One story, the Joe Rogers, is from the very beginning
of Macdonald's career, but it's qutie good.
The other 2--novelettes both featuring Lew Archer--are from
the middle years. In each case, Macdonald decided to use an
element in the story in a full-length novel, and therefore he
never had the novelettes publihed. I hasten to add that these
are not shorter versions of the novels; the plots are
different and so is the development, but (as I said) a key
element reappeared in a longer work.
Thanks for asking me to say something about Crippen &
Landru--our website, www.crippenlandru, says most of it. The
company is run by my wife Sandi and me, and we publish only
single author mystery/crime/detective collections. Of
interest to private eye fans on this list are our books by
Marcia Muller (THE McCONE FILES and McCONE AND FRIENDS), Bill
Pronzini (SPADEWORK and CARPENTER AND QUINCANNON), Jerry
Healy (THE CONCISE CUDDY), and probably some others. Very
noir are Peter Robinson's NOT SAFE AFTER DARK and Ed Gorman's
FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT. Forthcoming are books by Clark Howard
(CHALLENGE THE WIDOW-MAKER--also noir), Joe Gores (STAKEOUT
ON PAGE STREET AND OTHER DKA FILES), Michael Collins
(FORTUNE'S WORLD), Max Allan Collins (KISSES OF DEATH AND
OTHER NATE HELLER STORIES), and the great Hugh B. Cave (LONG
LIVE THE DEAD AND OTHER STORIES FROM BLACK MASK). Hugh will
be 90 this year, and 2 publishers are issuing collections to
celebrate the occasion--Crippen & Landru and
Fedogan
& Bremer--the latter with BOTTLED IN BLONDE.
I visited with Hugh in Florida a couple weeks ago. He's
amazing--and still writing. He has a new fantasy due this
summer from Leisure/Kensington. It was a marvelous experience
chatting with a man who wrote for BLACK MASK, WEIRD TALES,
DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY, DIME DETECTIVE, and many other
pulps.
Doug Greene
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