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Rating: 
Summary: Top Notch Hard-Boiled Anthology
Review: "Hard Boiled" is an absolutely first rate collection of short stories by some of the best AND least known writers of the genre. One of its two editors, Bill Pronzini, is an avid collector of the old Pulp magazines as well as being one of the best hard-boiled writers working today (he's the author of the excellent "Nameless" detective series). He and co-editor Jack Adrian really know their stuff, as they show with an extensive introduction that explains in detail the history of the genre. They also provide good introductions for each individual writer, both the famous and the not-so famous, to give the reader a good perspective of where each author was coming from.The stories themselves are grouped by the decade in which they were published. The 1930s and 1950s are the most heavily represented because, the editors explain, they were the peak decades for hard-boiled fiction in terms of both poularity and quality. The book covers the 1920s to the 1990s. Overall, this is an excellent book for anyone who enjoys good crime stories.
Rating:
Summary: Top Notch Hard-Boiled Anthology
Review: "Hard Boiled" is an absolutely first rate collection of short stories by some of the best AND least known writers of the genre. One of its two editors, Bill Pronzini, is an avid collector of the old Pulp magazines as well as being one of the best hard-boiled writers working today (he's the author of the excellent "Nameless" detective series). He and co-editor Jack Adrian really know their stuff, as they show with an extensive introduction that explains in detail the history of the genre. They also provide good introductions for each individual writer, both the famous and the not-so famous, to give the reader a good perspective of where each author was coming from. The stories themselves are grouped by the decade in which they were published. The 1930s and 1950s are the most heavily represented because, the editors explain, they were the peak decades for hard-boiled fiction in terms of both poularity and quality. The book covers the 1920s to the 1990s. Overall, this is an excellent book for anyone who enjoys good crime stories.
Rating: 
Summary: great commentary, mediocre stories...
Review: 'Hard-Boiled', an anthology of twentieth-century "hard-boiled" short stories compiled by Pronzini and Adrian, should have been great. Unfortunately out of the thousands of stories to choose from they picked the dregs from some of the best writers (Ellroy, Goodis, Thompson, ..), and the best from a great many (deservedly) unknown writers. It took me a long time to slog through the dozens of stories contained in this volume.
However the only positve aspect of the book are the commentaries before each story, giving a bit of background on each author and their placement in the history of 'hard-boiled' short fiction. Clearly Pronzini/Adrian have done their homework in this regard. But this only made me more frustrated with the all the mediocre stories they amassed.
Bottom line: a missed opportunity. Very disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: A great anthology
Review: Hard Boiled is the greatest crime anthology that I have read. It's full to the brim with great stories and has writers from every decade some well kown some not. Some great stories are Dashiell Hammet's The Scorched Face, Roul Whitfield's Misteral, James M Cain's Brush Fire, Chester Himes Marijuana and a Pistol and Jim Thompson's Forever After. It also has a great introduction. I seriously suggest you buy this book
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