido en el alcohol, dejándose el alma en cada rincón de la Gran Manzana. Hace tiempo perteneció al Departamento de Policía de Nueva York, pero todo aquello ya quedó atrás. Ahora es un detective sin licencia, perseverante y de mente afilada, y no deja que sus obsesiones enturbien la investigación.Lo acaban de contratar para que demuestre una sospecha: que Richard Thurman, personaje influyente de la vida pública, planeó el brutal asesinato de su esposa, estando ella embarazada. En medio de la investigación aparecerán pistas desconcertantes, aparentemente desligadas del caso, pero todos los misterios acabarán confluyendo para enseñar al detective que una vida joven e inocente puede ser comprada, corrompida y aniquilada.`Un baile en el matadero` recibió el premio Edgar 1992.

`Un millón de dolares en efectivo o matamos a tu mujer`. Los traficantes de drogas son presa fácil de la extorsión y, por razones obvias, no pueden acudir a la policía. Kenan Khoury recibió el mensaje, pero vaciló frente al precio del rescate: no volvió a ver a su mujer con vida. Ahora sólo piensa en vengar su muerte. Para ello contrata los servicios de Matt Scudder, un detective privado sin apenas trabajo y que sufre algún que otro problema con el alcohol. Con ayuda de dos genios de los ordenadores, un punk callejero y una amiga prostituta, Scudder busca a los asesinos en los bajos fondos de Brooklyn.

The best USA-based stories in the Akashic noir series, compiled into one volume and edited by Johnny Temple!

These were the dark days for Matthew Scudder. An ex- New York cop, he had drowned his career in booze. Now he was drinking away his life in a succession of seedy establishments that opened early and closed late, reduced to doing paid "favors" for the cronies who gathered with him to worship the bottle.Now, in a sad and lonely place like so many before it, opportunity comes knocking – a chance to help the ginmil's owner recover his stolen doctored financial records; a chance to help out a drinking buddy accused of murdering his wife. But when cases flow together in dangerous and disturbing ways – like the nightmare images in a drunkard's delirium – it's time for Scudder to change his priorities: to staying sober…and staying alive.

For years, readers have turned to Lawrence Block’s novels for mesmerizing entertainment. And for years. writers have turned to Block’s Writing the Novel for candid, conversational, practical advice on how to put a publishable novel on paper.Now that you’ve discovered it, you, too, will find this to be the guide for the working novelist. Filled with Block’s experiences and much that he’s learned from others, the look helps you:• identify the type of novel you’re meant to write• invite plot ideas to bubble up from your subconscious• develop characters who act, feel and speak like real people• use what you know and learn what you must• snare readers from the start• keep writing• develop your style• market your work in a professional mannerBead what Lawrence Block has to say. Then write what you have to write. Your novel.

Por orden médica, Matt Scudder acaba de dejar el alcohol, pero mantenerse sobrio parece más difícil que mantenerse con vida, incluso en una ciudad como Nueva York. Una mole que, como Scudder sabe muy bien, puede aplastar a cualquiera. A pesar de su juventud, Kim también lo sabía, y por so había intentado escapar. Seguro que no merecía la vida de prostituta que el destino le había concedido, y sin duda no merecía la muerte que le tocó, y que Scudder no pudo evitarle. Para redimirse, el ex policía tendrá que encontrar a quien ha convertido a la chica en papilla, y para ello, arriesgar lo que aún queda de sí mismo. Esta novela le valió a Lawrence Block el premio Edgar, y marca un hito en la vida de su gran personaje, Matthew Scudder.

A collection of suspense stories, puzzle stories, whodunits and tricky whydunits involving police detectives, private eyes, talented and sometimes lucky amateurs, armchair detectives, and ethnic detectives.