The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps

The Best Crime Stories from the Pulps During Their Golden Age - The '20s, '30s & '40s (Big Book Series)

By: Otto Penzler

Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May, Traci Odom, Eric Jason Martin

Containing over 47 stories and two novels, this book is big baby, bigger and more powerful than a freight train - a bullet couldn't pass through it. Here are the best stories and every major writer who ever appeared in celebrated Pulps like Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, and more. These are the classic tales that created the genre and gave birth to hard-hitting detectives who smoke criminals like packs of cigarettes; sultry dames whose looks are as lethal as a dagger to the chest; and gin-soaked hideouts where conversations are just preludes to murder. This is crime fiction at its gritty best.

Including:

• Three stories by Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Dashiell Hammett
• Complete novels from Carroll John Daly, the man who invented the hard-boiled detective, and Fredrick Nebel, one of the masters of the form
• A new Dashiell Hammett story
• Every other major pulp writer of the time, including Paul Cain, Steve Fisher, James M. Cain, Horace McCoy, and many many more of whom you've probably never heard

©2007 Compilation copyright 2007 by Otto Penzler, LLC; Foreword copyright 2006, 2007, by Otto Penzler, LLC (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

A time capsule with lots of fun

Many modern mystery writers try to emulate Chandler and Hammett, but this is the real thing. Cops get around by taxi and riding on the running boards of flivvers, many of the women, or "frails" are more or less innocent bystanders, but a surprising number are protagonists, heroes or anti-heroes. Of course there are plenty of ethnic slurs and racist stereotypes as well. But for a trip back to the world of the 20s and 30s, this collection is unbeatable. And a bargain, even considering the authors earned a penny a word!

This was so fun

I enjoyed the first narrator so much I wished he’d done the whole collection 😅, the second narrator not so much I was forced to endure because I absolutely love pulps and the last narrator was good but I still would have picked the first one.

As for the stories they really held my attention, it’s refreshing to read stories that were written back then.

WOW!

What a neat book. so many authors , so many plots, so many characters and all the thugs and gunmolls are portrayed well by the readers. This is film nor in audio.

great variety - great performance

A huge lot of crime stories from some of the greats and the not so greats. Great readers

Such a great collection!!

Great and Gritty stories. Amazing narration. It's so fun to listen to these stories and learn where hard boiled and noir style detective stories started. Highly recommended!!

A must have for pulp fans

It's fantastic ! The only thing it's missing is a index to make finding your favorite stories easier instead of going chapter by chapter intill you stumble upon it.

Great series of detective stories

I listened to this over a few weeks in its entirety. Awesome, it puts the genre in much better context! I have a great appreciation for the writers of the day.

Terrible

Listening to this compilation was a complete waste of my time. I can even rate them mediocre because they couldn’t keep my attention and i kept changing stories.

Fabulous compilation ruined by Audible Software

There are some terrific, two fisted mysteries in this collection but by removing the chapter feature, the "book" became a nightmare to navigate. Don't lose your place if you value your sanity, because the only way back is to hit the back button repeatedly.