<p>Whenacclaimed mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers first began compiling anthologies ofthe best crime stories in the 1920s and ’30s, the genre was in the flush of itsfirst golden age. While it is hard to imagine today—after every possiblemystery plot has been told, retold, subverted, and played straight again byhundreds of writers over nearly a century—in Sayers’s day there were stilltwists that had never been seen, and machinations of crime that would shockeven jaded Jazz Age readers.</p><p>Nowtoday’s fans of mystery and crime can experience a handpicked collection ofover thirty of the most outstanding stories from this era, originally chosen bySayers and newly introduced by Otto Penzler, a leading expert and connoisseurin the field of mystery literature. As a prolific writer of the genre, Sayersunderstood the difficulty of putting together a mystery that was not onlysufficiently challenging (so that the solution was not immediately obvious tothe reader), but also solvable without forcing the writer to cheat. Thatbalance between opacity and solvability remains the greatest challenge ofwriting great crime stories—and these are some of the greatest.</p><p>Authorsappearing in this collection include:</p><ul><li>EdgarAllen Poe</li><li>HermanMelville</li><li>H.G. Wells</li><li>WilkieCollins</li><li>StephenCrane</li><li>J.S. Le Fanu </li></ul>Thisis a treasure trove for real fans!