Dolls Are Murder is the 1957 MWA anthology. (The title lets you know it's from the days before Political Correctness, right?) I've never seen the hardback edition, so I don't know what it contains. This one has eight stories by the authors listed on the cover, and that's it. There's no editorial apparatus at all. No foreword, no afterword, no introductions, nada. Still, look at the lineup and you can see that it has some top names. No women, however.
Unlike current MWA anthologies, the stories here are all reprints from the '40s and '50s, with one (the Queen) from '39. One of them (the Chandler) is probably familiar to a lot of people. The others, not so much, so it's well worth picking up a copy of you see one. You can also find reasonably priced copies on the Internet.
5 comments:
I did this one (I think, shall have to check, and isn't that a sorry commentary that I'm not certain) some time back. I'd suggest "The Homesick Buick" by JDM, with its clever gimmick somewhat less effective today (with so many more of the entities cited in the gimmick). I had the paperback too, perhaps as part of the Kate Laity Library Reduction.
Hmm... seems to have been a pretty easy gig for Mr Masur. I'm wondering whether the dolls featured within are "murder", or whether its just an eye-catching, tough guy title. Thanks for pointing it out.
I've never seen this edition of DOLLS ARE MURDER. Lion Books didn't get distributed much in this part of the country.
Brian...it's a pretty misleading package all around, for a good, slim book. (I did indeed review it.)
I have this very edition, and think it's a strong collection. Nice to come across a Friday Forgotten that I have and have read!+
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