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Tough gumshoes, rotten yeggs, and dangerous dames

In the 1930s and '40s, Black Mask was the single most important magazine for the modern mystery field. In its pages writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Earl Stanley Gardner reshaped the established view of mystery fiction, creating the hard-boiled private eye. Now comes this series in which the toughest of tough detectives are resurrected from its pages in sonic dramatization from the award-winning Hollywood Theater of the Ear.

Stories included in this volume are Lost and Found by Hugh B. Cave, Pigeon Blood by Paul Cain, Rough Justice by Frederick Nebel, Black by Paul Cain, The Missing Mr. Lee by Hugh B. Cave, Taking His Time by Rueben J. Shay, Trouble Chaser by Paul Cain, Waiting for Rusty by William Cole, and Too Many Have Lived by Dashiell Hammett.

Lost and Found Did a spoiled rich girl die in a plane crash, or is she hiding with her homicidal lover in the Florida Keys? Whose body is that in the wreckage? Who put it there?

Black A big-city tough guy comes to a small Minnesota town to settle a deadly fight between the local crime boss and his chief rival-his son.

Pigeon Blood A society matron's life is threatened after she engineers the theft of her own priceless jewelry to pay off a gambling debt. Only a debonair connoisseur of crime can save her and recover her gems-for a price.

Taking His Time In this comic vignette, a carnival barker's valuable watch gets stolen during an illegal poker game. The local sheriff seems in no hurry to apprehend the thief, until a reward is offered.

Rough Justice Mississippi heat-A Manhattan gumshoe pursues a convict to St. Louis, where he gets mixed up in a cop killing and nearly loses his own life at the hands of a B girl.

Trouble Chaser A starlet's plot to blackmail a film-studio executive results in her murder. Only the trouble chaser can clear her volatile lover and solve the crime.

The Missing Mr. Lee An eccentric boarding-house denizen winds up dead; his presumed killer, a fellow boarder, has vanished. The baffling case unfolds through the testimony of witnesses, who are themselves suspects.

Waiting for RustyThis account of a fugitive gun moll masterfully compresses the essence of noir fiction into three incredibly tense pages.

Too Many Have LivedOne of only three Sam Spade short stories, this one involves a blackmailing poet, a seductive chanteuse, her rough-hewn stage-door-johnny, and, of course, murder. Recorded before a live audience in New York.

Lorna Raver, named one of AudioFile magazine's Best Voices of the Year, has received numerous Audie nominations and AudioFile Earphones Awards. An experienced stage actress, she has also guest-starred on many top television series and starred in director Sam Raimi's film Drag Me to Hell. Among her many Blackstone titles are The Age of Innocence, Up from Orchard Street, The Lodger, Selected Readings from the Portable Dorothy Parker, and Diamond Ruby.

Christine Williams is a singer and actor based in Ashland, Oregon. Her performance credits include productions at regional theaters and on concert stages across the country and around the world, from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Barbican Centre in London to the Aspen Music Festival and the Grotowski Institute in Poland.

Hugh B. Cave (1910-2004) was born in England and came to the United States as a child, eventually settling in Boston. Best known for his works of pulp fiction, he authored hundreds of books, short stories, and collections, including The Cross on the Drum, Larks Will Sing, The Dawning, Long Live the Dead, Bitter/Sweet, and many others. He received lifetime achievement awards from the International Horror Guild, the Horror Writers Association, and the World Fantasy Convention.

Frederick Nebel was born on November 3, 1903. He was a charter member of the Black Mask school, a group of writers who worked for the magazine and championed the hardboiled detective noir style of the 1920s. While most of Nebel's published work was short stories, he also authored three novels, Sleeper's East, Fifty Roads to Town, and But Not the End. He died in Laguna Beach, California, in 1967.

George Guidall has recorded over a thousand audiobooks and is the recipient of eighty AudioFile Earphones Awards and two Audie Awards for Excellence in Audiobook Narration, as well as a Special Achievement Award in 2014 from the Audio Publishers Association. His forty-year acting career includes starring roles on Broadway, an Obie Award for best performance off Broadway, and frequent television appearances.

Yuri Rasovsky (1944-2012) was the leading writer, producer, and director of audio drama in the United States. Also a distinguished actor, narrator, and critic, his numerous honors include two Peabody Awards, eight Audie Awards, and a Grammy.

Anthony Heald, an Audie Award-winning narrator, has earned Tony nominations and an Obie Award for his theater work; appeared in television's Law & Order, The X-Files, Miami Vice, and Boston Public; and starred as Dr. Frederick Chilton in the 1991 Oscar-winning film The Silence of the Lambs. Heald has also won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards. He lives in Ashland, Oregon, with his family.

William Hughes is an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator. A professor of political science at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon, he received his doctorate in American politics from the University of California at Davis. He has done voice-over work for radio and film and is also an accomplished jazz guitarist.

Tom Weiner, a dialogue director and voice artist best known for his roles in video games and television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Transformers, is the winner of eight Earphones Awards and Audie Award finalist. He is a former member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Jeff Woodman is an actor and narrator. He is a winner of the prestigious Audie Award and a six-time finalist. He has received twenty Earphones Awards and was named the 2008 Best Voice in Fiction & Classics, as well as one of the Fifty Greatest Voices of the Century by AudioFile magazine. As an actor, he originated the title role in Tennessee Williams' The Notebook of Trigorin and won the S. F. Critics' Circle Award for his performance in An Ideal Husband. In addition to numerous theater credits on and off Broadway, his television work includes Sex and the City, Law & Order, and Cosby.

Richard Allen is an accomplished and respected theatrical actor whose work includes Ragtime and PBS' Great Performances: Play On! His voice can be heard on numerous television and radio productions, as well as the animated series Jumanji. Allen is also the winner of seven AudioFile Earphones Awards.

During his fourth lecture tour of the United States in 1953, a few days after his 39th birthday, he collapsed in his New York hotel and died on November 9th at St. Vincent's Hospital. His body was sent back to Laugharne, Wales, where his grave is marked by a simple wooden cross.

In June 1994, his wife, Caitlin Thomas, died in Italy, where she had spent most of the years of her life after the death of Dylan Thomas. Her body is buried next to his.

Richard Ferrone has recorded over 150 audiobooks including thrillers, romances, science fiction, and inspirational novels. He has earned an Audie Award and four Audie nominations, including for Best Solo Male Narrator of 2003. He was also recognized as an AudioFile Voice of the Last Century and a Rising and Shining Star. He has earned many AudioFile Earphones Awards and was named the 2011 Best Voice in Mystery and Suspense as well as the 2009 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. A science fiction fan, he narrated Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. He has also narrated works by James Patterson, Dashiell Hammett, Walter Mosley, John Sandford, Eric Van Lustbader, and Stuart Woods.

Grover Gardner is an award-winning narrator with over eight hundred titles to his credit. Named one of the Best Voices of the Century and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards, was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly, and has earned more than thirty Earphones Awards.

Malcolm Hillgartner is an accomplished actor, writer, and musician. Named an AudioFile Best Voice of 2013 and the recipient of several Earphones Awards, he has narrated over 175 audiobooks.

Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He is widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time. In addition to The Maltese Falcon, his pioneering novels include Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Glass Key, and the #1 New York Times bestseller The Thin Man.