Trace the hard-boiled mystery back to its roots with this collection of twenty-eight detective stories set in tough, urban settings. From classics by Poe and Vidocq to contemporary favorites such as Hammett and Spillane, this is a literary feast for all mystery fans.<br/><br/>Introduction / David Willis McCullough --<br/>The simple art of murder / Raymond Chandler --<br/>The clue of the yellow curtains / Francois Eugene Vidocq --<br/>The mystery of Marie Roget / Edgar Allen Poe --<br/>The lodger / Marie Belloc Lowndes --<br/>Princess Sonia's bath / Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre --<br/>The investors / Edgar Wallace --<br/>The tenth clew / Dashiell Hammett --<br/>The rubber trumpet / Roy Vickers --<br/>No proof / Yoh Sano --<br/>Dead-end for Delia / William Campbell Gault --<br/>At the Etoile du Nord / Georges Simenon --<br/>I always get the cuties / John D. MacDonald --<br/>This world, then the fireworks / Jim Thompson --<br/>The gold fever tapes / Mickey Spillane --<br/>Wild goose chase / Ross MacDonald --<br/>The nine-to-five man / Stanley Ellin --<br/>Small homocide / Ed McBain --<br/>Blind man with a pistol / Chester Himes --<br/>Pigeon blood / Paul Cain --<br/>Just one of those days / Donald E. Westlake --<br/>Election day / Joseph Hansen --<br/>The Parker shotgun / Sue Grafton --<br/>The Johore murders / Paul Theroux --<br/>Sure, blue, and dead, too / Janwillem van de Wetering --<br/>Skin deep / Sara Paretsky --<br/>Death by water / William Marshall --<br/>Flake piece / Carolyn Wheat --<br/>Dead soldier / Loren D. Estleman --<br/>Double indemnity, the screenplay / Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder