Carnival of Crime: The Best Mystery Stories of Frederic Brown (Mystery Makers)

I'd been compiling this anthology for about a year and got 18 of the 23 stories from other anthologies and the original magazines — but some of the book eluded me. I had nearly given up (collectors have made this a $100 book). Then Catfeeder hunted down the original book, scanned the missing pieces, and sent them to me. (For that I will be eternally grateful — grateful enough, in fact, to do conversions of Regency Romances for a year — yes, that! grateful.) Anyway I put everything together in a very nice ebook, proofread every word (except for the HUGE bibliography at the end — I just skimmed that) and now we all have a rarity that paper collectors have kept out of our hands for decades. (Hah — stick that in your silly bookscases!) Great mystery and crime collection! Dancing Sandwiches is, of course, a classic, but so are The Dangerous People, Cain and Nightmare in Yellow . Everything is above average and fun...and twisted. There is one difference in this book than the original. While reading the Introduction , Pronzini praised one story so highly that I included it at the end -- Come and Go Mad . It's a sorta-mystery, sorta-fantasy, sorta SF, but mainly bizarre -- and worth reading. Well here it is. Very satisfying for me. I love doing this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In these 23 stories, Brown never rails to surprise and delight. Time after time the reader anticipates the ending only to discover that once more the author has proved too clever. Yet Brown never “cheats,” never feeds false clues, and his endings are always plausible. His imag­ination is by turns puckish, grim, out­landish—but forever fresh. Brown’s stories run from the fifty-word “Mistake” to a novelette (“The Case of the Dancing Sandwiches”). In “Granny’s Birthday,” a two-page short short, with Granny supervising like a benign queen, the party goes splendidly, marred only by manslaughter and murder. In these 23 stories, Brown never rails to surprise and delight. Time after time the reader anticipates the ending only to discover that once more the author has proved too clever. Yet Brown never cheats, never feeds false clues, and his endings are always plausible. His imagination is by turns puckish, grim, outlandishbut forever fresh. Browns stories run from the fifty-word Mistake to a novelette (The Case of the Dancing Sandwiches). In Grannys Birthday, a two-page short short, with Granny supervising like a benign queen, the party goes splendidly, marred only by manslaughter and murder. Contents: -Town Wanted -Little Apple Hard to Peel -A Little White Lye -Blue Murder -The Djinn Murder -Murder While You Wait -Mr. Smith Kicks the Bucket -The Dangerous People -The Night the World Ended -The Voice Behind Him -Don't Look Behind You -Miss Darkness -I'll Cut Your Throat Again, Kathleen -The Laughing Butcher -The Joke -Cry Silence -Cain -The Case of the Dancing Sandwiches -Witness in the Dark -Granny's Birthday -Hobbyist -Nightmare in Yellow -Mistake