Murder Off the Rack

Mayhem for the Masses

The surge in paperback book production in the 1950s created a market for pulp-style crime fiction written by fast-fingered authors who could pound out potboilers on tight deadlines. These are the stories of ten genre pioneers whose work still packs a punch today.

Noted mystery fiction scholars analyze each author's major works and provide insight into his background, commercial success (or lack thereof), and writing style:

Marvin Lachman explores Ed Lacy's socially conscious (for the 1950s) mystery novels and his creation of memorable black detective Toussaint Marcus Moore.

Max Allan Collins looks at the grifters, psychopaths, and sociopaths that populated Jim Thompson's best works, and how fame eluded Thompson until after his death.

Loren D. Estleman delves into Donald Hamilton's series of novels featuring Matt Helm, the super-spy who lived in James Bond's shadow and looked a lot like Dean Martin.

Donald E. Westlake makes a case for the little-known Peter Rabe, whose short career spawned gritty, grubby heroes in novels of uncommon power and lucidity.

Plus: Bill Crider (for Harry Whittington), former Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine columnist Jon Breen (for Vin Packer), George Kelley (for Marvin H. Albert), Ed Gorman (for Charles Williams), Will Murray (for the Executioner series), and Dick Lochte (for Warren Murphy).