The Best of Manhunt 3

This welcome third volume edited by Vorzimmer (Manhunt 2) of stories drawn from Manhunt (1953–1967), the bestselling crime digest of its era, includes such notables as Raymond Chandler, Rex Stout, and B. Traven. Some of the better entries, though, come from such lesser knowns as Hal Ellson, whose “I Didn’t See a Thing” pictures a city kid who just wants to fly pigeons from the coop on his roof, but must rub shoulders with the dope dealers running his block (“and after awhile that hand of his slides off me like a snake going away”). Jonathan Craig’s gritty “Services Rendered” features a corrupt cop who forces sexual favors from women after he arrests their men. Joe Gores’s unsettling “Down and Out” evokes the “manhunt” activity with a man relentlessly stalked along skid row in San Francisco, because he may know the location of a lockbox containing 80 grand. One entry of particular interest is “Death Wears a Gray Sweater,” which only recently got ID’ed as written by prolific paperback scribe Gil Brewer under the house name “Roy Carroll.” Fans of tough-guy writing will get their money’s worth. (Dec.)