Murder and Mystery in Chicago

This collection of 11 previously published mysteries set in Chicago follows Dembner's Murder and Mystery in Boston. The stories range in original publication date from 1938Richard Connell's ``Brother Orchid,''about a gangster who takes refuge from his enemies in a monastery (which was made into an Edward G. Robinson movie)to 1986 with Sarah Paretsky's female private eye, V. I. Warshawski, trying to help an old school friend suspected of treason. In Robert Bloch's ``The Play's the Thing,'' set in the '20s, an actor moves ruthlessly to get ahead. A collection about Chicago would be incomplete without a story about newspapermen. A police reporter solves a hit-and-run killing to get a scoop in James L. Ullman's ``Dead Ringer.'' The last, longest and best story, ``The Spotted Pup'' by Dorothy B. Hughes, tells about a recently returned World War II veteran who sets up as a detective in the Loop to finish some business for a buddy killed in battle. Other entries feature Edward D. Hoch's burglar of valueless objects Nick Velvet, Craig Rice's lawyer John J. Malone and Jon L. Breen's baseball umpire Ed Gorgon. (May)