::AMAZON REVIEWS::

Simply the best
The Simple Art of Murder, is simply Chandler at his most cynical best, and is a reference to a collection of short stories written by the hard-boiled detective fiction author. If you really want to understand the true meaning of crime books, then this is the book for you.

Clarification
Various editions of THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER (and short story/novella collections spun off from it) have resulted in some confusion as to the included short titles. I believe the original collection included twelve stories plus the famous title essay). However, the 1953 Pocket Book edition titled THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER includes "Pearls Are a Nuisance,"Spanish Blood," "The King in Yellow," and "I'll Be Waiting" plus "The Simple Art of Murder" essay." Prior to that volume, _Trouble Is My Business: Four Stories from THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER_ (1951 Pocket Book edition) includes four stories: the title novelette, "Finger Man," "Goldfish," and "Red Wind." And _Pick-Up on Noon Street: Four Stories from THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER_ (1952 Pocket Book Edition) includes four stories: the title story, "Smart-Aleck Kill," "Guns at Cyrano's," and "Nevada Gas." I have yet to find an early edition with all of the above stories and original or early sleeve/cover art so this 1988 Vintage edition will have to suffice.
L.B. Garcia

Classic Noir Detective Fiction
This collection is made up of Chandler's essay that shares the title of this book along with a few novellas and short stories. Chandler's essay about the "art" of the mystery story is still considered the benchmark for analyzing detective fiction, and with good reason. He not only constructively critiques some classic detective stories like A.A. Milne's "The Red House Mystery" and Dashiel Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" and what makes them stand out in the genre, but he also explains how mystery stories will never since they must adhere to certain constraining criteria. Chandler also goes on to describe his typical mystery story hero, which he clearly used to develop Philip Marlowe. Besides adding in some stories about Marlowe, this collection also includes some other lesser known stories written in the 1930's with other similar detectives. The stories are great in their own rights, but sometimes the writing includes a lot of lingo used in the 1930's which hasn't been used much since. Still, this language will not interfere too much with your understanding of the stories and gives them a more realistic feel to them since these characters really would talk like that back in that decade. Even if you're not a fan of Chandler, chances are you'll probably find something to like here if you like detective fiction at all.

"Chandler Writes Like A Slumming Angel"
I am a huge Chandler fan. I would have given this excellent collection of stories (and essay) 5 stars except for the atrocious number of typos! Totally ruins the flow of the story! I also wish that there was a linked table of contents.

Hardboiled to perfection
The best! No hard-boiled writer, except Dashiell Hammett, can write mysteries that "feel" better.

This collection consists of: "The Simple Art of Murder" (an essay on mystery writing), and the short stories: "Spanish blood," "I'll be waiting", "The King in Yellow", "Pearls are a Nuisance", "Pickup on Noon Street", "Smart-aleck Kill", "Guns at Cyrano's", "Nevada gas."