[Mike D. aka jmiked]

The is the best news I've heard in a long time. Those are exactly the books I want to read.

Mike

 

[Mike D. aka jmiked]

Sounds a lot like Hard Case Crime books,

Not really. HHC seems to concentrate on hard-boiled crime fiction, Penzler's venture looks to concentrate on classic mysteries. Two very different things.

Mike

 

[Mike D. aka jmiked]

.his stuff is not for me. Seriously not for me. They tend to be way darker and drag, especially for short stories...

The list of forthcoming titles includes Ellery Queen's The Roman Hat Mystery and James Grady's Six Days of the Condor... neither is very dark. In fact, I'd say most classic mysteries aren't very dark.

So there may be something there for you!

Mike

 

[Mike D. aka jmiked]

Well, that's why they make chocolate and vanilla. I have to confess that I have read THE ROMAN HAT MYSTERY and... well. Let's just say I think Mr. Queen improved as he went along.

Agreed. My favorite of theirs are the "middle period" mysteries, sandwiched between the S. S. van Dine imitations and the ghost-written ones.

Mike

 

[Mike D. aka jmiked]

I'm talking about the model of bringing back older stuff (even older authors with new titles), which is what HCC does for the most part.

Sounds like a big plus to me. I'd rather read the older stuff then the new in most cases.*

Mike
*Note I said most cases.

 

[Mike D. aka jmiked]

Looks like this project is live. There are several ebooks already listed on Amazon.

I bought Ellery Queen's The Roman Hat Mystery just for old time's sake, even though it's not top-notch Queen.

Mike

Edit: I bought Calamity Town, not Roman Hat. Much better choice.

 

[Mike D. aka jmiked]

Here's an interesting blog post by James Grady (author of Six Days of the Condor, the source for the Robert Redford movie Three Days of the Condor):

http://mysteriouspress.com/blog/we-are-the-revolution-by-james-grady.asp

Six Days of the Condor is scheduled to be available as an ebook on 22 Nov.

Mike

 

[Mike D. aka jmiked]

The Condor movie is much better than the book, and if that's an example of Penzler's taste, I'll move on by it.

I'd say it's an example, but not a representative sample. I wouldn't make a decision based on only one point of data.

Mike