From Booklist
This is an unusual anthology. It contains six hard-to-find stories by six masters of noir and the teleplays for their film adaptations, which will air on cable this fall as a series of half-hour dramas featuring such well-known directors and performers as Steven Soderbergh, Tom Hanks, Laura Dern, and Gary Oldham. Readers will gain rare insight into the process of film adaptation by being able to read both the original stories, which are scorchers, and the cleverly conceived teleplays. The effectiveness of various cinematic devices, such as voice-over and invented flashbacks, becomes apparent, deepening the audience's appreciation for the art and mechanics of transforming literature into video. But even without the teleplays, this would be an invaluable collection. James Ellroy's sizzling preface presents an invigorating synopsis of the hard-boiled genre and its "hot to exploit the apocalypse" practitioners, while the stories, by Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, William Campbell Gault, Cornell Woolrich, Jonathan Craig, and Ellroy at the top of their forms, are riveting: tough, edgy, cynical, moody, and poisonous. Donna Seaman
