Edited by Otto Penzler, who author Robert B. Parker stated “knows more about crime fiction than most people know about anything,” comes an outstanding book for lovers of the genre. A mammoth tome at over 1,000 pages the book contains more than 50 crime stories from the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s that appeared in pulp magazines such as Black Mask, Dime Detective, Gangster Stories, and Gun Molls, and includes their original artwork. The one exception is the inclusion of James M. Cain “Pastorale” that appeared in the intellectual journal, The American Mercury. Penzler thinks it’s worth the cheat to include it and after reading it, I agree.

The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps features work from well-known crime writers like Cain, Raymond Chandler, and Dashiell Hammett, whose short story “Faith” is being published for the first time, alongside some authors whose identities are unknown due to pseudonyms and publishing house names. Cornell Woolrich wrote under many aliases. Three of his stories made the collection and are attributed to Woolrich, but his most famous tale is arguably “It Had to be Murder” written under the name William Irish. That has grown to great prominence because it was adapted into Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window.

Popular characters appear as well. When Chandler’s “Finger Man” was first printed in October 1934, the first-person narrator was unnamed, but when it was collected for a book, he was identified as Philip Marlowe. There are appearances by Hammett’s nameless operative from the Continental Detective Agency in “The Creeping Siamese” and Leslie Charteris’ Simon Templar, better known as The Saint, in “The Invisible Millionaire.” One of the three stories Erle Stanley Gardner contributes features a defense attorney named Ken Corning who is very reminiscent of Gardner’s more famous creation, Perry Mason.

The Big Book is divided into three sections — Crime Fighters, Villains, and Dames — which all would easily make fine volumes on their own, and soon will.

Carroll John Daly is credited with creating the first hard-boiled detective story, 1923’s “Three Gun Terry,” featuring private investigator Terry Mack, and later that same year the first hard-boiled detective series when P.I. Race Williams returned in “Three Thousand to the Good” in the July 15, 1923 issue of Black Mask. “The Third Murderer” is a Williams' story from 1931. Other popular heroes are Horace McCoy’s Captain Jerry Frost of the Texas Air Rangers, Charles G. Booth’s McFee of the Blue Shield Detective Agency, and Frederick Nebel’s Homicide Captain Steve MacBride.

“The Villains” are an interesting lot because many of them are Robin Hood-types, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, which no doubt had an appeal to readers affected by the Great Depression. Like The Saint, Frederick C. Davis’ The Moon Man stole from people who deserved it. He wore a dome made out of one-way glass to hide his identity, similar to Spider-Man’s nemesis, Mysterio, because during the day he was police officer Stephan Thatcher. Gardner’s Lester Leith only stole from rich crooks, giving away most of the money to charity minus a 20% recovery fee.