Hard-Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories

Hard-Boiled, edited by Bill Pronzini and Jack Adrian, is one of the genuinely essential anthologies for anyone who wants to understand the American hard-boiled tradition outside of the three or four canonical novelists. The selections range across decades and across the kind of small-magazine and pulp publication that historical anthologies often skip, and the editorial frame is excellent.

The Cornell Woolrich stories alone earn the volume. James M. Cain's "The Baby in the Icebox" is here, in its original short form. There are also pieces by writers whose names will not be familiar to most readers and who turn out to have written some of the cleanest noir prose of their decade. Pronzini and Adrian know what they are doing.

Five stars. The kind of anthology that gets reached for repeatedly. Recommended to anyone interested in the American crime short story.