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A New Omnibus of Crime (2005)
Edited by Tony Hillerman
and Rosemary Herbert.
Contents:
Introduction; The Man
Who Knew How; The Girl with the Silver Eyes; Red Wind; The Wench Is Dead; Gone
Girl; The Couple Next Door; By the Scruff of the Soul; A Poison That Leaves No
Trace; Photo Finish; The Crime of Miss Oyster Brown; Red Clay; Barking at
Butterflies; Running Out of Dog; Hostages; When the Women Come Out to Dance; Flowers
That Bloom in the Spring; Woodrow Wilsons Necktie; Loopy; Great Aunt Allies Fly
Papers; First Lead Gasser; Chee’s Witch; Breathe Deep; Rumpole and the Bubble
Reputation; The Hanged Man; The Holly and the Poison Ivy; Copycat; He Loved to
Go for Drives with His Father; Credits; Index.
Description:
Three-quarters of a
century ago, Dorothy L. Sayers compiled the classic anthology The Omnibus of
Crime, a definitive collection of short fiction that brought together crime and
mystery works from the Apocryphal Scriptures to whodunits from the 1920s. Now,
reflecting the explosive developments in the genre, Tony Hillerman and Rosemary
Herbert celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of that book's publication with
A New Omnibus of Crime. Like Sayers's volume, this new book is envisioned as a
vehicle carrying stories the editors think represent the best in crime and
mystery writing in our time. Selections also reflect the tastes of Contributing
Editors Sue Grafton and Jeffery Deaver, both of whom have stories in this
volume. The anthology begins with a story by Sayers herself; other giants of
the genre including Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, are also represented
among the twenty-seven works. Hillerman and Herbert introduce each story and
place each selection in the context of the literary history of the genre.
Several of the writers confide the circumstances and real-life happenings that
inspired them to write their stories. The book concludes with stories by
Jeffery Deaver, Alexander McCall Smith, and Catherine Aird – all in print for
the first time here. While mystery writers in
Sayer’s day shunned the love interest as a distraction from a puzzling plot,
some of these stories show how the depiction of love – thwarted or otherwise –
can effectively enrich crime writing. In the last seven-plus decades, the use
of a distinctly regional voice has also revitalized the genre, as our selection
of stories shows. And while Sayer’s contemporaries looked at crime as something
that could be solved and “tidied up,” writers here take the view that the
effects of crime linger like a stain even after a solution has been reached.
Illustrating another more recent trend, pets romp through these pages, some in
surprising ways. Like passengers on an omnibus, the stories that keep company
here are colorful and mixed. Some will inspire laughter while others will
incite chills. All will keep readers turning the pages. We invite you to hop
on, take a ride, and get to know them.
