The Ring on the Hand of Death: and Other Crime Fiction from the Legendary Magazine

Commendation Quotes:"Hardboiled crime fiction was never better than in the pages of "Black Mask" magazine, and "Black Mask" has never been better than in these vibrant, exciting audio editions. Close your eyes and you can practically smell the gunfire and whiskey." --Charles ArdaiCommendation Quotes:"Pitch-perfect performances of stories that are as rollicking as they are artful. I drove from Delaware to Mississippi on one long "Black Mask" bender, and if it weren't for the Gulf of Mexico I'd still be driving." --Michael Kardos, author of "The Three-Day Affair"Commendation Quotes:"The "Black Mask Audio Series" from Otto Penzler is a tribute to early pulp mystery and detective fiction that was highly entertaining, exciting and terrifically written. But this collection is far more than a nostalgic salute to the past, it's downright fun to enjoy in the present." --Joseph WambaughCommendation Quotes:"The stories of "Black Mask" and the audio book are a love-match as inevitable and passionate and entrancing as a private eye and a femme fatale. This is a series that will make you want to get in your car in the middle of a rainy night and drive around listening." --Robert Olen Butler, author of "The Hot Country, " a Christopher Marlowe Cobb ThrillerReview Quotes:""Black Mask "lives. . . . Read by top-notch performers." --"BookPage"--Michael KardosReview Quotes:"There is gold in every set. . . . Hitting like a Tommy gun blast, these pulse-pounding collections will leave mystery hounds panting for the next installment." --"Library Journal" [starred review]--Joseph WambaughPublisher Marketing: From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine "Black Mask" published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in "Black Mask." The urban crime stories that appeared in "Black Mask" helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games, films, and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by "the seminal and venerated mystery pulp magazine" ("Booklist"). Otto Penzler selected and wrote introductions to the best of the best, the darkest of these dark, vintage stories for the collection "The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories." Now that collection is available for the first time on audio. Includes: "Knights of the Open Palm" by Carroll John Daly; read by Erik Bergmannthe "Rainbow Diamonds" series of stories ("Diamonds of Dread," "The Man in White," "The Blind Chinese," "Red Dawn," "Blue Glass," and "Diamonds of Death") by Ramon Decolta; read by Johnny Heller"The Ring on the Hand of Death" by William Rollins Jr.; read by Dan BittnerReview Citations: Library Journal 05/15/2012 pg. 48 (EAN 9781611744705, Compact Disc) - *Starred Review Contributor Bio:  Penzler, Otto Otto Penzler is a renowned mystery editor, publisher, columnist, and owner of New York's The Mysterious Bookshop, the oldest and largest bookstores solely dedicated to mystery fiction. He has edited more than fifty crime-fiction anthologies. Contributor Bio:  Bergmann, Erik Erik Bergmann is the narrator of the Area 51 and Justice League audiobook series, as well as the voice of Fred on the companion audiobook for the Warner Bros. feature film "Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed". He has also dabbled in television, making appearances on "Saturday Night Live" and doing voice-over work for "Random! Cartoons". Contributor Bio:  Heller, Johnny Johnny Heller has narrated some five hundred books and garnered a bunch of swell awards and accolades, including "Publishers Weekly" Listen-Up Awards, Audie Awards and nominations, "AudioFile" Earphones Awards, and selection as one of "AudioFile" magazine's Top 50 Narrators of the 20th Century. Contributor Bio:  Bittner, Dan Dan Bittner s acting credits include appearances on "Law & Order", "Bored to Death", and "Person of Interest", among others. He has also starred in such films as "Law Abiding Citizen", "Adventureland", and "The Producers". As an audiobook narrator, he has narrated several titles by Jamie McGuire, Rob Scotton, and Kevin Henkes.