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Otto Penzler

Goodreads author profile

gender

male

website

http://mysteriouspress.com/

twitter username

eMysteries

genre

Mystery & Thrillers

member since

March 2012

About this author

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Otto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.

Otto Penzler founded The Mysteriour Press in 1975 and was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years.

Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, for The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977, and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994, and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.

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Otto Penzler's Blog

17 eBooks from Stuart Palmer

New offerings from Stuart Palmer, including theHildegarde Withers mysteries!

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Published on May 16, 2013 11:05

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Otto Penzler's Books

Average rating: 3.73 · 7,925 ratings · 1,251 reviews · 156 distinct works · Similar authors

	The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps 4.18 of 5 stars 4.18 avg rating — 280 ratings — published 2007 — 5 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives by Otto Penzler (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Lee Child, Alexander McCall Smith (Goodreads Author) 3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 avg rating — 193 ratings — published 2009 — 10 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Christmas at The Mysterious Bookshop 3.34 of 5 stars 3.34 avg rating — 175 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Vampire Archives 3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 avg rating — 106 ratings — published 2009 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories by Otto Penzler (Goodreads Author) (Editor, Foreword), Keith Alan Deutsch (Introduction), Wyatt Blassingame (Contributor) 4.3 of 5 stars 4.30 avg rating — 70 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bloodsuckers: The Vampire Archives, Volume 1 3.47 of 5 stars 3.47 avg rating — 83 ratings — published 2010 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best American Crime Writing: 2003 Edition: The Year's Best True Crime Reporting by Otto Penzler (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Thomas H. Cook (Editor) 4.17 of 5 stars 4.17 avg rating — 75 ratings — published 2003 — 4 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best American Crime Writing: 2004 Edition: The Year's Best True Crime Reporting by Otto Penzler (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Thomas H. Cook (Editor) 4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 avg rating — 63 ratings — published 2004 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero by Otto Penzler (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Ace Atkins (Contributor), Lawrence Block (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 avg rating — 61 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best American Mystery Stories 2012 by Otto Penzler (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Robert Crais (Editor) 3.61 of 5 stars 3.61 avg rating — 64 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Otto Penzler wrote a new blog post: 17 eBooks from Stuart Palmer 17 eBooks from Stuart Palmer New offerings from Stuart Palmer, including theHildegarde Withers mysteries! read more »
May 16, 2013 04:55pm · like
Otto Penzler rated a book 4 of 5 stars Book Club (Bibliomysteries #8) by Loren D. Estleman	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Set in a small New Mexico town, this tale begins when a wealthy book collector is murdered. It’s up to the town police chief, a former bookseller, to solve the crime and catch the crook. Against the backdrop of a heckling book club made up of hilario...more
Apr 01, 2013 10:22am · see review
Otto Penzler rated a book 4 of 5 stars Strike Three, You're Dead by Richard Dean Rosen	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The first book in the Harvey Blissberg series features the former Boston Red Sox player who plays for an affiliated team in Rhode Island, the Providence Jewels. When his buddy and teammate, the Jewels’ relief pitcher Rudy Farth, is found murdered in...more
Apr 01, 2013 10:22am · see review
Otto Penzler rated a book 4 of 5 stars Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The first book featuring Inspector Cockrill, this Golden Age mystery was first published in 1941. Against the backdrop of WWII, a group of friends have gathered in a country manor house, the Pideonsford Estate. But perhaps some friendships aren’t all...more
Apr 01, 2013 10:21am · see review
Otto Penzler rated a book 4 of 5 stars A Great Day for the Deadly (Gregor Demarkian Mystery, #5) by Jane Haddam	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This holiday-themed mystery features the unusual and intelligent hero, Gregor Demarkian. Although he has retired from the FBI, Gregor continues to solve cases that interest him. In A Great Day for the Deadly, a young nun is murdered in very puzzling...more
Apr 01, 2013 10:21am · see review
Otto Penzler rated a book 4 of 5 stars Tower by Ken Bruen	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dark, yet poetic with hilarious dialogue, this noir novel is an inspired collaboration of two outstanding crime writers. Told from the perspective of two childhood friends who cross into the underbelly of the criminal world, Bruen tackles the mind of...more
Apr 01, 2013 10:19am · see review
Otto Penzler rated a book 4 of 5 stars The Book of Ghosts (MysteriousPress.com Bibliomystery) by Reed Farrel Coleman (Goodreads Author)	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Book of Ghosts is a story about the power of memories and lies. The protagonist and narrator of the story is Jacob Weisen, an elderly man who settled in America after surviving the Second World War. To earn asylum, he told a story about a book –...more
Jan 25, 2013 03:22pm · see review
Otto Penzler rated a book 4 of 5 stars Bad Lawyer by David Cray	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Stephen Solomita (David Cray) is a New York author of hard-boiled crime fiction and legal thrillers. He has a great ear for sharp and clever urban dialogue, and he is at the top of his game in Bad Lawyer. Sid was one of Manhattan’s top defense attorn...more
Jan 16, 2013 01:33pm · see review
Otto Penzler rated a book 4 of 5 stars Dead At The Take-off by Lester Dent	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Lester Dent is most famous for his Doc Savage stories written under the pseudonym Kenneth Robeson. But Dead at the Take-Off, written under his own name, shows why he was one of the most popular pulp writers of his era. Air travel was very different i...more
Jan 16, 2013 01:31pm · see review
Otto Penzler rated a book 4 of 5 stars The Chinese Orange Mystery by Ellery Queen	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Ellery Queen, the master of the Golden Age mystery, is one of the most important and influential contributors to the mystery genre. The Chinese Orange Mystery is a prime example of the cleverness of the two geniuses behind the pseudonymous Ellery Que...more
Jan 16, 2013 01:29pm · see review

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Quotes by Otto Penzler

“Like art, love, and pornography, noir is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. For the purposes of the book and my longtime working understanding and definition of it, noir stories are bleak, existential, alienated, pessimistic tales about losers--people who are so morally challenged that they cannot help but bring about their own ruin.”
― Otto Penzler, The Best American Noir of the Century

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