This sequel to the original best-selling New Orleans Noir takes a literary tour through some of the darkest writing in New Orleans history.

Otto Penzler rounds up the most cunning, ruthless, criminals in mystery fiction.

The best mysteries — whether detective, historical, police procedural, cozy, or comedy-have one thing in common: a memorable culprit. For all the heroes in earnest pursuit, there are malefactors on the loose, determined to outfox their efforts and sow trouble in their wake. These are the rogues and villains who haunt our imaginations, but they often have more in common with their heroic counterparts than we might expect (and, as we shall see, some even moonlight as detectives or do-gooders themselves). The seventy-two handpicked stories in this collection introduce us to the miscreants who have schemed and slashed their way through the mystery canon over the past hundred and fifty years, captivating and confounding readers in the process.

MEET DELINQUENT PSYCHES OF ALL STRIPES, INCLUDING

gentleman thieves, calculating crooks, fearsome body snatchers, masters of disguise, morally-challenged lawyers, deceitful doctors, heinous hit men. charismatic con men, amoral adventurers, supernatural suspects, deviant detectives, vile villainesses, and cold-blooded killers

IN UNFORGETTABLE TALES BY

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Washington Irving, Jack London, L. T. Meade, 0. Henry, Sinclair Lewis, Edgar Wallace, Leslie Charteris, Erle Stanley Gardner, Edward 0. Hoch, David Morrell, Loren D. Estleman, and countless others.

O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings. Collected in this book (Golgotha Press, 2010) is a giant anthology of his work, including the stories, some early verses and a few letters.

"The Gentle Grafter" by O. Henry, Author of "The Four Million," "The Voice of the City," "The Trimmed Lamp," "Strictly Business," "Whirligigs," Etc.

Other Stories of the Four Million: A Madison Square Arabian Night; The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball; The Pendulum; Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen; The Assessor of Success; The Buyer from Cactus City; The Badge of Policeman O'Roon; Brickdust Row; The Making of a New Yorker; Vanity and Some Sables; The Social Triangle; The Purple Dress; The Foreign Policy of Company 99; The Lost Blend; A Harlem Tragedy; The Guilty Party — an East Side Tragedy; According to their Lights; A Midsummer Knight's Dream; The Last Leaf; The Count and the Wedding Guest; The Country of Elusion; The Ferry of Unfulfilment; The Tale of a Tainted Tenner; Elsie in New York; and the title story.

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.