First published in the Thirties in Black Mask , these eight stories see Chandler already master of his art. Killer in the Rain , The Curtain , Bay City Blues - all of them come charged with the authentic smell of fear that caused Elizabeth Bowen to acclaim Chandler as 'not just one more detective writer - he is a craftsman so brilliant, he has an imagination so wholly original, that no consideration of modern American literature ought, I think, to exclude him'. 'Anything he writes about grips the mind from the first sentence. It is a spare, finished performance: full of life and character: as tense as a tiger, springing into action.' Daily Telegraph 'Chandler is a serious writer, an original stylist.' Anthony Burgess