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Black Mask Audio Magazine, Vol. 1: Classic Hard-Boiled Tales from the Original Black Mask Audiobook
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Publisher Description
Tough gumshoes, rotten yeggs, and dangerous dames
In the 1930s and '40s, Black Mask was the single most important magazine for the modern mystery field. In its pages writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Earl Stanley Gardner reshaped the established view of mystery fiction, creating the "hard-boiled" private eye. Now comes this series in which the toughest of tough detectives are resurrected from its pages in sonic dramatization from the award-winning Hollywood Theater of the Ear.
Stories included in this volume are "Lost and Found" by Hugh B. Cave, "Pigeon Blood" by Paul Cain, "Rough Justice" by Frederick Nebel, "Black" by Paul Cain, "The Missing Mr. Lee" by Hugh B. Cave, "Taking His Time" by Rueben J. Shay, "Trouble Chaser" by Paul Cain, "Waiting for Rusty" by William Cole, and "Too Many Have Lived" by Dashiell Hammett.
"Lost and Found"
Did a spoiled rich girl die in a plane crash, or is she hiding with her homicidal lover in the Florida Keys? Whose body is that in the wreckage? Who put it there?
"Black"
A big-city tough guy comes to a small Minnesota town to settle a deadly fight between the local crime boss and his chief rival—his son.
"Pigeon Blood"
A society matron's life is threatened after she engineers the theft of her own priceless jewelry to pay off a gambling debt. Only a debonair connoisseur of crime can save her and recover her gems—for a price.
"Taking His Time"
In this comic vignette, a carnival barker's valuable watch gets stolen during an illegal poker game. The local sheriff seems in no hurry to apprehend the thief, until a reward is offered.
"Rough Justice"
Mississippi heat—A Manhattan gumshoe pursues a convict to St. Louis, where he gets mixed up in a cop killing and nearly loses his own life at the hands of a "B" girl.
"Trouble Chaser"
A starlet's plot to blackmail a film-studio executive results in her murder. Only the "trouble chaser" can clear her volatile lover and solve the crime.
"The Missing Mr. Lee"
An eccentric boarding-house denizen winds up dead; his presumed killer, a fellow boarder, has vanished. The baffling case unfolds through the testimony of witnesses, who are themselves suspects.
"Waiting for Rusty"
This account of a fugitive gun moll masterfully compresses the essence of "noir" fiction into three incredibly tense pages.
"Too Many Have Lived"
One of only three Sam Spade short stories, this one involves a blackmailing poet, a seductive chanteuse, her rough-hewn stage-door-johnny, and, of course, murder. Recorded before a live audience in New York.
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“Blackstone Audio returns listeners to the thrilling days of yesteryear with some of the best takes from the most popular hard-boiled mystery publication of the 1930s and ’40s, Black Mask Magazine. This first volume has performances by 14 of today’s top audio narrators, including Richard Ferrone, Grover Gardner, Jeff Woodman, Christine Williams, George Guidall, Richard Allen, Lorna Raver, and Tom Weiner. Directed by Yuri Rasovsky, the production has plenty of period music and wonderful sound effects. For those old enough to remember, it’s a déjà vu of radio days—but even better. The standout stories are ‘Taking His Time,’ ‘Trouble Chaser,’ and ‘Pigeon Blood.’ These shorts, highly acclaimed in the 1930s, are given new life by some of the best voices of our time.”
— AudioFile
Awards
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Winner of the Audie AwardAudie Award for Short Stories/Collections
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An AudioFile Best Audiobook of the Year of 2009 (Mystery)
Black Mask Audio Magazine, Vol. 1 Listener Reviews
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About the Authors
Xe Sands has more than a decade of experience bringing stories to life through narration, performance, and visual art, including recordings of the Nightwalkers series from Jaquelyn Frank. She has received several honors, including AudioFile Earphones Awards and a coveted Audie Award, and she was named Favorite Debut Romance Narrator of 2011 in the Romance Audiobooks poll.
Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961) was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He is widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time. In addition to The Maltese Falcon, his pioneering novels include Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Glass Key, and the #1 New York Times bestseller The Thin Man.
Hugh B. Cave (1910–2004) was born in England and came to the United States as a child, eventually settling in Boston. Best known for his works of pulp fiction, he authored hundreds of books, short stories, and collections, including The Cross on the Drum, Larks Will Sing, The Dawning, Long Live the Dead, Bitter/Sweet, and many others. He received lifetime achievement awards from the International Horror Guild, the Horror Writers Association, and the World Fantasy Convention.
Frederick Nebel was born on November 3, 1903. He was a charter member of the Black Mask school, a group of writers who worked for the magazine and championed the hardboiled detective noir style of the 1920s. While most of Nebel’s published work was short stories, he also authored three novels, Sleeper’s East, Fifty Roads to Town, and But Not the End. He died in Laguna Beach, California, in 1967.
Paul Cain, pseudonym of George Carol Sims (1902–1966), was a pulp fiction author and screenwriter. He was the author of seventeen short stories in Black Mask and wrote the screenplay for The Black Cat.
About a full cast
Pedro Pablo Sacristán was born in Madrid and graduated with an MBA from a prestigious business school. His passion for education and writing led him to create Bedtime Stories, short stories that help teach kids values.