From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine <i>Black Mask</i> published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in <i>Black Mask</i>. The urban crime stories that appeared in <i>Black Mask</i> helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games, films, and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by “the seminal and venerated mystery pulp magazine” (<i>Booklist</i>).<br /><br />Otto Penzler selected and wrote introductions to the best of the best, the darkest of these dark, vintage stories for the collection <i>The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories</i>. Now that collection is available for the first time on audio.<br /><br />Includes: <li>“Dirty Work” by Horace McCoy; read by Bart Tinapp </li><li>“Merely Murder” by Julius Long; read by Eric Conger </li><li>“Murder in One Syllable” by John D. MacDonald; read by Edoardo Ballerini and Carol Monda </li><li>“Three Apes from the East” by H.H. Stinson; read by Scott Brick </li><li>“Death Stops Payment” by D.L. Champion; read by Eric Conger</li>