annieb123's Review of Crime Novels: Five Classic Thrillers 1961-1964 (LOA, #370)

by Fredric Brown, Dan J. Marlowe, Dorothy B. Hughes, and Richard Stark

In the 1960s the masters of crime fiction expanded the genre’s literary and psychological possibilities with audacious new themes, forms, and subject matter—here are five of their finest works

This is the first of two volumes gathering the best American crime fiction of the 1960s, nine novels of astonishing variety and inventiveness that pulse with the energies of that turbulent, transformative decade.

In The Murderers (1961) by Fredric Brown, an out-of-work actor, hanging out with Beat drifters on the fringes of Hollywood, concocts a murder scheme that devolves into nightmare. This late work by a master in many genres is one of his darkest and most ingenious.

Dan J. Marlowe’s The Name of the Game Is Death (1962) channels the inner life of a violent criminal who freely acknowledges the truth of a prison psychiatrist’s diagnosis: “Your values are not civilized values.” Written with unnerving emotional authenticity, the story hurtles toward an annihilating climax.

Charles Williams drew on his experience in the merchant marine for his thriller Dead Calm (1963). A newlywed couple alone on a small yacht find themselves at the mercy of the mysterious survivor they have rescued from a sinking ship, in a suspenseful story that chillingly evokes the perils of the open ocean.

In the beautifully told and sharply observant The Expendable Man (1963), Dorothy B. Hughes’s final masterpiece of suspense, a young man in the American Southwest runs afoul of racial assumptions after he picks up a hitchhiker who soon turns up dead.

In twenty-four brilliantly constructed novels, Richard Stark (a pen name of Donald Westlake) charted the career of Parker, a hard-nosed professional thief, with rigorous clarity. The Score (1964), a stand-out in the series, finds Parker and his criminal associates hatching a plot to rob simultaneously all the jewelry stores, payroll offices, and banks in a remote Western mining town, only to come up against the human limits of even the most intricate planning.

Volume features include an introduction by editor Geoffrey O'Brien (Hardboiled America), newly researched biographies of the writers and helpful notes, and an essay on textual selection.

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Crime Novels: Five Classic Thrillers 1961-1964 is a collection omnibus which includes 5 full-length novels. Released 12th Sept 2023 as part of the Library of America series, it's 950 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

The five novels included are true classics and the authors will be familiar to most readers of crime fiction. This collection includes Fredric Brown, Dan J. Marlowe, Charles Williams, Dorothy B. Hughes, and Richard Stark. All are well known capable writers writing at the top of their formidable forms.

The editor, Geoffrey O'Brien, has also included biographical and background notes and an essay on text selection. For lovers and students of classic form American mystery, these extras and introduction will undoubtedly prove valuable and interesting.

Four and a half stars. The actual novels included in this and its sister volumes will likely be familiar to most die-hard lovers of American crime fiction; much of the value of the series comes from having the library as a reference source and to be able to revisit the classics over and over again. It would be a superlative choice for public library acquisition, for authors' home reference, and for lovers of classic American cinema/fiction.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Reading updates

14 January, 2024: Started reading

14 January, 2024: Finished reading

14 January, 2024: Reviewed