Murder Most Postal: Homicidal Tales that Deliver a Message (2001) is part of Martin H. Greenberg’s “Murder Most…” series. I’ll be reviewing a couple more anthologies in this series in the weeks ahead. You can read my review of Murder Most Medieval here.

The most chilling story in Murder Most Postal is Lawrence Block’s “Like a Bone in the Throat” which deals with a serial killer and the brother of one of his victims. Greenberg includes the classic Poe mystery, “The Purloined Letter,” and August Derleth puts a slight spin on it with Solar Pons investigating “The Adventure of the Penny Magenta.”

I also enjoyed the Evan Hunter (aka, Ed McBain) Christmas story, “Deadlier Than the Mail,” about the thefts of mailed checks in New York City. When is the last time you’ve written a letter? GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction / John Helfers — vii

Like a bone in the throat / Lawrence Block — 1

The purloined letter / Edgar Allan Poe — 27

An act of violence / William F. Nolan — 45

The Corbett correspondence / “Agent No. 5 and Agent No. 6” — 53

Agony column / Barry N. Malzberg — 67

Graduation / Richard Christian Matheson — 77

Someone who understands me / Matthew Costello — 93

Letter to the editor / Morris Hershman — 101

The coveted correspondence / Ralph McInerny — 107

A nice cup of tea / Kate Kingsbury — 131

Letter to his son / Simon Brett — 143

The poisoned pen / Arthur B. Reeve — 161

A literary death / Martin H. Greenberg — 181

The adventure of Penny Magenta / August Derleth — 185

Letter from a very worried man / Henry Slesar — 199

Pure Rotten / John Lutz — 203

Computers don’t argue / Gordon R. Dickson — 209

A letter to Amy / Joyce Harrington — 225

The adventure of the one-penny black / Ellery Queen — 243

Make yoursleves at home / Joan Hess — 263

Deadlier than the mail / Evan Hunter — 279

Contributors — 297

Copyrights and Permissions — 305