Fans of noir master Woolrich (1903–1968) will welcome the inaugural volume in a projected series to collect all his short stories and novellas, though these 15 romance tales, which were published in magazines like College Humor
and Breezy
, don’t represent Woolrich at his best, as Nevins (The Sound of Detection: Ellery Queen’s Adventures in Radio
) concedes in his general introduction. Still, as Nevins argues in brief prefaces to stories like “Dance It Off!” and “Gay Music,” these minor efforts anticipate themes in such later classic suspense novels as The Night Has a Thousand Eyes
and The Bride Wore Black
—“the obsession with dance, the bleak little apartment, the protagonist whom no conventional woman will satisfy.” This isn’t the place for newcomers to start, but specialists will be pleased to see these stories, slight as they are, back in print. (Feb.)
