Price: $13.00
Binding: Trade paperback
Trim size: 5" x 7-1/2"
Pages: 192
ISBN: 0-9625804-7-3

This is an original publication of The Crum Creek Press / Drood Review Books (2002).

If characters die in a mystery novel,
and no one reads their story,
have they died in vain?

Mystery experts – booksellers, reviewers, genre devotees – introduce you to personal favorites: obscure classics, up-and-coming new writers, great books that unaccountably disappeared and lesser-known titles by bestselling authors. A companion volume to our Agatha and Anthony Award-winning 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century, this book takes you beyond the bestsellers, beyond the familiar, with essays recommending over 100 mystery novels – buried treasures that will become new favorites.

Winner of the Agatha, Anthony
and Macavity Awards
for Best Non-fiction of 2002!

Praise for They Died in Vain

Marilyn Stasio in The New York Times Book Review (6/4/2006):

… you need to know about a reference aid for hunting treasure at book barns and library sales. They Died in Vain: Overlooked, Underappreciated and Forgotten Mystery Novels (Crum Creek Press, paper, $13) is a little volume of short essays, written by booksellers, librarians and reviewers, and edited by Jim Huang, extolling the virtues of more than 100 crime novels. The choices are idiosyncratic, which makes them fun, but every title is advanced with an intelligent argument and touching affection. If this book should lead you to a copy of Ruth Dudley Edwards’s Matricide at St. Martha’s, be sure to pick it up.

Dick Lochte in the LA Times (5/8/2002):

Essay Fest Highlights 'Forgotten' Selections

Two years ago, Jim Huang, editor of the Drood Review, one of the better newsletters devoted to the subject of crime fiction, published 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century, a series of that many essays written by members of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Assn. Now, Huang is back with another trade paperback essay fest, They Died in Vain, calling attention to, as the subhead puts it, "Overlooked, Underappreciated and Forgotten Mystery Novels."

There are some surprising selections among the 103 tales. One doesn't think of Vera Caspary's Laura or George Pelecanos' The Big Blowdown as being particularly overlooked or forgotten, but the comments about them are smart and on point. And any book serving as a reminder of the joys to be found in titles such as the deliriously witty Fast Company, by the late screenwriter Harry Kurnitz, using his "Marco Page" moniker, or Richard S. Prather's hard-boiled and hilarious West Coast reply to Mickey Spillane, The Wailing Frail, belongs on every mystery fan's reading list.

Robin W. Winks in The Boston Globe (5/26/2002):

Fans of mystery fiction will be intrigued by They Died in Vain, a series of short essays on "overlooked, underappreciated and forgotten mystery novels." The editor, Jim Huang, gave us 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century two years ago, and the formula is the same here: Proprietors of mystery bookstores choose a title and justify its inclusion, sometimes well and sometimes poorly. Some of the overlooked mysteries clearly deserved to be overlooked, but any reader will discover some books they don't know and probably should. This is a neat little gift item.

J.D. Singh in Merchant of Menace (the newsletter of Toronto's Sleuth of Baker Street bookshop)

You might remember a neat little book that was published just a little over a year ago called 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century. Members of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association selected and annotated the one hundred books that mystery booksellers just love to sell and sell. Well, the companion volume has been published: They Died in Vain. This compilation is an annotated list of over 100 titles that mystery experts -- booksellers, reviewers, fans -- want you to not forget. These are overlooked, underappreciated and forgotten mystery novels that need to be read. In many ways, this is a more interesting list than 100 Favorites as there is a quirky element here that was missing from the other. You'll have read many, no doubt, and some you'll have hated but guaranteed there are some that you'll not have even heard of. 100 Favorites won an Anthony Award and it would not surprise me if so did They Died in Vain.

Marv Lachman in Deadly Pleasures

One obvious joy in reading They Died in Vain: Overlooked, Underappreciated and Forgotten Mystery Novels is reading about books we missed and should add to our precipitous to-be-read piles. It's also fun to read essays on books we have read and read opinions confirming the good taste we think we have. Huang has gathered over one hundred essays from 68 of the more knowledgeable people in the field, including editors, publishers, and booksellers. Kate Derie goes back more than sixty years for Philip MacDonald's Warrant for X, one of my ten favorite mysteries. Not surprisingly, that maven of historical mysteries, Sue Feder, picks a mystery (Herbert Brean's Hardly a Man Is Now Alive) that makes history come alive. Since I was mainly familiar with his hardboiled side, I was pleasantly surprised - and in agreement - with Maxim Jakubowski when he selected a locked-room mystery, The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux. Gordon Magnuson confirmed my belief in the excellence of his taste by recommending Cyril Hare. I disagree with some of the essays. Bill Pronzini's Shackles is a very good book, but it was not "overlooked, underappreciated," and it is not "forgotten." Books by Lee Child, George P. Pelecanos, and Bill Fitzhugh were, if anything, overappreciated. If Jamie Harrison's The Edge of the Crazies is "well plotted," I'd hate to read a book that is poorly plotted. But then it was fun to disagree with opinions, and get my adrenalin flowing. This book is highly recommended for those who like to read about the mystery.

Shelley McKibbon on Murder Express Reviews:

Back in library school I was introduced to the book talk, the art of giving a brief presentation to potential readers that conveys the sense of a book with, perhaps, an especially compelling quote from the text. The idea is to tempt potential readers without giving away every twist and turn of the plot.

They Died in Vain, edited by Jim Huang, is, essentially, a series of book talks -- 103 of them, to be exact. The trick is that all of them discuss mysteries that are, for one reason or another, obscure. The authors of these brief essays are booksellers, reviewers, librarians, and in all cases fans of the genre. Some of them write elegantly about their forgotten gems, while other essays are more workmanlike. Most discuss a single work, but a few actually talk up a whole series that seems unfairly overlooked. One thing all these essays have in common is a real enthusiasm for the title under discussion. They are also by and large blessedly free of inadvertent spoilers.

There are thrillers, cozies, PI novels, and police procedurals included here, with publications dates ranging from the last couple of years back to before the Golden Age. Most are British or American titles, but there is a smattering of titles from or about other locales. What they all have in common is the fact that, despite the fact that they failed to gain wide readership, something about each of them appealed very strongly to one of these essayists.

I read my copy with a pencil in one hand, marking titles I knew I'd want to look up later. That, I'd say, is the great value of this book: it's part handbook and part textbook. At the back is a handy listing of every book discussed, with information about its current publisher. Quite a few are, of course, out of print, which only adds to the thrill of the hunt. Some are fairly obscure titles by well-known authors. I've never read anything by Liza Cody, but I put a star next to Bucket Nut, whose main character is a female wrestler ("the London Lassassin") who acts as bagman (bag woman?) for mobsters. In the essay she sounds like an older, tougher, female version of the protagonist of "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner."

There are books discussed here that appeal to me hugely, a few I might pick up if I ever fall over them, and a lot that sound like they aren't my cup of tea at all. Every reader can expect to have this same response, not necessarily to the same books I did. But, given how many mysteries have been published, and how many sort of faded from view before getting to the very people who might want to know about them, this book is a wonderful addition to the collection of every mystery lover who wants to answer the question, "What do I read next?" with something a little out of the way.

My new personal rating system is to ask myself, "Would I pay full price for this book?" My answer is yes.

Oh, and if anyone cares, my personal addition to this listing would be The Weird World of Wes Beattie by John Norman Harris. Funny, I hadn't thought about that book for years until I got this one.

Barbara Miles Ochandarena for Cozies, Capers & Crimes

This slim volume will become every mystery reader's new indispensable companion. Mystery experts, such as booksellers, reviewers, and devoted fans, have written wonderful essays about books that they believe have not received the acclaim and readership that they deserve. I have put book darts on so many pages the book now looks like it has gold braces! Some pages I have marked because the books cited are old favorites of mine, and others are marked as ones "to buy" in the near future.

Favorites of mine that are noted include A Trouble of Fools by Linda Barnes (1987), the first in the Carlotta Carlyle series. I have read all in this series, and can't believe that everyone who loves Janet Evanovich, or Sara Paretsky, hasn't made Carlotta a household name. Other examples of my favorites are The Man in the Green Chevy by Susan Rogers Cooper (1988), a Milt Kovak mystery, The Victim in Victoria Station by Jeanne M. Dams (1999), a Dorothy Martin mystery, and a special favorite, Fugitive Colors by Margaret Maron (1995), a Sigrid Harald mystery.

There are other titles that I haven't read that are by favorite authors such as Joe Lansdale, Lee Child, Barbara D'Amato, Frances Fyfield, Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini, and Elizabeth Peters. There are over one hundred essays that are both interesting and enlightening, and provide the reader with a wealth of material from which to choose their next read.

The title with the earliest publication date listed is The Leavenworth Case: A Lawyers Story by Anna Katherine Green (1878) noteworthy for being the first bestselling book in history. The author became a great success in Europe and America, and by the time she died in 1935, the book had sold over a million copies! Now all I have to do is find a copy in print.

As fabulous as the titles are, the contributors deserve a special mention. Among them is our own Geraldine Galentree who has written essays on the above mentioned book by Jeanne M. Dams, as well as The Hotel Detective by Alan Russell. Other contributors include Jan Grape, author and former Austin mystery bookstore owner who has won both an Anthony and a Macavity, and Dean James and David Thompson, both from Murder by the Book in Houston, Texas. Being a Texan, I have singled these out, but there are so many more, and the book gives a short bio, an e-mail address, and the address of their mystery bookstore if applicable.

I think I must plan a trip that only includes communities with a store devoted to this genre. I will be able to visit places such as Sacramento, Tucson, Boston, New York, and London! All these cities and more are represented by a knowledgeable contributor. There are not enough words to describe what a great addition this book makes to the growing number of reference books available to the avid mystery reader. A must have for library collections as well.