Who wouldn’t want to find a lavish full-color coffee table volume of more than 2000 books by more than 250 authors published by the iconic Crime Club between 1930 and 1994 under their Christmas tree. John Curran performs magic in presenting cover artwork with commentaries, the publishing background of many of the mysteries, and–my favorite feature–the blurbs for each Collins book!
Here’s Curran’s commentary on Evelyn E. Smith’s Miss Melville Regrets (1987): “Unlike the elderly ladies who devote their declining years to the elucidation of crime–Jane Marple and Hildegarde Withers, for instance–Miss Susan Melville has a different agenda. She undertakes, for a fee, to eliminate unpleasant persons from society. And gets to like it. The first three of Miss Melville’s four novels appeared in the Crime Club.” (p. 186)
Here’s the blurb that appeared on The Golden Spiders (May 1954): “The street urchin reported what he had seen to that famous but slothful detective, Nero Wolfe, instead of to the police because: ‘I know how you feel about the lousy cops, just like I do.’ What Peter Drossos had seen, nebulous and improbable as it sounded, in fact led directly to some very solid and dangerous facts. Three murders quickly followed–and the most certain way of getting killed apparently was to come to Wolfe’s house and ask for help: his visitors were apt to be hit on the head or run over by cars shortly after leaving. How was the Association for the Aid of Displaced Persons–known as Assadip–being exploited? Who had to commit three murders to cover their tracks? And, above all, what was the importance of the golden earrings, shaped like spiders, worn by the lady Pete had seen for a fleeting moment in the Cadillac? Nero Wolfe’s cerebral powers, aided possibly by Archie Goodwin’s, and certainly by Archie’s strong-arm methods, lead to a surprising solution, with a great deal of un along the way.” (p. 369)
The Hooded Gunman is one of my favorite books of 2019! This book is a browser’s delight! It would make a wonderful present for that book lover on your Gift List! GRADE: A+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION 7
The History of Collins 8
COLLINS AND CRIME FICTION 11
The Dawn of a Golden Age 12
The Key to Success 15
The Detective Story Club 19
The Crime Club 21
The Crime Club Cover Story 25
FIRST DECADE – THE 1930s 30
SCECOND DECADE – THE 1940s 62
THIRD DECADE – THE 1950s 86
FOURTH DECADE – THE 1960s 110
FIFTH DECADE – THE 1970s 132
SIXTH DECADE – THE 1980s 160
SEVENTH DECADE – THE 1990s 194
POSTSCRIPT: 65 YEARS OF BRILLIANT CRIME 210
The End of an Era 212
“Phantom” Titles 213
The White Circle 214
Anniversary Volumes 216
The Crime Club Card Games 220
“Only for Dons” Crime Novel Competition 222
MURDER THEY WROTE 225
The Descriptive Blurbs 226
Short Story Collections 386
Omnibuses 387
Duplicate Titles 388
Topics in Crime Club 388
Topics in Crime Club 389
White Circle Paperbacks 390
Elect References 391
Index of Authors 392
Index of Titles 394
