Kingpins - Softcover

Seventeen stories from the pages of Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock magazines, none of them particularly memorable and most not especially relevant to the collection's purported theme-- showing the inner workings of organized crime. The opening story is ``The Iceman Cooleth,'' T. M. Adams's tale of a numbers kingpin who's the target of a hit-man when a new state lottery cuts into the take he delivers to his superiors. The final one is Raymond Chandler's ``Philip Marlowe's Last Case,'' in which the classic p.i. helps another mobster on the outs avoid his own date with a wipe-out, only to find that things are not what they seem. Stories between include James A. Noble's ``Murder in the Fast Lane,'' recounting an ingenious death trap and an even more ingenious escape; Stephen King's ``The Wedding Gig,'' a tale as winningly told as one might expect but one which fails in its apparent intent of having more significance than such a minor bit of fluff could hope to achieve; and Avram Davidson's ``The Captain M. Caper,'' the sort of stylish, whimsical effort the author's fans have come to expect, detailing the misadventures of a writer who ghostwrites a mob boss's memoirs. Other competent, if also lightweight, stories include entries by such names as Brian Garfield, Hugh Pentecost, and Andrew Vachss. Nothing special here. An average collection at best, no better or worse than a regular issue of either magazine. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

According to the editors' introduction, this collection delivers "the inside story, the dirty secrets" of organized crime--but that promise is little more than a bill of goods. Rather, the 17 stories here represent a not particularly outstanding sampling from the Ellery Queen's and Alfred Hitchcock's mystery magazines, in which all the entries first appeared. The best of the lot is T. M. Adams's "The Iceman Cooleth," the tale of a numbers boss whose empire is threatened by a new state lottery as he is pursued by a hired killer. James A. Noble contributes "Murder in the Fast Lane," a neat little escape from a particularly cruel murder trap; Raymond Chandler is represented with the run-of-the-mill "Philip Marlowe's Last Case"; Stephen King and Andrew Vachss also lend their names, as do some lesser-knowns. Even comedienne Phyllis Diller puts in an appearance with "The Misfit," a short-short about a would-be hit man who can't seem to get it right. Decidedly minor.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.