The Pleasant Assassin and Other Cases of Dr. Basil Willing - Softcover

McCloy, Helen; Pike, B.A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1932009078 ISBN 13: 9781932009071

Publisher: Crippen & Landru Publishers, 2003

Synopsis

"Remarkable, Highly Imaginative, Fiercely Independent."

With these words, B. A. Pike in Detective Fiction: The Collector’s Guide described the extraordinary novels and short stories of Helen McCloy (1904-1993). Beginning with Dance of Death (1938), her first novel about psychiatrist-detective Dr. Basil Willing, McCloy experimented with daringly imaginative concepts within the framework of the formal, fairplay detective story. Her short stories, for example, include "The Singing Diamonds," which combines death, detection, and apparently genuine sightings of flying saucers (in the shape of diamonds), and in her classic "Through a Glass, Darkly," McCloy deals with the issue of the doppelganger or the unknown double that we all (supposedly) have.

The Pleasant Assassin, the eighth volume in "Crippen & Landru Lost Classics," assembles in one volume all ten short stories about Basil Willing, including eight previously uncollected tales. The reader will soon discover why Helen McCloy was one of the finest authors of the Golden Age of Detective Stories.

New introduction by B. A. Pike. Cover illustration by Gail Cross. Lost Classics cover design by Deborah Miller.

About this title

About the Author

Helen Worrell Clarkson McCloy (1904-1994)Born in New York City, Helen McCloy was educated in Brooklyn, at the Quaker Friends' school, and later studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. From 1927-1932 she worked for Hearst's Universal News Service after which she freelanced as an art critic and contributor to various publications, including the London Morning Post. Shortly after her return to the US she published her first novel, Dance of Death, in 1933, featuring her popular series detective-psychologist Basil Willing. The novel Through a Glass Darkly, a puzzle in the supernatural tradition of John Dickson Carr, is the eighth in the Basil Willing series and is generally acknowledged to be her masterpiece. In 1946 McCloy married fellow author Davis Dresser, famed for his Mike Shayne novels. Together they founded Halliday & McCloy literary agency as well as the Torquil Publishing Company. The couple had one daughter, Chloe, and their marriage ended in 1961. In 1950 Helen McCloy became the first woman president of the Mystery Writers of America and in 1953 she was awarded an Edgar by the same organisation for her criticism. In 1987, critic and mystery writer H. R. F. Keating included her Basil Willing title Mr Splitfoot in a list of the 100 best crime and mystery books ever published.

Review

Detective fiction is the literature of ingenuity, and no one proves that more than cunningly clever mystery writer Helen McCloy. -- Bill Ruehlmann, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, November 30, 2003

One of the greatest American classicists, with a devotion to fair play comparable to Christie, Queen, and Carr. [Four Stars] -- Jon L. Breen, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January 2004

Perhaps the first and certainly the best psychiatrist-detective -- Marvin Lachman, Deadly Pleasures, Winter 2004

Edition details

• Publisher: Crippen & Landru Publishers
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1932009078
• ISBN 13: 9781932009071
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 171