Many of these informative and insightful essays originally introduced Stark House reprints of paperback fiction writers. Shorter connective pieces are original to this volume, including “Untold Stories,” which argues for more biographies of crime writers, focusing on the very prolific Harry Whittington. Ollerman does for hardboiled and noir writers of the late 20th century what Curtis Evans has done for rediscovered Golden Age classicists. Covered at greatest length are Peter Rabe (43 pages), Charles Williams (38), and Ed Gorman (28), thorough and excellent on the latter, whose work I know very well, and tantalizing on the other two whom I’ve read only a little (Rabe) or sad to admit not at all (Williams). Other subjects include Wade Miller (the collaborative pseudonym of Robert Wade and Bill Miller, who had contrasting methods to the Ellery Queen team of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee and got along much better), James Hadley Chase, W.R. Burnett, Andrew Coburn, Malcolm Braly, and the less prolific and familiar John Trinian and Jada N. Davis.

Ollerman is clearly a gifted writer, with a lively and readable style, but the quality of the prose varies widely. A substantial piece on Lionel White is excellent for its critical and informational content, including a survey of White’s work as adapted to film and a discussion of his level of political correctness in the current cultural climate. But the writing is meandering, repetitious, and way undercopyedited.