The Best of Manhunt

Edited by: Jeff Vorzimmer

First Published: 2019

File size/Pages: 1441KB / 384pp
Ebook Publisher: Stark House Press
Ebook Date: August 2019

In August 2019, Stark House Press released The Best of  Manhunt, and ever since I've been wondering when I'd get a chance to delve into it and sample some of the stories on offer. The opportunity has arisen, and I'm pleased to report I wasn't dissapointed.

Thirteen of the tales contained in this compilation were originally published in 1958 in a volume entitled The Best from Manhunt. These are included in this updated version still in their original listed order. In addition, a number of short stories from 1959's The Bloodhound Anthology (the British version of Manhunt, titled Bloodhound Detective Story Magazine) have been included, making this a truly combined version of previous releases. Finally, the team headed by editor Jeff Vorzimmer, have expanded the line-up by almost three times the orignal with this edition totallying out at a massive 39 stories. you can't ask from more really (well, you could ask for further volumes I suspect).

I won't go into the history of Manhunt as there is a surfeit of introductions and histories included in the book itself. Suffice to say that Manhunt is considered the successor to pulp crime magazine Blackmask, appearing very soon after the demise of that periodical in 1951. It was very quickly attracting the best output from the best writers of the genre at the time and remains a true source of incredible quality crime fiction during its fifteen year run.

This edition is peppered with great yarns. The list of authors is like a who's who of hardboiled crime fiction literati, Brewer, Kane, McDonald, Hunter, Prather, Spillane, Deming and Westlake to name a few. I'm sure there will be something in here that pleases every reader. Below is a short list highlighting the five I enjoyed the most;

A Haven for the Damned

Fawcett Gold Medal, 1962

Author: Harry Whittington

First Published: 1962

File size/Pages: 407KB / 221pp
Ebook Publisher: Stark House Press
Ebook Date: November 2019

Harry Whittington is known as either the "King of the Pulps" or "The King of the Paperbacks" depending upon your source; so it was only a matter of time before I read one of his books. Born in Ocala, Florida, he became a prolific writer of pulp fiction novels writing as many as 85 novels in a twelve year period. Most of these feature in the crime, suspense, hardboiled, and noir fiction genres. In total, he published over 200 novels during his lifetime.

A number of Whittington books were turned into motion pictures or television series. The most successful seems to have been tv-series "Lawman" airing orginally between 1958 and  1962. The list of pseudonyms he used is extensive, up to twenty it is believed. Among the house names he also wrote under is Tabor Evans for the Longarm  western series

He sold his first novel, a western called Vengeance Valley, in 1945 and never looked back. In the fifties his output was mainly focussed on producing crime fiction for Fawcett and it's one of these, A Haven for the Damned, that I read for Digital Bibliophilia. Although he submitted the finished book to the publishers in 1960, they didn't release it as a Gold Medal paperback until 1962. I suppose, as we have experienced with other highly productive writers, their enormous output needed to be rationed by holding back on printing, or releasing under pen names. If you want to read more on Whittington, I can recommend an article on the Woody Hauts Blog.

A Haven for the Damned has as its central location the ghost town of Lust on the Mexican border, where eight people converge to take part in a harrowing event. The only person that resides in the old mining town set atop a high ridge accessible only by an out of the way road, is Josh Carrdell, lifelong resident and prosepctor accompanied by his mongrel George.