FROM OUR EDITORS

Short detective fiction from Charles Dickens, Jack London, Bret Harte, O. Henry, C. J. Henderson, Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini, Theodore Tinsley, B.B. Fowler, John McCurnin, Wayne D. Dundee, Hugh B. Cave, and others.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The short detective story has a venerable tradition that extends back to the very origins of detective fiction. The earliest story in 100 Dastardly Little Detective Stories, Abraham Lincoln's "The Trailor Murder Mystery" appeared in 1843, and in the century-and-a-half since, the detective story has attracted the interest of some of the most distinguished names in fiction including Charles Dickens, Jack London, Bret Harte, and the master of the short story, O.Henry. All of these writers are represented in 100 Dastardly Little Detective Stories.

The scope of this volume is as wide as some of these stories are short. Here we find many different styles of detective fiction including the hard-boiled tradition of Theodore Tinsley's "A Hand of Pinochle," and B.B. Fowler's "Safety Deposit," the crime-suspense tradition of Tom Curry's "The Sign, and of course, several cases of homicide.