UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · DETECTIVE AND MYSTERY
Stanley Ellin
Attempting to compile a list of the best of anything is inevitably an exercise doomed to failure.
Most acclaimed

The 50 Greatest Mysteries of All Time
[Purloined Letter]( / Edgar Allan Poe A terribly strange bed / Wilkie Collins The three strangers / Thomas Hardy T[he red-headed league]( / Arthur Conan Doyle The corpus delecti / Melville Davisson Post Gentlemen and players / E.W. Hornung A journey / Edith Wharton The leopard man's story / Jack London A retrieved reformation / O. Henry The problem of Cell 13 / Jacques Futrelle The absent-minded coterie / Robert Barr The invisible man / G.K. Chesterton The infallible Godahl / Frederick Irving Anderson The adventure of the unique "Hamlet" / Vincent Starrett The Gioconda smile / Aldous Huxley Haircut / Ring Lardner The killers / Ernest Hemingway The hands of Mr. Ottermole / Thomas Burke The little house at Croix-Rousse / Georges Simenon The case of the missing patriarchs / Logan Clendening Clerical error / James Gould Cozzens The two bottles of relish / Lord Dunsany The chaser / John Collier The perfect crime / Ben Ray Redman Yours truly, Jack the Ripper / Robert Bloch The blind spot / Barry Perowne The catbird seat / James Thurber Recipe for murder / C.P. Donnel Jr. The nine mile walk / Harry Kemelman Kill or be killed / Ogden Nash The specialty of the house / Stanley Ellin Nearly perfect / A.A. Milne The Gettysburg Bugle / Ellery Queen The last spin / Evan Hunter Stand up and die! / Mickey Spillane A new leaf / Jack Ritchie The snail-watcher / Patricia Highsmith The long way down / Edward D. Hoch The man who never told a lie / Isaac Asimov I have / John Gardner [Quitters, Inc.]( / Stephen King Horn man / Clark Howard The new girl friend / Ruth Rendell By the dawn's early light / Lawrence Block Iris / Stephen Greenleaf High Darktown / James Ellroy The Pietro Andromache / Sara Paretsky Soft monkey / Harlan Ellison The hand of Carlos / Charles McCarry Karen makes out / Elmore Leonard

Great Short Tales of Mystery and Terror
Each story in Great Short Tales of Mystery and Terror is an example of the work of an outstanding author--from Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to such modern masters as Agatha Christie, Ross Macdonald, Georges Simenon and a score of other famous names. Appearing in these pages are the world's greatest fictional detectives--Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Father Brown, James Bond, Lew Archer, Ellery Queen, Inspector Maigret and Perry Mason, all at work on some of their more baffling and fascinating cases. Contents: [THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE]( / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle THE TURN OF THE TIDE / C. S Forester THE SUMMER PEOPLE / Shirley Jackson [THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO]( / Edgar Allan Poe THE THIRD FLOOR FLAT / Agatha Christie THE MAN WHO LIKED DICKENS / Evelyn Waugh WAS IT A DREAM / Guy de Maupassant THE FOURTH MAN / John Russell THE WENDIGO / Algernon Blackwood THE TOUCH OF NUTMEG MAKES IT / John Collier THE ABSENCE OF MR. GLASS / G. K. Chesterton MIRIAM / Truman capote THE LOG OF THE EVENING STAR / Alfred Noyes CASTING THE RUNES / M. R. James [MAN FROM THE SOUTH]( / Roald Dahl THE WHOLE TOWNS SLEEPING / Ray Bradbury THE ARROW OF GOD / Leslie Charteris THE TWO BOTTLES OF RELISH / Lord Dunsany THE GETTYSBURG BUGLE / Ellery Queen [The Damned Thing]( / Ambrose Bierce DON'T LOOK NOW / Daphne du Maurier THE HANDS OF MR. OTITRMOLE / Thomas Burke AN ALPINE DIVORCE / Robert Barr THE INCAUTIOUS BURGLAR / John Dickson Carr THANATOS PALACE HOTEL / André Maurois THE GHOST.SHIP / Richard Middleton THE RATS IN THE WALLS / H. P. Lovecraft AETER.DINNER STORY / William Irish ANOTHER SOLUTION j Gilbert Highet THE WAXWORK / A. M. Burrage FOR YOUR EYES ONLY / Ian Fleming THE FOGHORN / Gertrude Atherton LEININGEN VERSUS THE ANTS / c-arl. Stephenson THE INTERRUPTION / W. W. Jacobs AN INVITATION TO THE HUNT / George Hitchcock THE VOICE IN THE NIGHT / William Hope Hodgson MIDNIGHT BLUE / Ross Macdonald THE REIVRN OF IMRAY / Rudyard Kipling JOURNEY BACKWARD INTO TIME / Georges Simenon THE MOVIE PEOPLE / Robert Bloch BROKER'S SPECIAL / Stanley Ellin THE SEA RAIDERS / H. G. Wells THE CASE OF THE IRATE WITNTESS / Erie Stanley Gardner SREDNI VASHTAR / Saki (H. H. Munro) THE NINE BILLION NAMES or GOD / Arthur C. Clarke