| Description |
xv, 852 pages ; 22 cm. |
| Series |
Library of America ; 370
|
|
Library of America ; 370.
|
| Note |
Includes biographical notes. |
| Contents |
Murderers (1961) / Fredric Brown -- Name of the game is death (1962) / Dan J. Marlowe -- Dead calm (1963) / Charles Williams -- Expendable man (1963) / Dorothy B. Hughes -- The score (1964) / Richard Stark. |
| Summary |
In the 1960s a number of gifted writers--some at the peak of their careers, others newcomers--reimagined American crime fiction through formal experimentation and the exploration of audacious new subjects and themes. This is the first of two volumes gathering the best of their work, nine novels of astonishing variety and inventiveness that pulse with the energies of that turbulent, transformative decade. In The Murderers (1961) by Fredric Brown, an out-of-work actor, hanging out with Beat drifters on the fringes of Hollywood, concocts a murder scheme that devolves into nightmare. This late work by a master in many genres is one of his darkest and most ingenious. Dan J. Marlowe's The Name of the Game Is Death (1962) channels the inner life of a violent criminal who freely acknowledges the truth of a prison psychiatrist's diagnosis: "Your values are not civilized values." Written with unnerving emotional authenticity, the story hurtles toward an annihilating climax. Charles Williams drew on his experience in the merchant marine for his thriller Dead Calm (1963). A newlywed couple alone on a small yacht find themselves at the mercy of the mysterious survivor they have rescued from a sinking ship, in a suspenseful story that chillingly evokes the perils of the open ocean. In the beautifully told and sharply observant The Expendable Man (1963), Dorothy B. Hughes's final masterpiece of suspense, a young man in the American Southwest runs afoul of racial assumptions after he picks up a hitchhiker who is soon found dead. In twenty-four brilliantly constructed novels, Richard Stark (a pen name of Donald Westlake) charted the career of Parker, a hard-nosed professional thief, with rigorous clarity. The Score (1964), a stand-out in the series, finds Parker and his criminal associates hatching a plot to rob simultaneously all the jewelry stores, payroll offices, and banks in a Larsonremote Western mining town, only to come up against the human limits of even the most intricate planning. |
| Subject |
Detective and mystery stories, American.
|
|
Detective and mystery stories, American. |
| Genre/Form |
Detective and mystery stories, American.
|
| Subject |
American fiction -- 20th century.
|
|
American fiction. |
| Chronological Term |
20th century |
| Subject |
Anthologies.
|
|
Anthologies. |
| Genre/Form |
Detective and mystery fiction.
|
|
Noir fiction.
|
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Novels.
|
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Mystery fiction.
|
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Detective and mystery fiction.
|
|
Novels.
|
| Added Author |
Container of (expression): Brown, Fredric, 1906-1972.
Murderers.
|
|
Container of (expression): Marlowe, Dan J., 1914-1987.
Name of the game is death.
|
|
Container of (expression): Williams, Charles, 1909-1975.
Dead calm.
|
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Container of (expression): Hughes, Dorothy B. (Dorothy Belle), 1904-1993.
Expendable man.
|
|
Container of (expression): Stark, Richard, 1933-2008.
Score.
|
| Added Title Page Title |
Crime novels of the 1960s, Volume 1 |
| Added Title |
Library of America.
|
| ISBN |
1598537377 |
|
9781598537376 (print) |
|
