Reviews for The Arbor House treasury of detective and mystery stories from the great pulps

The average rating for The Arbor House treasury of detective and mystery stories from the great pulps based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-02-26 00:00:00 Robert Senecal I only read one story in this collection, Cornell Woolrich's "The Living Lie Down With The Dead". It's a fun little crime piece, without the anguish and cynicism of his later work. After a rich old eccentric woman dies, her will declares that her fortune in diamonds will be placed in her mausoleum with her. Two enterprising crooks plan on nabbing the jewels in an unexpected way - by swapping one of themselves with the woman's body and being interred in her place (a real "inside job"). As might be expected, things do not go as planned. This would have made a nice episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS back in the day, and Woolrich has a great handle on the crooks' voices. AND we finally get an appearance by Revolving Larry - the drug dealer whose name, at least for me, links the works of Woolrich and William S. Burroughs!

Review # 2 was written on 2020-10-21 00:00:00 Amber Jewison A surprisingly good book. Picked up at local library discard sale and didn't expect much. But this anthology of 1930s detective fiction is excellent. Not the hardboiled in-your-face stories that I expected but rather subtle, clever plots and rich character development. I was very pleasantly surprised. Bill Pronzini, a prolific writer in his own right, did a masterful job in selecting these 14 stories and provides an insightful introduction to each.