"The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories," edited by Bill Pronzini and Martin H. Greenberg, is an anthology of short stories, previously published between about 1947 and 1988, featuring some of the best-known private eyes in fiction (Philip Marlowe, Lew Archer, Amos Walker, Kinsey Millhone, Sharon McCone). The story choices are meant to showcase the “hard-boiled” sub-genre, and do so quite well; however, the extreme sexism in especially the early stories (from the 1940s and ‘50s) quickly wore thin, to the point that I gave up reading. I might go back and pick up one story or another from time to time, but reading that much horridness back-to-back just defeated me. Blech. ( )

Far from the best book I have ever read. Although a collection of many authours, the style (poor) of the individual stories is very similar. ( )

Outstanding short novels and stories from the hard-boiled world of the private eye, featuring top authors. Raymond Chandler, Carroll John Daly, Ross Macdonald, Ed McBain, Loren D. Estleman, William Campbell Gault, Fredric Brown, Stephen Greenleaf, Edward D Hoch and many more.