Pulp Fiction: The Dames

by Otto Penzler (Editor), Laura Lippman (Introduction), Cornell Woolrich (Contributor)

Wearing a low-cut dress or sweater - usually in tatters - and menaced by a group of muscular thugs or a single, scarred villain, the cliched cover girls of pulp fiction magazines stole the limelight from their rather more spirited sisters concealed within. From the pens of writing legends like Dashiell Hammett, Cornell Woolrich and Raymond Chandler, stories of the greatest grand dames of the pulp genre have been gathered together in this unique volume. Its pages are rich with female jewel thieves of a certain elegance, feisty reporters in pursuit of an exclusive, gun molls with gangster boyfriends, avenging angels, tough broads and out-and-out hoodlums. Tailor-made for pulp novices and hard-boiled fans with a soft spot for the masters, "Pulp Fiction: The Dames" shows that some writing has an edge that time just can't dull.

Contents:
Preface - Otto Penzler
Introduction - Laura Lippman
Angel Face - Cornell Woolrich
Chosen to Die - Leslie T. White
A Pinch of Snuff - Eric Taylor
Killer in the Rain - Raymond Chandler
Sally the Sleuth - Adolphe Barreaux
A Shock for the Countess - C. S. Montanye
Snowbound - C. B. Yorke
The Girl Who Knew Too Much - Randolph Barr
The Corpse in the Crystal - D. B. McCandless
He Got What He Asked For - D. B. McCandless
Gangster's Brand - P. T. Luman
Dance Macabre - Robert Reeves
The Girl with the Silver Eyes - Dashiell Hammett
The Jane from Hell's Kitchen - Perry Paul
The Duchess Pulls a Fast One - Whitman Chambers
Mansion of Death - Roger Torrey
Concealed Weapon - Roger Torrey
The Devil's Bookkeeper - Carlos Martinez
Black Legion - Lars Anderson
Three Wise Men of Babylon - Richard Sale
The Adventure of the Voodoo Moon - Eugene Thomas
Brother Murder - T. T. Flynn
Kindly Omit Flowers - Stewart Sterling

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery, Anthologies, Pulp, Crime

608 pages, Paperback

First published April 3, 2008

About the author

Otto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.

Otto Penzler founded The Mysteriour Press in 1975 and was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years.

Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, for The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977, and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994, and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of pulp stories. Most of the stories were detective or cop mysteries. The women in the stories had a huge variety of characterisation though, from burlesque dancers out for revenge, cops, lawyers, criminals, bimbos, murderers. The stories were mainly from the 30s and 40s, as you would expect there was a degree of sexism within the stories (like the lawyer who married her husband on the day she graduated the bar, and then he was her only client – so she could be housewife and lawyer!) but on the whole most of the stories were great. I think one of my favourites was Snowbound, a tough woman criminal, running a dancing club taking on a rival gang. The story was written in the first person and sounded exactly like a man could be telling the tale, she was intelligent, tough and quick witted, but obviously a woman. My one criticism of this collection is there appeared to be no stories written by women (though I have to say I did wonder at some of the ones written under pseudonyms). All told I think this is a fantastic pulp collection and it made me really want to read more.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay - I confess this book is the point at which I gave up on this series.

Not that there weren't a few reasonable stories within the collection, but mostly because I'm really very very over the idea that all women are either tramps, or manipulators (or both), or victims, or pathetic, or stupid (well smart if they are manipulating)... and so on.

Even allowing for sensibility differences between when these stories were written and now, I just kept wondering if these authors had wives, or daughters, or mothers that they liked much. And I do know the difference between "fiction" and "reality" but this collection was so relentlessly, tediously predictably clichéd that it was a real struggle for me to finish.

[Kristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully edited collection of 23 pulp mystery and detective fiction from the 1920s-1940s, and each story features a dame -- including molls, lawyers, thieves, wives, private investigators, police detectives, journalists, and smart and sexy dancers. Includes stories from Chandler and Hammett, as well as a whole bevy of stories from lesser known (and sometimes unknown) authors. A perfect representation of one of my favorite genres (and an awesome birthday present from the best husband ever).

[Sally906 · Rating 2 out of 5]

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