The Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories (Mammoth Books) [Paperback]

Herbert Van Thal (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 9, 2001 | Series: Mammoth Books

Now expanded to include in one volume four complete collections of detective stories compiled by the master anthologist Herbert van Thal, this extraordinarily popular Mammoth Book adds nine more tales by major mystery writers to its suspenseful pages. Joining such classic authors of the detective tale as Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Dulcie Gray, Christianna Brand, June Thomson, G. K. Chesterton, E. C. Bentley, Michael Innes, Georges Simenon, and Raymond Chandler, along with nineteenth-century forebears like William Wilkie Collins, are such eminent names in the field as Ellery Queen, John Wainwright, Antonia Fraser, and P. D. James. New to this volume, too, are taut, literate tales of criminal intent and murderous purpose like Lawrence Trent's "B as in Bludgeon," Elwyn Jones's "To Protect the Innocent," F. Tennyson Jesse's "Lot's Wife," Sir Basil Thomson's "The Hanover Court Murder Case," and Hulbert Footner's "The King of the Gigolos." Accompany the sleuths in these engaging and challenging tales as they seek the key to the mystery -- some of them with superior intelligence, others with dogged determination, an overactive curiosity, or intuitive brilliance -- and as they crack "The Moabite Cipher" of R. August Freeman or solve "The Mystery of the Child's Toy" by Leslie Charteris or discover what "The Judge Corroborates" by J. S. Fletcher. You'll be continually, chillingly, and amply riveted.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anthologist and author Herbert Van Thal (The Tops of the Mulberry Trees) has assembled four previous anthologies in one volume, with stories by 35 eminent mystery authors, including all-time luminaries Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Wilkie Collins, Raymond Chandler and Georges Simenon. The Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories ranges from mid-20th-century English villains in drag (E.C. Bentley's "The Inoffensive Captain") to a hypochondriac crime-writer and reluctant sleuth in Devon (Edmund Cripin's "We Know You're Writing...") to a mysterious, hysterical woman who hires Jemima Shore to determine if she is mother to the Parr children, wards in a notorious divorce case (Antonia Fraser's "The Case of the Parr Children").

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Herbert Van Thal was one of the world's most popular and successful anthologists and was best known for his collections of crime, horror and suspense stories, which sold millions of copies worldwide --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (August 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786708867
• ISBN-13: 978-0786708864
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,320,497 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)