The Big Book of Rogues and Villains by Otto Penzler

The Big Book of Rogues and Villains

Kindle Edition

Otto Penzler

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Ebook · October 24, 2017

Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler's new anthology brings together the most cunning, ruthless, and brilliant criminals in mystery fiction, for the biggest compendium of bad guys (and girls) ever assembled.

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Who it’s for
A layered crime anthology that balances pleasure, puzzle, and a nicely dark sense of company.
Genres
Mystery Anthologies, Short Story Anthologies, Crime Fiction
Published
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, October 24, 2017

About this book

Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler's new anthology brings together the most cunning, ruthless, and brilliant criminals in mystery fiction, for the biggest compendium of bad guys (and girls) ever assembled. The best mysteries--whether detective, historical, police procedural, cozy, or comedy--have one thing in common: a memorable perpetrator. For every Sherlock Holmes or Sam Spade in noble pursuit, there's a Count Dracula, a Lester Leith, or a Jimmy Valentine.

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These are the rogues and villains who haunt our imaginations--and who often have more in common with their heroic counterparts than we might expect. Now, for the first time ever, Otto Penzler gathers the iconic traitors, thieves, con men, sociopaths, and killers who have crept through the mystery canon over the past 150 years, captivating and horrifying readers in equal measure. The 72 handpicked stories in this collection introduce us to the most depraved of psyches, from iconic antiheroes like Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin and Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu to contemporary delinquents like Lawrence Block's Ehrengraf and Donald Westlake's Dortmunder, and include unforgettable tales by Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Washington Irving, Jack London, H.G. Wells, Sinclair Lewis, O. Henry, Edgar Wallace, Leslie Charteris, Erle Stanley Gardner, Edward D. Hoch, Max Allan Collins, Loren D. Estleman, and many more.

Darkly Good Company

A layered crime anthology that balances pleasure, puzzle, and a nicely dark sense of company.

Come here for

  • anthology rhythm; bite-sized menace
  • mystery with a wry, cultivated edge

Expect

  • short-story variety
  • British mystery shading

Where it sits

Mystery Anthologies99%
Short Story Anthologies44%
Crime Fiction34%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Short Story Anthologies
  • British Mystery
  • Mystery Anthologies
Authors
Otto Penzler
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published
October 24, 2017
Format
Ebook
Reading lane
Short Story Anthologies