From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951 the magazine <I>Black Mask</I> published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in <I>Black Mask</I>. The urban crime stories that appeared in <I>Black Mask</I> helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games films and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by “the seminal and venerated mystery pulp magazine” (<I>Booklist</I>).<BR /><BR />Otto Penzler selected and wrote introductions to the best of the best the darkest of these dark vintage stories for the collection <I>The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories</I>. Now that collection is available for the first time on audio.<BR /><BR />Includes: <LI>“Knights of the Open Palm” by Carroll John Daly; read by Erik Bergmann</LI><LI>the “Rainbow Diamonds” series of stories (“Diamonds of Dread” “The Man in White” “The Blind Chinese” “Red Dawn” “Blue Glass” and “Diamonds of Death”) by Ramon Decolta; read by Johnny Heller</LI><LI>“The Ring on the Hand of Death” by William Rollins Jr.; read by Dan Bittner</LI>