Early ReviewersOtto Penzler

Read by Eric Conger, Oliver Wyman, Alan Sklar, Pete Larkin, and Jeff GurnerFrom its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in Black Mask. The urban crime stories that appeared in Black Mask helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games, films, and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by “the seminal and venerated mystery pulp magazine” (Booklist).Never before on audio, these vintage stories are darkest of the dark, and the best of the best.Includes:Black Mask was the apotheosis of American crime writing. It was the magazine where the first hardboiled detective story appeared. It was the modest domain in which such literary titans as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start. Crime fiction fans old and new will delight in rediscovering these taut, character-rich, heart-stopping tales, now on audio for the first time.Includes:Introduction by Keith Alan Deutsch; read by Eric Conger“Come and Get It” by Erle Stanley Gardner; read by Oliver Wyman“Arson Plus” by Peter Collinson (Dashiell Hammett); read by Alan Sklar“Fall Guy” by George Harmon Coxe; read by Pete Larkin“Doors in the Dark” by Frederick Nebel; read by Pete Larkin“Luck” by Lester Dent; read by Jeff Gurner