The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories

Starred review from August 25, 2014
Penzler’s thoughtful introduction makes plain why this intelligently assembled anthology of 68 short stories will be catnip for fair play fans, since the locked-room story “is the ultimate manifestation of the cerebral detective story.” He also notes that while the tales are “astoundingly inventive,” disappointment will be inevitable when the solution is revealed, “just as explanations of stage illusions exterminate the spell of magic.” Despite that caveat, Penzler has assembled a wide-ranging collection of the impossible, including murder in sealed environments or by an invisible killer who leaves no footprints in the sand or snow. There are entries by familiar masters of the subgenre—John Dickson Carr, Clayton Rawson, Edward Hoch—as well as by mystery writers better known for other kinds of stories—Dorothy L. Sayers, Erle Stanley Gardner, Georges Simenon, Dashiell Hammett—and even a straight detective story from P.G. Wodehouse. The real treat is in the revelations of the gifts at misdirection from undeservedly obscure authors such as Julian Hawthorne (Nathaniel’s son), J.E. Gurdon, Augustus Muir, and Vincent Cornier, whose ingenious work is less likely to be encountered in other anthologies.

Starred review from August 9, 2010
Let's put it straight, like a fist in the face: this treasure trove of more than 50 stories and novels offers the best value ever for fans of hard-boiled detective fiction. In the pulp magazine Black Mask (1920–1951), Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler made their bones, with Erle Stanley Gardner and other heavyweights at their heels. As Penzler (Agents of Treachery) notes in his intros to each selection, an amazing number of these writers moved on to movies and TV. Highlights include the complete The Maltese Falcon, the original version from the pulp, unreprinted for 80 years. (Hammett made a couple of thousand changes for the hardcover novel.) The novel Rainbow Diamonds, featuring Raoul Whitfield's Filipino detective Jo Gar, appears in a book for the first time. The iconic story "Sail" by Lester "Doc Savage" Dent shows up in a variant draft, preferred by the author. The only way Penzler can top this one—a bigger book of Black Mask!

Starred review from September 1, 2010

Though this is not the first collection drawn from the pages of yesteryear's Black Mask magazine, Edgar Award-winning mystery editor, publisher, and bookstore owner Penzler declares that "it is the biggest and most comprehensive." He's not kidding! Launched by H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan in the 1920s, Black Mask would springboard the careers of a handful of writers, raising the level of penny dreadful pulp mysteries to that of literature, while also publishing plenty of quickly hacked-out swill. This gathers the cream produced by legends like Dashiell Hammett (the godfather of hard-boiled detective fiction), Erle Stanley Gardner, Raymond Chandler, Carroll John Daly, Cornell Woolrich, and other aces. There are more than 50 stories in all, including "The Maltese Falcon" (the original serialized version, which differs from the published novel, is reproduced here for the first time since its initial 1929 publication), Chandler's "Try the Girl" (which, ultimately, became Farewell, My Lovely), and Horace McCoy's "Dirty Work." Each author receives a brief bio and the stories sport original artwork--it's a complete education on vintage crime mysteries between two covers. VERDICT A hefty hunk of hard-boiled heaven and a noir lover's dream, this will thrill the genre's many fans.--Mike Rogers, Library Journal

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2010
This isnt the first anthology of Black Mask, the seminal and venerated mystery pulp magazine published 192051, but it certainly is the biggest. And anthology machine Penzler, whose crime-fiction bona fides are unquestioned, selects a superb list of stories. Some alumni went on to become household names, such as Erle Stanley Gardner, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and John D. MacDonald, while others are better known to aficionados, such as Fredric Brown, William Campbell Gault, Day Keene, and Cornell Woolrich. Still others will be known only to hard-core fans (anybody remember Norvell Page?). Notable entries include but are not limited to Luck, an early, unpublished draft of Lester Dents oft-anthologized Sail; the serial version of Hammetts Maltese Falcon, which is different from the book; Bracelets, by Katherine Brocklebank, the only woman known to write for Black Mask; and Chandlers Try the Girl, whose protagonist, Carmady, was renamed Marlowe after the success of The Big Sleep. New author biographies plus original artwork and introductions add to the fun. Any serious collection of pulp fiction needs this tome on the shelf.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

September 17, 2007
This impressive anthology of pulp-era crime stories from veteran editor and publisher Penzler reveals not only tales with surprising staying power but also some of high literary quality. To be sure, there are some selections sure to offend modern sensibilities and others whose extravagant prose now comes across as laughable or ludicrous. But aside from questions of quality and taste, these tales laid the foundation for most branches of the crime fiction genre as we know it today. Raymond Chandler's “Red Wind” is as effective now as it was when published in 1938. An unexpected treat is “Faith,” a previously unpublished Dashiell Hammett story. Multiple offerings from Erle Stanley Gardner, Hammett, Chandler and Cornell Woolrich add luster. Divided into three sections—the Crimefighters, the Villains, the Dames—with cogent intros by Penzler to each entry, this comprehensive volume allows the reader to revisit that exciting time when the pulp magazines flourished and writers pounded out fiction for a penny a word or less.