Edward D. Hoch Boeken

"Edward D. Hoch was the most ingenious of modern mystery writers. His stories off fair play cluing, convincing settings, and elaborate (sometimes bizarre) plots. [...] Hoch's ladies were often faced with seemingly impossible crimes -- throat cutting in a locked room, shooting of giant cacti, murder in a giant hot air balloon, stabbing in a shower with no one present, poisoning of Chinese food as a last meal of a murderer, and more ingenious methods that will keep the reader guessing."--Page 4 of cover.

Set against the backdrop of the Revolutionary War, the collection features thirteen stories of Alexander Swift, who interacts with iconic figures like George Washington and Benedict Arnold while serving the Continental Army. Complementing this historical narrative are five intriguing tales of Gideon Parrot, a flamboyant detective from the Golden Age, renowned for his clever problem-solving skills. Together, these characters offer a blend of historical intrigue and detective mystery.

-Leslie Charteris, "The Beauty Specialist:" The Saint battles a master criminal called the Z-Man.G.K. Chesterton, "The Oracle of the Dog:" This novella, about an impossible crime, is considered by many to be the best of the Father Brown stories. The Mystery Writers of America chose it as one of the best mysteries of all time.Michael Gilbert, "The Cleaners:" The only novella featuring Inspector Patrick Petrella. Mr. Gilbert won the 1987 MWA Grand Masters Award.Dorothy Sayers, "The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey:" In a rare adventure outside of Britain, Lord Peter becomes involved in strange doings in the Basque region of northern Spain.

Novels by Doyle, Maugham, Charteris, MacDonald, Gardner, Woolrick, and Fleming deal with spies and secret agents in World Wars I and II and the cold war

When a government official dies on the operating table, the president calls in the computer copsOn Venus, a radical exile escapes from a maximum-security prison, pledging to return to Washington and assassinate the president. Transport between Earth and the solar colonies is tightly regulated, but the exile knows a shortcut: the top-secret transvection machine, an experimental device that could theoretically be used to teleport men from planet to planet. Vander Defoe, the tool’s creator, is busy securing it when he feels a pain in his stomach: His appendix is about to explode.Defoe dies in the operating room during routine computerized surgery, and the case falls in the lap of the Computer Investigation Bureau, which has jurisdiction over all computer-related crimes. As the team tries to determine who corrupted the system that killed Defoe, it finds that in this case, all roads lead to Venus.

Hochova každoroční antologie nejlepších detektivních příběhů roku je dychtivě očekávána čtenáři a spisovateli na celém světě. Nikomu se nedaří s takovou jistotou dosáhnout následujícího: vybrat vítěze ještě před udílením cen. Není tedy překvapením, že L. Blockova povídka (oceněná Mystery Writers America cenou Edgar) je zde zahrnuta spolu s řadou datších jedenácti dokonalých povídek. Hochovi se také daří dosáhnout něčeho, co mnozí považují za nemožné: sestaví antologii, která je natolik hluboká a zároveň široká, že zaujme prostě každého. Když zvážíme různorodé spektrum čtenářstva, je to opravdu vzácný a mimořádný výkon. Edward D. Hoch je spisovatel — sestavovatel antologií a autor detektivních povídek. Jeho práce se pravidelně objevují na stránkách časopisů Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine a Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.