Given its extraordinary span, its international scope, and its variant styles and groundbreaking stylists, A Century of Great Suspense Stories is a singular achievement. A bestselling master of suspense himself Jeffery Deaver had the enviable task of selecting from the thousands of stories written over the past one hundred years those which best represented the classic form, as well as the justly celebrated authors whose ironic twists and stunning payoffs left a lasting, vivid, and unnerving impression. The result is a triumph. In this ambitious anthology you’ll revel in the sardonic, overtly amoral plotting of Patricia Highsmith. You’ll rediscover the strangely poignant and surprising turns of Stanley Ellin, and the profoundly underrated Margaret Millar, a genius who mixed savage social satire with brooding horror. You’ll be treated to Stephen King at his chilling best. You’ll find yourself on the violent urban streets of Ross Macdonald and Mickey Spillane, and seeped in the ominous regional flavor of Sharyn McCrumb and Tony Hillerman. You’ll marvel at the cunning webs spun by Lawrence Block, Ruth Rendell, Anthony Boucher, and Sara Paretsky, all of whom defy expectations as they reinvent the genre. And you’ll understand the awesome reputations of those authors who set the standard, such as the legendary Harlan Ellison, Fredric Brown, the master of the twist ending, and James M. Cain, uncannily skilled at knowing what went on between men and women behind closed doors. (The darker the room the better.) Delivering everything from the one-two punch of the detective story to the ingeniously precise trappings of the police procedural, from the disquieting corners of the criminal mind to sheer dread-inducing horror, A Century of Great Suspense Stories is a rich anthology of this popular literary genre, a stunning tribute to the art of storytelling, and to the men and women who have done it best

In rural Idaho a man with amnesia is missing. He had a picture taken of himself in front of a cabin he built and sent it to his wife. He said he had bouts of amnesia following a car accident. A detective from the big city is on his way out to solve the case. Local sheriff Bill Catlin shows him country sheriffs know a thing or two

Ken Corning, fighting to break a murder frame, tangles with the killers

The White Rings fight a murder gang

Bob Zane was certain that somewhere the desert held the evidence—carved in sand—to bring a murderer to justice

Perry Mason knew it was murder. But when the police got there it looked like suicide — except for the tall man in the tan-colored topcoat... and a most interesting fingerprint on the gun. Mason was after a hit-and-run driver and he set a trap. Into the trap walked a girl with innocent blue eyes and wheat-colored hair. Then, within twenty-four hours, Mason realized that someone was after him, and that he was holding a great big bag. At first Della Street and Paul Drake ribbed him about the girl, but it wasn’t funny when the police started building up a case not against the murderer, but against Perry Mason himself. The D.A. was licking his chops. But Mason had other ideas. With a few breaks he could rip the D.A.’s case wide open — he hoped!

For just over fifty years, Ellery Queen has dominated the American detective and mystery story scene. His annual collections of short and not-so-short stories by the cream of writers in the field have appeared for nearly forty of those years. Including a complete short novel by Erle Stanley Gardner, The Clue of the Screaming Woman, and seventeen novelettes and short stories by masters of mystery Robert Bloch, Hugh Pentecost, Victor Canning, Lloyd Biggie, Jr. and Ellery Queen himself, amongst many others

Ken Corning, fighting young lawyer, tries to earn an honest living in a city of graft

PERIL PRESS presents 3 short stories by Erle Stanley Gardner: The Case of the Invisible Circle The Case of the Knockout Bullet The Clue of the Onyx Ring

In their heyday, the true-crime pulp magazines spawned many of the masters of American detective fiction. These early gems have been unearthed and collected here for the first time

“You’ll have a tombstone on your chest, roses growin’ all around it, too, if you tie into that pair,” Mugs Magoo had warned Paul Pry. But the famous gang buster only laughed as he planned his next baffling deal — muscling artists were monkey meat to him

Jax Bowman and Jim Grood, avengers, fight a confidence man with his own weapons

Death in the desert is a grimmer thing than elsewhere—but in all ways the desert is a grim school for men, as Pete and his partner knew only too well

Ed Jenkins, dodging a murder rap, finds time to help another crook who is trying to go straight

The man who beats crooks at their own games... Follow the adventures of Paul Pry, a sophisticated, urbane genius whose greatest talent lies in uncovering the plots of criminals and snatching their booty when they least expect it. Pry and his cohort, the nefarious ex-cop Mugs Magoo, stay one step ahead of their villainous victims and foil their evil plots just when they are about to succeed. This long-awaited collection of Paul Pry stories shows Erle Stanley Gardner, who also created the celebrated Perry Mason series, at his best

Erle Stanley Gardner’s most popular pulp creation was undoubtedly Lester Leith, whose adventures are recorded in more than 60 novelets. Lester Leith was a Robin Hood of detectives who solved baffling mysteries in order to crack down on cracksmen. Instead of robbing the rich to help the poor, Lester Leith robbed crooks “of their ill-gotten spoils” and gave the proceeds to deserving charities — less “20 percent for costs of collection.” Lester Leith is pure nostalgia — and great fun. In this collection, Ellery Queen presents five of Lester Leith’s sparkling, audacious adventures

Pete Quint finds a hot market for air conditioning

An unstoppable anthology of crime stories culled from Black Mask magazine the legendary publication that turned a pulp phenomenon into literary mainstream. Black Mask was the apotheosis of noir. It was the magazine where the first hardboiled detective story, which was written by Carroll John Daly appeared. It was the slum in which such American literary titans like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler got their start, and it was the home of stories with titles like “Murder Is Bad Luck,” “Ten Carets of Lead,” and “Drop Dead Twice.” Collected here is best of the best, the hardest of the hardboiled, and the darkest of the dark of America’s finest crime fiction. This masterpiece collection represents a high watermark of America’s underbelly. Crime writing gets no better than this. Featuring • Deadly Diamonds • Dancing Rats • A Prize Fighter Fighting for His Life • A Parrot that Wouldn’t Talk Including • Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon as it was originally published • Lester Dent’s Luck in print for the first time

The BIGGEST, the BOLDEST, the MOST COMPREHENSIVE collection of PULP WRITING ever assembled! Weighing in at over a thousand pages, containing over forty-seven stories and two novels, this book is big baby, bigger and more powerful than a freight train — a bullet couldn’t pass through it. Here are the best stories and every major writer who ever appeared in celebrated Pulps like Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, and more. These are the classic tales that created the genre and gave birth to hard-hitting detectives who smoke criminals like packs of cigarettes; sultry dames whose looks are as lethal as a dagger to the chest; and gin-soaked hideouts where conversations are just preludes to murder. This is crime fiction at its gritty best. Including: • Three stories by Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Dashiell Hammett. • Complete novels from Carroll John Daly, the man who invented the hard-boiled detective, and Fredrick Nebel, one of the masters of the form. • A never before published Dashiell Hammett story. • Every other major pulp writer of the time, including Paul Cain, Steve Fisher, James M. Cain, Horace McCoy, and many, many more of whom you’ve probably never heard. • Three deadly sections — The Crimefighters, The Villains, and The Dames — with three unstoppable introductions by Harlan Coben, Harlan Ellison, and Laura Lippman. Featuring: • Plenty of reasons for murder, all of them good. • A kid so smart — he’ll die of it. • A soft-hearted loan shark’s legman learning — the hard way — never to buy a strange blonde a hamburger. • The uncanny “Moon Man” and his mad-money victims

Erle Stanley Gardner turns to a hair-raising tale about the hero of “Murder Up My Sleeve” — quiet, amazingly perceptive Terry Clane, who bids fair to rank with those other two favorites, Perry Mason and Doug Selby... Terry Clane, just back from China where he has been working on a secret government mission, runs into murder when he walks down the gangway at San Francisco. Whisked straight from the dock to police headquarters, Terry puts to good use all the powers of intense concentration he has learned in the Orient in order to beat the lie detector with its uncanny mind-reading.　 Terry quickly senses that despite his absence the police think he knows too much about the escape of a man convicted of murder. The fugitive has disappeared and Cynthia Renton, original, impetuous painter who was once Terry’s fiancée, has disappear too. Was Cynthia implicated in the escape? Where would she hide a fugitive from justice? Terry’s mind flew to Sou Ha, the sparkling vivacious daughter of his wisest Chinese friend, in her hidden, luxurious home in San Francisco’s Chinatown. How far would Sou Ha’s loyalty to Terry take her? Sight of the old Chinese figure of Chow Kok Koh, riding backward on his white mule, sent the lie detector needles shooting up. Terry had given that figure to Cynthia. What was it doing now, stained with blood, a clue in a brutal murder? A plot that never lets down from beginning to end, human and fascinating characters, a Story told with authentic punch, all prove that the maestro has done it again. From the appointment in the lonely warehouse to the explosive climax, it’s top mystery fare

Mason (with Della Street and Paul Drake, of course) takes on a super-baffling case involving — among other strange things— A shattering car wreck in which apparently no one was injured... A glamorous widow who should have had a husband but didn’t... An alarm clock that ticked away cheerfully under ground... A bank clerk who boasted brazenly about a $90,000 embezzlement... A girl who was always on hand when Perry Mason wanted her miles away, but was always missing when he needed her most... A client on trial for murder who wouldn’t even talk to Mason... A blood-stained bullet about which there was something very phoney... A photographer who could make a camera do everything but climb a tree... A gold mine without any gold... AND, last but not least — Perry Mason, all but hoist with his own petard

A Perry Mason Mystery... featuring the famous lawyer-detective in a bewildering case. Not one but TWO courtroom sessions — each with a different defendant — make this one of the most intriguing novels Erle Stanley Gardner has yet created. It all begins with a minor automobile accident featuring a building contractor and a glamorous photographer’s model. From then on it is a matter of snap decisions, snap judgments, and some telling snap-shots — one of them candid, and one of them fatal. When Mason gets in the act, Hamilton Burger figures the D.A.’s office can make a killing of its own — and bring in Mason’s head on a platter! Start on page one, play it to win, and you’ll be in on one of the most fabulous photo-finishes of Perry Mason’s career

Two poisonings and two shootings at the Shore mansion on the thirteenth of October are no mere coincidence. Nor is the presence, in the neighborhood, of that celebrated man-about-murder, Perry Mason. Warned by the local police to stay off the Shore case, Mason refuses to do so Result? His secretary, Della Street, is indicted on a charge of hiding a witness. And Mason is held as her accessory! Watch the Mighty Mason extricate himself from this legal noose while solving the Shore mystery with his usual finesse

After his employer dies in a fire, a caretaker hires Mason to allow him to keep his cat against the wishes of the men who inherit. When the caretaker is killed, Mason defends the woman accused of his murder

"Peter Brunold has a bloodshot glass eye to use the "morning after". It is distinctive, closely identified with him, and thus quite a handicap when a corpse is found clutching a bloodshot glass eye. Later, another corpse is found, with another bloodshot glass eye in hand. Perry Mason is in almost as much jeopardy as his client: the lawyer's fingerprints have been found on one of the alleged murder weapons."

In this novelette Perry Mason clears his client, despite damning evidence in the victim’s lovenest, through the lipstick kiss impression on the dead man’s forehead

Arthur Bickler was mad. The truck marked Skinner Hills Karakul Company was responsible for the accident. What’s more, the driver unceremoniously had snatched away his notebook in which he had written down the license number of the truck. He certainly thought he was entitled to $750 damages. Jackson thought he might get $500. Perry Mason compromised for $2000... He smelled more than sheep in them that hills... The first person Perry Mason ferreted out was Daphne Milfield, obviously a blonde bomber in spire of the swollen eyes. Then there was suave Harry Van Nuys — a bit too solicitous about his friend’s wife. And Carol Burbank, a streamlined beauty who knew she had brains — and used them. From then on it’s a matter of ships and shoes and candlewax — and for a time Della Street, paul Drake, and Perry mason wished they had left their clothes on the hickory limb and not gone near the water

A woman claiming not to be a bride consults Mason about her 'friend' whose husband, long thought to have died in a plane crash, turns up alive

A recipe to delight every gourmet of mystery fiction... Take a proxy fight and a series of mysterious phone calls from an unknown female who said her name was Rosalind. Add a couple of guns and a very dead blonde in a bare hotel room. Season with Perry Mason’s brilliant analytical mind... and some fast action by Della Street and Paul Drake. Pop it all into the courtroom... and you will have a murder case that is almost too hot to handle. At least that is the way Hamilton Burger, the district attorney, felt about it. It’s a sensational pièce de résistance that calls for whirlwind action by three of the best cooks in the business, Perry Mason, Della Street, and Paul Drake

The team of Mason. Street and Drake was never in better form. Perry Mason and Della Street were both out to lunch. Gertie, the receptionist and telephone operator, was indulging in her favorite noontime occupation munching chocolates and reading a love store — when the door burst open and a woman rushed in. Gertie got her name, all right, dimly registered the fact that she was not only very attractive but very upset at having to wait for Mason, and Gertie even looked up when the woman left before he returned. But vicarious romance was the rule of that day — much to the annoyance of Lt. Tragg when he later tried to piece together what had happened. And although his plan for surprising Gertie into an identification of the lady was ingenious, Perry’s counter-measure was even more so

Perry Mason has cause to ponder the old adage “Like Father, like son” in this explosive drama of murder among California’s upper crust... featuring a small boy ho just loves guns — preferably those that go Bang! The curtain rises on Mervin Selkirk’s scandalous divorce. Then, with the battle for custody of seven-year-old Robert still pending, Selkirk’s fiancée, Norda Allison, learns of some unfortunate qualities in her intended. Exit romance; enter letters — crude, threatening ones addressed to Norda. That’s when Selkirk’s ex-wife and her second husband come on stage, his powerful father lurks behind scenes, and Perry Mason makes his entrance as star in a daring — and deadly — role

People did not see eye to eye about Nadine Farr. Some called her sweet... some called her sour... some branded her a vicious murderess and blackmailer. But all agreed that she was a very good looking young woman, a real knockout. Perry Mason reserved judgment and came up swinging on the count of ten in the most harrowing legal battles of his career. First there was a corpse... but no corpus delicti. Then there was too much cyanide. Then Mason himself was accused of perjury. Erle Stanley Gardner has contrived a brilliant puzzle for this 50th case of his famous lawyer-detective, and Perry Mason pulls out all the stops in a dazzling courtroom climax

“What prominent lawyer received the mitten in front of his office building last night? Who was the mysterious blonde spitfire who swung one from the hip and left him groggy...?” That gossip columnist knew that Perry Mason was the lawyer. But Mason himself didn’t know who the girl was... and he wanted to. She had climbed down the fire escape from the Garvin Mining, Exploration and Development Company — right into Mason’s office on the floor below. After a story which neither believed, she ran away. And the next day Ed Garvin came to see the lawyer. Garvin said he didn’t know the girl. He was just crazy about his new bride... but he did want Mason to find out whether or not he had two wives. He, himself, didn’t quite know. Perry Mason takes the case that soon involves murder and reaches a climax in one of the most brilliant courtroom scenes of Mason’s career

Perry Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake... faced with a puzzle to which their arch antagonist, Hamilton Burger, alone seemed to have the missing piece... Muriell Gilman left her father at the breakfast table while she cooked seconds of sausages and eggs. When she returned, he had disappeared — seemingly into thin air. She searched the house from cellar to attic. Then she went out to the workshop... there, scattered on the floor, were hundred-dollar bills, and in their midst — a spreading crimson stain... That’s when she telephoned Perry Mason. Some of the characters: Nancy Gilman, a talented photographer who looked like a picture herself; Glamis Barlow, a chic blonde who loved to gamble and was definitely in the chips; Hartley Elliot, an up-and-coming beau of Glamis’, who, unlike his car, had a battery charged for action; Vera Martel, a shady detective interested in shady pasts

The client was young, blonde and beautiful and she wanted to disappear.　 The trouble was she wouldn’t say why, and she wouldn’t give her name. So Perry Mason agreed to a code of identification based on her measurements: 36-24-36.　 But according to Della Street, the figures were padded, and as it turned out, so was everything the client said

When Morley Eden burst into Perry Mason’s office claiming that a beautiful brunette has placed a five-strand barbed-wire fence through the middle of his property — house, pool, grounds and all — Mason is intrigued. But when he jumps into this bizarre situation with both feet, he finds himself in no time at all up to his neck in some very hot water indeed

"When a potential client wants to see Perry Mason about a howling dog and a will, the attorney is not interested. He does not enjoy drawing wills, and wonders if the man shouldn't see a veterinarian. However, when the man asks whether a will is legal if the person who made it had been executed for murder, immediately Mason becomes interested. He finds, in addition to the will and the dog, a man who had run away with the wife of another, and a sexy housekeeper."

A beautiful coed is raped and murdered. Only one clue is found, and that so small that it is invisible to the naked eye. Here, Erle Stanley Gardner recounts how one tiny lead enabled the police to bring a murderer to justice

Perry Mason refused to believe the proof against his client. The district attorney was too smug. The evidence was too good

Almost everyone knows that Stanley Ketchel was one of the great boxing champions of all time, but many have forgotten that he was murdered—and under baffling circumstances. All the evidence pointed to a gambling syndicate yet the case was obscured by a missing diamond stickpin, a lucky bracelet, and a pretty cook. Here Erle Stanley Gardner relates how this strange case was solved by not following the logical clues

Perry Mason and Della Street are writing love letters this time — to a girl they’ve never seen. In fact they don’t even know her name. But they’ve seen a letter she wrote to a Lonely Hearts Magazine. According to her, she’s both attractive and an heiress, an heiress who’s tired of people who love her for her money... According to Perry Mason, she’s lying. And there’s something phony about the Lonely Hearts business — including Mr. Robert Caddo who runs it. But there’s nothing phony about the beautiful corpse that almost puts Perry behind bars for life

It takes talent to kill two birds with one stone... but it takes genius (Erle Stanley Gardner variety) to make three bull’s-eyes with one arrow. This Perry Mason mystery is a tantalizing triple-decker. One threesome comprises three glamorous ladies — all long-legged models with ambitions that range from keeping the home fires burning to putting the home fires out. Another trio is a far-from-pleasant collection of small metal objects called guns. Finally, the favorite triumvirate of mystery readers around the world: Perry Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake. This is one of Mason’s most absorbing cases — meaning sensational action all the way, with a fabulous courtroom climax

A mistake at a murder scene dogs Perry while he tries to represent a woman taken in by a con man

A new and different Gardner — featuring the State Police and forensic medicine. It was there that Rob Trenton found himself on a blissful tour with the lovely, if mysterious, Linda Carroll. And it was there that the bumptious Merton Ostrander joined the twosome and, as far as Rob was concerned, made it a crowd. But it was on a lonely road outside New York City that the real trouble began. For that was when Rob discovered the cache of dope cleverly concealed in Linda’s car — setting the scene for murder

While Perry Mason is enjoying a moonlit canoe ride, he admires a naked bathing beauty. Little does he know he'll soon be rescuing her and that next day he'll have to clear her of a jewlery-theft charge. But then she's suddenly charged again--this time with murder. It takes all of Perry's wiles, Della's insights, and Paul Drake's deft detecting to solve 'The Case of the Negligent Nymph

Perry Mason finds that “art is long but life is fleeting” — especially in the fine art of murder... The painting was a modern masterpiece. But was it authentic? Three experts staked their reputations on the fact that it was. But Collin M. Durant called it a rank imitation. The witness to his remark gave Perry Mason a signed affidavit, and millionaire Otto Olney, owner of the painting, sued for slander. Then the witness — a beautiful blonde art student and model — disappeared, leaving Perry Mason headed for the courtroom and a spectacular trial. A trial not, as originally planned, for slander, but one for murder in the first degree

If Della Street had not been so intrigued, Perry Mason may well have missed one of the most baffling cases of his spectacular career... Take one wife, strikingly beautiful... one ex-wife, whittled down to make a comeback... a gorgeous secretary trying to play the role of Ugly Duckling... and you have three lovely and shapely ladies who figure prominently in the life — and death — of Morley L. Theilman. It started with blackmail: the suitcase bulging with $20 bills, the crude, threatening notes, the clever directions for payment — and ended with murder. But why kill the goose who laid the golden egg? Perry Mason pulls some of the fastest legal footwork of his career — in front of judge and jury — before he finds the answer and cracks the case of the prosecution

When two men change bedrooms at a house-party, everyone thinks that the sleepwalker with the carving knife killed the wrong man

FRANK DURYEA, the young D. A., was on the spot. Elections were coming on. The ranchers in Petrie, California, were up in arms over a loophole in the law. A mysterious and seemingly impossible murder was making a confused situation even more embarrassing. And a lot of very nice people were involved, each certain that the others were mixed up in the murder. ENTER CRAMPS WIGGINS. Duryea and his wife Milred had learned to expect most anything when her grandfather clattered into town in his disreputable-looking car with the home-made trailer. Cramps’ visits had an effect like that of a fresh, salty gale — invigorating and energizing, but promising trouble at least, if not out-and-out destruction. And this time was no exception. Excitement was Gramps’ life. If there wasn’t any, he made it; and if there was, he helped it along and made it bigger. Gramps had never let himself become too civilized — and a lucky thing it was for the District Attorney. For when they found the murdered man in the chicken rancher’s shack it was Gramps, with his eye for the girls and his knowledge of comparatively primitive accoutrements such as oil lamps, who found the astounding answer to a confusing puzzle

Even Paul Drake was convinced... this time, Perry Mason’s client was guilty! Although Amelia Corning, owner of the Corning mine interests, was confined to a wheel chair, no one had the misconception that she was a gentle, little old lady. Half-blind and crippled, she might be, but lesser characters quailed before her steel-trap mind and razor-sharp tongue — and Susan Fisher was no exception. How could Susan explain the discrepancies she found in the company accounts, or the shoe box she had wrested from the district manager’s 7-year-old son — a shoe box filled with $100 bills? She couldn’t. That’s why she went to Perry Mason, and in no time flat the lawyer was walking the worst tight rope of his legal career. As for Miss Corning, she barely missed being wheeled out feet first

When a man’s past threatens his family’s future there’s only one way to turn — to Perry Mason Harlow Bissinger Bancroft, head of a vast corporate empire and a happily married man, had a battery of lawyers — not one of any use to him in his present situation. That’s why he sat facing Perry Mason, his air of authority vanished, a deeply disturbed man. “There are three ways of dealing with a blackmailer,” Mason told him, “but only one should concern you — tell him to go jump in the lake.” The blackmailer was found on the lake, all right, but he’d not had a chance to jump in it for he was as dead as the proverbial mackerel

A bratty heiress wants to keep the news of her marriage a secret from the guardian who controls her purse strings, but when he's murdered, her groom is accused

Time — As in all Gardner mysteries, now. Place — A fashionable West Coast resort. Some of the dramatic and colorful characters involved— TED SHALE: all he wants is to sell wealthy Addison Stearne some hotel supplies — and he pancakes right into what looks like a double murder on a yacht. NITA MOLINE: glamorous and seductive blonde. What is she to Stearne? and what is she doing aboard the yacht? JOAN HARPLER: her Albatross is anchored near the palatial Gypsy Queen. She seems to spend a lot of her time aboard — when she isn’t swimming. PEARL RIGHT: she is worried. Has her jealousy driven her husband to murder? WARREN HILBERS: Pearl’s brother. His chief concern is his sister’s well-being and no effort seems too great to save her from her conscience. ELWELL AND FIELDING: they don’t want Stearne to take up the option on their oil well. FRANK DURYEA: young D.A. He finds himself sharing the investigation with the whole family— ...including... hell-raising, foxy old Grandpa Wiggins who comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lion

A spoiled woman is keen to keep news of her affairs from her powerful husband, even if it costs Perry his freedom when she swears he was on the murder scene

The fishing season was on — Sheriff Bill Eldon was making his regular swing through the mountains — then death struck suddenly