101 Mystery Stories

by Bill Pronzini (Editor)

A collection which includes stories by such noted mystery writers as John D. MacDonald, Ellery Queen, Ed McBain, and Erle Stanley Gardner

610 pages, Hardcover

First published December 13, 1986

About the author

Mystery Writers of America Awards "Grand Master" 2008
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1999) for Boobytrap
Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee (1998) for A Wasteland of Strangers
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) for Sentinels
Shamus Awards "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) 1987
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1982) for Hoodwink

Married to author Marcia Muller.

Pseudonyms:
Robert Hart Davis (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Jack Foxx
William Jeffrey (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Alex Saxon

Reviews

[Suzanne Auckerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are short mysteries. but entertaining. The book was published in 1986 and many of the authors went on to writing careers for theater and books. I have read a lot of mysteries from the 1920's through the 1950's, when it seemed the preferred method of killing someone was poisoning. In this book, most of the murderers, in the case of wife killing, throwing them off the balcony seemed to have been preferred method. (Note to self: Stay away from balconies.) For men, stabbing and shooting were common.

[Marlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

101 very short stories; two or three pages mostly. I am not sure I would classify them all as mysteries. Some were funny, some were weird, some were predictable, some were a surprise, etc. This is quite a variety of short stories. Even though they are short, I found it difficult to read more than two or three at a time since they are not related.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories from Poe to John D McDonald, from two to seven pages long. How to get away with robbery and murder!

[Josephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do appreciate the "short short" story collection type, to which this belongs; it's more of a challenge than non-writers realize to create a complete story in less than 1,000 words or thereabouts (which these are). Unfortunately, there are enough typos in the edition I own that I felt compelled to reread it with pen in hand to correct them! Bad publisher!

[Linda Appelbaum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice if you want some short but mysterious reading before beddy-bye.