That's hardboiled gold in that durn basement!

It pays to check out those boxes of books you've got stashed out of sight and mind. I've got a large batch of books set aside for eventual disposal. Going through them for an upcoming yard sale I discovered two anthologies I'd bought nearly twenty years ago and never read a single story in.

The first is City Sleuths and Tough Guys, edited by David Willis
McCullough. It's a historical survey of urban crime stories ranging from Edgar Allan Poe through Sue Grafton. This looks like it's worth holding on to for a little longer.

The second book is a definite keeper. It's Tough Guys & Dangerous Dames, edited by Robert E. Weinberg, Stefan Dziemianowicz, and Martin H. Greenberg. The table of contents is basically a list of the best hardboiled American writers from the last century. There's Chandler, Raoul Whitfield, Norbert Davis, Hugh B. Cave, Paul Cain, John D. MacDonald, and a host others. Discovering this one made me very happy.