Page 59 of Books to Die For


  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The editors would like to thank all those writers, publishers, editors, agents, and assistants who helped to bring this anthology together. Your time, patience, knowledge, and generosity are very much appreciated. Special thanks, too, to Ellen Clair Lamb, for whom the title “editorial assistant” doesn’t seem quite sufficient, given that she collated, translated, advised, edited, and copyedited for this volume. Thanks, too, to Jennie Ridyard, who fact-checked and saved some of our blushes. Any errors that remain do so despite all of our best efforts, and we apologize for them.

  We are grateful to David Brown and Caroline Porter at Simon & Schuster, Kerry Hood at Hodder & Stoughton, and Clare Wallace at the Darley Anderson Literary Agency, all of whom helped us to reach out to those authors whom we didn’t personally know. Similar aid came from Delia Louzán at Tusquets in Spain; Sophie Thiébaut at Place des éditeurs in France; Anne Michel and Solène Chabanais at Albin Michel; Misa Morikawa at the Tuttle-Mori Agency in Japan; Antonio Lozano in Spain; and Stefano Bortolussi in Italy.

  Finally, thanks to Sue Fletcher, Swati Gamble, and all at Hodder & Stoughton; Emily Bestler, Judith Curr, and all at Atria Books; and Darley Anderson and his staff at the Darley Anderson Literary Agency who, in these straitened times for books and publishing, agreed to support this labor of love.

  CREDITS

  In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes © Megan Abbott, 2012

  Act of Passion by Georges Simenon © John Banville, 2012

  The Goodbye Look by Ross Macdonald © Linwood Barclay, 2012

  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle © Linda Barnes, 2012

  Early Autumn by Robert B. Parker © Colin Bateman, 2012

  The Light of Day by Eric Ambler © M.C. Beaton, 2012.

  The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett © Mark Billingham, 2012

  120, Rue de la Gare by Léo Malet © Cara Black, 2012

  Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams © Christopher Brookmyre, 2012

  A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens © Rita Mae Brown, 2012

  Daddy Cool by Donald Goines © Ken Bruen, 2012

  The Pledge by Friedrich Dürrenmatt © Elisabetta Bucciarelli, 2012

  The Assassin by Liam O’Flaherty © Declan Burke, 2012

  The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos © Declan Burke, 2012

  The Outlander by Gil Adamson © Caroline Carver, 2012

  Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers © Rebecca Chance, 2012

  Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter © Paul Charles, 2012

  The Damned and the Destroyed by Kenneth Orvis © Lee Child, 2012

  Different Seasons by Stephen King © Paul Cleave, 2012

  The Man Who Smiled by Henning Mankell © Ann Cleeves, 2012

  Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell © Reed Farrel Coleman, 2012

  The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips © Eoin Colfer, 2012

  I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane © Max Allan Collins, 2012

  The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler © Michael Connelly, 2012

  The Chill by Ross Macdonald © John Connolly, 2012

  The Black Echo by Michael Connelly © John Connolly, 2012

  A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne © Thomas H. Cook, 2012

  Toxic Shock (Blood Shot) by Sara Paretsky © Natasha Cooper, 2012

  The Wrong Case by James Crumley © David Corbett, 2012

  A Night for Screaming by Harry Whittington © Bill Crider, 2012

  Cover Her Face by P. D. James © Deborah Crombie, 2012

  The Executioners by John D. MacDonald © Jeffery Deaver, 2012

  The Holy Terror by Leslie Charteris © David Downing, 2012

  The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin © Ruth Dudley Edwards, 2012

  Prótesis by Andreu Martín © Cristina Fallarás, 2012

  The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain © Joseph Finder, 2012

  Tell No One by Harlan Coben © Sebastian Fitzek, 2012

  Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell © Kathryn Fox, 2012

  The Secret History by Donna Tartt © Tana French, 2012

  A Is for Alibi by Sue Grafton © Meg Gardiner, 2012

  A Dance at the Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block © Alison Gaylin, 2012

  Gun Before Butter by Nicolas Freeling © Jason Goodwin, 2012

  The Long-Legged Fly by James Sallis © Sara Gran, 2012

  Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith © Jean-Christophe Grangé, 2012

  The Bastard by Erskine Caldwell © Allan Guthrie, 2012

  LaBrava by Elmore Leonard © James W. Hall, 2012

  Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn © Denise Hamilton, 2012

  Murder . . . Now and Then by Jill McGown © Sophie Hannah Jones, 2012

  Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household © Charlaine Harris Schulz, 2012

  Possession by A. S. Byatt © Erin Hart, 2012

  The Broken Shore by Peter Temple © John Harvey, 2012

  Clockers by Richard Price © Gar Anthony Haywood, 2012

  Endless Night by Agatha Christie © Lauren Milne Henderson, 2012

  Fast One by Paul Cain © Chuck Hogan, 2012

  The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke © Katherine Howell, 2012

  A Stranger in My Grave by Margaret Millar © Declan Hughes, 2012

  Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout © Arlene Hunt, 2012

  Brighton Rock by Graham Greene © Peter James, 2012

  A Philosophical Investigation by Philip Kerr © Paul Johnston, 2012

  Skin Deep by Peter Dickinson © Laurie R. King, 2012

  A Simple Plan by Scott Smith © Michael Koryta, 2012

  Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman © William Kent Krueger, 2012

  Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler © Joe R. Lansdale, 2012

  The Animal Factory by Edward Bunker © Jens Lapidus, 2012

  The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley © Dennis Lehane, 2012

  The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins © Elmore Leonard, 2012

  Out by Natsuo Kirino © Diane Wei Liang, 2012

  Love’s Lovely Counterfeit by James M. Cain © Laura Lippman, 2012

  What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman © Bill Loehfelm, 2012

  The Ax by Donald E. Westlake © Lisa Lutz, 2012

  A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson © Shane Maloney, 2012

  The Ghost of Blackwood Hall by Carolyn Keene © Liza Marklund, 2012

  Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey © Margaret Maron, 2012

  The Dupin Tales by Edgar Allan Poe © J. Wallis Martin, 2012

  On Beulah Height by Reginald Hill © Val McDermid, 2012

  The Main by Trevanian © John McFetridge, 2012

  Black and Blue by Ian Rankin © Brian McGilloway, 2012

  Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith © Adrian McKinty, 2012

  Nineteen Seventy-Four by David Peace © Eoin McNamee, 2012

  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré © Élmer Mendoza, 2012

  Ten Plus One by Ed McBain © Deon Meyer, 2012

  Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky © Dreda Say Mitchell, 2012

  Mystic River by Dennis Lehane © Chris Mooney, 2012

  The Big Heat by William P. McGivern © Eddie Muller, 2012

  Fadeout by Joseph Hansen © Marcia Muller, 2012

  Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (aka The Trial of Elizabeth Cree) by Peter Ackroyd © Barbara Nadel, 2012

  The Alienist by Caleb Carr © Reggie Nadelson, 2012

  Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson © Jo Nesbø, 2012

  American Tabloid by James Ellroy © Stuart Neville, 2012

  The Steam Pig by James McClure © Mike Nicol, 2012

  The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle © Carol O’Connell, 2012

  Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee © Margie Orford, 2012

  Southern Seas (Los mares del sur) by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán © Leonardo Padura, 2012

  Bleak House by Charles Dickens © Sara Paretsky, 2012

  The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett © Davi
d Peace, 2012

  Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg © George Pelecanos, 2012

  The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey © Louise Penny, 2012

  The Perk by Mark Gimenez © Anne Perry, 2012

  The Scene by Clarence Cooper Jr. © Gary Phillips, 2012

  The Woman Chaser by Charles Willeford © Scott Phillips, 2012

  Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze © Bill Pronzini, 2012

  Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö © Qiu Xiaolong, 2012

  I Was Dora Suarez by Derek Raymond © Ian Rankin, 2012

  The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris © Kathy Reichs, 2012

  The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham © Phil Rickman, 2012

  A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell © Peter Robinson, 2012

  Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow (aka Smilla’s Sense of Snow) by Peter Høeg © Michael Robotham, 2012

  Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart © M. J. Rose, 2012

  True Confessions by John Gregory Dunne © S. J. Rozan, 2012

  3 to Kill (Le petit bleu de la côte ouest) by Jean-Patrick Manchette © James Sallis, 2012

  Murder in the Marais by Cara Black © Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, 2012

  The Dead Letter by Metta Fuller Victor © Karin Slaughter, 2012

  Escape by Perihan Mağden © Mehmet Murat Somer, 2012

  Bootlegger’s Daughter by Margaret Maron © Julia Spencer-Fleming, 2012

  Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie © Kelli Stanley, 2012

  The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins © Andrew Taylor, 2012

  Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley © Martyn Waites, 2012

  Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier © Minette Walters, 2012

  In Cold Blood by Truman Capote © Joseph Wambaugh, 2012

  The Hunter by Richard Stark © F. Paul Wilson, 2012

  Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton © Laura Wilson, 2012

  JOHN CONNOLLY is the author of such international bestsellers as The Whisperers, The Gates, The Lovers, The Reapers, The Unquiet, The Black Angel, Every Dead Thing, Dark Hollow, The Killing Kind, The Book of Lost Things, and Bad Men. He is also the host of the weekly radio show ABC to XTC. He divides his time between Dublin, Ireland, and Portland, Maine. He can be contacted through his website at www.johnconnollybooks.com or via Twitter @jconnollybooks.

  DECLAN BURKE is the author of Eightball Boogie, The Big O, and Absolute Zero Cool. He is also the editor of Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century. He lives in Wicklow, Ireland, with his wife, Aileen, and baby daughter, Lily, and hosts a website, called Crime Always Pays, dedicated to Irish crime fiction. Visit his website at crimealwayspays.blogspot.com or contact him on Twitter @declanburke.

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  COPYRIGHT © 2012 SIMON & SCHUSTER

  ALSO BY JOHN CONNOLLY

  THE CHARLIE PARKER STORIES

  Every Dead Thing

  Dark Hollow

  The Killing Kind

  The White Road

  The Reflecting Eye (Novella in the Nocturnes Collection)

  The Black Angel

  The Unquiet

  The Reapers

  The Lovers

  The Whisperers

  The Burning Soul

  The Wrath of Angels

  OTHER WORKS

  Bad Men

  The Book of Lost Things

  SHORT STORIES

  Nocturnes

  THE SAMUEL JOHNSON STORIES (FOR YOUNG ADULTS)

  The Gates

  The Infernals

  ALSO BY DECLAN BURKE

  NOVELS

  Eightball Boogie

  The Big O

  Absolute Zero Cool

  Slaughter’s Hound

  NONFICTION

  Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century

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  1 Judith Flanders, The Invention of Murder (New York: HarperPress, 2011), p. 178.

  2 Ibid., pp. 158 ff.

  3 “Homely” in this passage means “home-grown.”

  4 The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) is the first work to follow the character’s premature death, though it precedes the comeback story of Holmes’s resurrection, “The Adventure of the Empty House,” in 1903. So presumably we’re meant to believe that events in the 1902 novel took place before Holmes’s demise in “The Final Problem,” a short story of 1893. Do not reread this. Just . . . let it go.

  5 The Baskerville family’s home, Clyro Court, has since been repurposed and renamed the Baskerville Hall Hotel. In a contest of sorts over bragging rights for the story’s true setting, it wins for the architectural and landscaping similarities to the estate in the novel, though it is not, as Doyle describes it, a fourteenth-century castle. This gray-stone manor house was built in 1839.

  6 Bertram Fletcher Robinson takes credit for inspiring the novel by relating a hound-of-hell legend to the author—though British folklore was already crawling with phantom devil dogs. Doyle does acknowledge his friend in the clothbound edition of 1902, but Robinson’s own story of this contribution, made on a golfing holiday in March 1901, leaves little time before serialization in the August edition of The Strand Magazine that same year. Given the cliffhanger style of this serial format, the novel was well plotted and paced before the first of eight installments, and not written on the fly (though serials do offer time for rewrites). Prolific Doyle dashed off many a short story in this same span, though novels are more widely spaced in the Holmes canon, suggesting they might’ve been a year or more in the making, but the author wrote his magnum opus in less than six months.

  7 The bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, was sparked by the arrest of a black woman, Rosa Parks, for refusing to surrender her seat on a bus to a white passenger. It eventually led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared unconstitutional the Alabama laws requiring segregated buses.

  8 High Priest wasn’t the first novel he wrote. That was Deliver Me from Dallas, written in collaboration with a writer by the name of W. Franklin Sanders. Sanders had the book published in 1961 in altered form under the title Whip Hand without Willeford’s knowledge or sanction and, most damningly, without his name on the cover. Dennis McMillan published the original version in 2001, and what’s most remarkable about it is what it lacks: the assured, sardonic, insouciance of Willeford’s voice, which debuts fully formed and full of confident swagger in High Priest.

  9 Watching a video of the uncut, black-and-white version supplied by a friend close to the production, I turned to my wife at this particular juncture and said, “He’s lost you, hasn’t he?” “No,” she said with some vehemence. “I’m with him.” Such is the power of the Willefordian protagonist.

  10 The term “Bantu” as a description of Bantu-speaking South Africans became discredited in the middle of the twentieth century when South Africa’s ruling National Party, which was responsible for the introduction of apartheid, began using the term as a racial categorization.

  11 Translated, variously, as Children’s Death Songs or Songs on the Death of Children.

  12 Six men, all of whom were born in Northern Ireland but lived in Birmingham, sentenced to life imprisonment for bomb offenses in the U.K. in 1975, and released after sixteen years when their convictions w
ere declared unsound.

  INDEX OF CONTRIBUTING AND SUBJECT AUTHORS

  Abbott, Megan 112

  Ackroyd, Peter 421

  Adams, Douglas 352

  Adamson, Gil 506

  Allingham, Margery 140

  Ambler, Eric 188

  Banville, John 116

  Barclay, Linwood 239

  Barnes, Linda 27

  Bateman, Colin 324

  Beaton, M. C. (Marion Chesney) 188

  Berne, Suzanne 443

  Billingham, Mark 46

  Black, Cara 105, 463

  Block, Lawrence 378

  Brookmyre, Christopher 352

  Brown, Rita Mae 15

  Bruen, Ken 264

  Bucciarelli, Elisabetta 167

  Bunker, Edward 297

  Burke, Declan 28, 438

  Burke, James Lee 510

  Byatt, A. S. (Antonia Susan) 366

  Cain, James M. 70, 103

  Cain, Paul (George Carol Sims) 67

  Caldwell, Erskine 42

  Capote, Truman 224

  Carr, Caleb 425

  Carver, C. J. (Caroline) 506

  Chance, Rebecca 56

  Chandler, Raymond 94, 129

  Charles, Paul 274

  Charteris, Leslie (Leslie Bowyer-Yin) 62

  Chaze, Elliott 144

  Child, Lee 194

  Christie, Agatha 74, 229

  Cleave, Paul 336

  Cleeves, Ann 430

  Coben, Harlan 490

  Coetzee, J. M. (John Maxwell) 473

  Coleman, Reed Farrel 469

  Colfer, Eoin 486

  Collins, Max Allan 119

  Collins, Wilkie 23

  Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur 27, 32

  Connelly, Michael 129, 382

  Connolly, John 212, 382

  Cook, Thomas H. 443

  Cooper, Clarence, Jr. 171

  Cooper, N. J. (Natasha) 362

  Corbett, David 268

  Cornwell, Patricia 370

  Crider, Bill 179

  Crispin, Edmund 108

  Crombie, Deborah 190

  Crumley, James 268, 309

  Deaver, Jeffery 158