The Eyes Have It: The First Private Eye Writers of America Anthology

John Denson Mystery #3.5

by Robert J. Randisi (Editor)

Contents:
• "Introduction," essay by Robert J. Randisi
• "By the Dawn's Early Light," short story by Lawrence Block
• "The Strawberry Teardrop," short story by Max Allan Collins
• "Eight Million Dead," short story by Michael Collins
• "The Prettiest Dead Girl in Detroit," short story by Loren D. Estleman
• "Iris," short story by Stephen Greenleaf
• "The Rented Scar," short story by Edward D. Hoch
• "Private Investigations," short story by Richard Hoyt
• "The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance," short story by Stuart M. Kaminsky
• "The Rat Line," short story by Rob Kantner
• "The Reluctant Detective," short story by Michael Z. Lewin
• "Typographical Error," short story by John Lutz
• "Wild Mustard," short story by Marcia Muller
• "A Long Time Dying," short story by William F. Nolan
• "Three-Dot Po," short story by Sara Paretsky
• "Skeleton Rattle Your Mouldy Leg," short story by Bill Pronzini
• "Deathlist," short story by Robert J. Randisi
• "Hallam," short story by L.J. Washburn

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery

327 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Robert Joseph Randisi was a prolific American author, editor, and screenwriter, best known for his work in detective and Western fiction. He wrote over 650 books, including The Gunsmith series under the pen name J.R. Roberts, and edited more than 30 anthologies. A co-founder of Mystery Scene magazine, the American Crime Writers League, and Western Fictioneers, he also established The Private Eye Writers of America and created the Shamus Award. Randisi collaborated on novels with Eileen Davidson and Vince Van Patten, and created memorable characters such as Miles Jacoby, Joe Keough, and The Rat Pack. He received multiple lifetime achievement awards and the John Seigenthaler Humanitarian Award.

Reviews

[Carolynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again I have been shown the up side and down side of anthologies: the stories are short. If you are not fond of them, that's good. If you like them, that's bad. In this case, it was pretty bad (meaning there were lots of good writers with interesting detectives that you wanted to read more about.

Out of 17 stories, I liked either the detective or the writing style well enough to follow up on the author to see if I wanted to continue with their work. Since these stories were printed 30 years ago, there's some hope of a real backlog of work waiting for me to read. With names like Sara Paretski, Bill Pronzini, and Loren D. Estleman, I know there will be lots to chose from, but there were some names that were unfamiliar to me as well, or at least the detectives were: L. J. Washburn's Hallam, Michael Z. Lewin's Freddy Herring, and Edward D. Hoch's Al Darlan. (At least the stories will be brand-new to me.)

Anthologies are sort of like Goodreads: they sucker you in with just a few stories (maybe only one to start with), and before you know it, you're hip deep in titles and authors. At least they're calorie-free.

These are mostly old-school detectives--not the really old Mike Hammer type, but just slightly cleaned up from that era, and facing those mean streets mostly on their own, using mostly their brains to solve the puzzles they come across. I found the reading great fun, and highly recommend this book.