Library of Congress Crime Classics

The Library of Congress Crime Classics series features some of the finest American crime writing from the 1860s to the 1960s. Drawn from the Library’s unequalled collections, series editor and mystery expert Leslie S. Klinger has selected scarce and lesser known titles that represent a range of genres, from “cozies” to police procedurals. Priced and formatted for wide readership and classrooms, each volume includes the original text, as well as a contextual introduction, brief biography of the author, notes, recommendations for further reading, and suggested discussion questions. Crime Classics are published by Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks, in association with the Library of Congress.

A Gentle Murderer
By Dorothy Salisbury Davis
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, in association with the Library of Congress
$14.99 Paperback, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 288 pages
ISBN: 9781728271958
Hailed by critic Anthony Boucher as “one of the best detective stories of modern times,” this classic novel starts when Father Duffy hears a distraught confession of murder. Duffy tries to convince the young man to turn himself in to the police, but he flees just as suddenly as he appeared. As Duffy sets out to search for the troubled confessor, NYPD detective Ben Goldsmith is drawn into the official investigation. Neither is aware that the other is searching for the murderer, and both hope against hope that they're able find the killer before he strikes again.

The Master of Mysteries
By Gelett Burgess
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, in association with the Library of Congress
$14.99 Paperback, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 496 pages
ISBN: 9781728264011
Astro, the Seer of Secrets, and his protégé, Valeska, sound more like a magic act than a private detection team. Astro hides his powers of observation and reasoning beneath a turban and a cape, pretending to read palms and consult crystals while in fact keenly observing details that most people overlook. Valeska assists Astro with his investigations, all the while honing her own skills. Called upon by believers and skeptics both, they adeptly recover what is missing while also solving actual murders, as their burgeoning romance, and mutual zeal to work pro bono cases, set this crime-solving duo apart.

Room to Swing
By Ed Lacy
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, in association with the Library of Congress
$14.99 Paperback, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 224 pages
ISBN: 9781728263106
Toussaint Moore is a college-educated, decorated war veteran. When he’s hired by producers of a reality television show to keep tabs on the whereabouts of an accused rapist, the gig goes quickly south; Moore finds the man murdered and himself framed for the deed. Moore flees to the small Ohio town where the dead man committed his crime but encounters a whole new level of resistance and racism as a Black man asking questions in a small-minded, predominantly White town. Using his wits, he sets a trap for the real killer in this Edgar Award-winning novel.

Average Jones
By Samuel Hopkins Adams
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, in association with the Library of Congress
$14.99 Paperback, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 304 pages
ISBN: 9781464215933
Adrian Van Reypen Egerton Jones—Average, to his friends— has spent the five years since graduating college specializing in life, thanks to a bequest from his uncle. Already bored and needing a hobby, a friend suggests that he become an “Ad-Visor”—someone who investigates classified ads on behalf of clients to root out swindlers. In the process of investigating bizarre advertisements, he stumbles into solving actual crimes. This short story collection's tantalizing puzzles will leave the reader eager to spend more time with the decidedly not-Average Jones.

The Conjure-Man Dies
By Rudolph Fisher
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, in association with the Library of Congress
$14.99 Paperback, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 320 pages
ISBN: 9781464215964
This groundbreaking mystery is the first ever to feature a Black detective and all Black characters. N'Gana Frimbo, an African conjure-man, is discovered bludgeoned in his consultation room. Perry Dart, one of Harlem's few Black police detectives, is called in to investigate. Together with Dr Archer, a physician from across the street, Dart is determined to solve the baffling mystery, helped and hindered by Bubber Brown and Jinx Jenkins, local boys keen to clear themselves of suspicion of murder, who undertake their own investigations.

The Metropolitan Opera Murders
By Helen Traubel
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, in association with the Library of Congress
$14.99 Paperback, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 208 pages
ISBN: 9781464215902
After prompter Rudolf Salz dies during a performance at the Metropolitan Opera, Detective-Lieutenant Sam Quentin believes soprano Elsa Vaughn might have been the intended victim. Several attempts had been made recently to harm the soprano. Was this the work of her understudy, the very ambitious Miss Hilda Semple? When a second murder takes place, Vaughn can no longer deny that she may be a target. Author Helen Traubel was herself the leading soprano at the Met for many years, and here provides readers an insider's look at the glamorous world of opera.

Jim Hanvey, Detective
By Octavus Roy Cohen
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, in association with the Library of Congress
$14.99 Paperback, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 256 pages
ISBN: 9781464215032
Badly dressed, uncouth, with a common drawl and a habit of blinking so slowly and deliberately that the act appears more of an “ocular yawn,” Jim Hanvey is both admired and feared by the crooks and con men he calls friends. He works principally on behalf of insurance companies looking to recover stolen jewels or cash. In this entertaining collection set all around the country, he often manages to thwart the thieves before they are even able to commit their crimes, much to their displeasure—and begrudging respect.

The Dead Letter
By Seeley Regester
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, in association with the Library of Congress
$14.99 Paperback, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 336 pages
ISBN: 9781464214974
When Henry Moreland is found dead, Richard Redfield, an old family friend, vows to bring Henry’s killer to justice. Together with a legendary detective named Mr. Burton, he embarks on a mission to find the murderer. When suspicion turns to Richard himself, he leaves to work in the Dead Letter Office in Washington, DC. Then a mysterious letter from the past turns up, and a new hunt begins. This 1860s twisting tale is the first full-length American detective novel.

The Silent Bullet
By Arthur B. Reeve
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, in association with the Library of Congress
$14.99 Paperback, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 336 pages
ISBN: 9781464215001
This short story collection features Craig Kennedy, a university professor who uses science to help catch criminals. The crimes themselves are highly imaginative, featuring deaths by apparent-but-inexplicable means, including asphyxiation, spontaneous combustion, and vengeful spirits, along with less fatal crimes involving kidnapping, safecracking, stolen wills, and a missing fortune in diamonds. Kennedy’s use of cutting-edge technology of the day makes his investigations both unorthodox and entertaining.

Last Seen Wearing
By Hillary Waugh
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, in association with the Library of Congress
$15.99 Paperback, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 240 pages
ISBN: 9781464213052
Lowell Mitchell is at her perfectly ordinary university in Massachusetts. She goes to class, chats with friends, and retires to her dorm room. Everything is normal until suddenly it's not―in the blink of an eye, Lowell is gone. Considered one of the first-ever police procedurals and hailed as a milestone, Last Seen Wearing—based on a true story—is riveting in its accurate portrayal of an official police investigation.

Final Proof
By Rodrigues Ottolengui
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, in association with the Library of Congress
$14.99 Paperback, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 320 pages
ISBN: 9781464214875
This collection features short stories which chronicle the spirited yet friendly rivalry between detective Jack Barnes and Robert Leroy Mitchel, "the gentleman who imagines himself to be able to outdo detectives in their own line of work," which originated in the mystery novel An Artist in Crime, published six years earlier in 1892. Many of the stories center around jewel heists, as well as tales of kidnapping, forgery, and "The Promissory Note," a locked room mystery with a surprising twist.

Case Pending
By Dell Shannon
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, in association with the Library of Congress
$14.99 Paperback, 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 240 pages
ISBN: 9781464213014
Hers was the kind of casual homicide that occurred every week in a city like Los Angeles in the sixties. Beaten, robbed, and left in an abandoned lot, Elena Ramirez’s death was like many others… in fact, nearly identical to a murder that happened six months earlier—a case that Detective Luis Mendoza was never able to solve.