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Wandrei was a pulpmeister of the 1930s and 1940s. Editor D.H. Olson has gathered 11 of his mystery short stories from publications such as Detective Fiction Weekly, Private Detective Stories and Detective Action Stories. An earlier compilation, Time Burial, collected some of the author's science fiction stories. A native of St. Paul, Minn., Wandrei, according to Olson, drew on his own personal adventures and those of his hometown for his fiction. His stories feature a variety of tough PIs, beautiful dames and deadly thugs. The stories show imagination and, despite their age, surprising freshness. Two stories feature an interesting hero with a rebuilt face of plastic and ceramics, which he can mold into convenient disguises. But the writing, when it forsakes the hard-boiled formula, is horribly overwrought. ""The ripe fullness of (her figure) was sensuously enhanced by the position of her arms; the neat transparency of her skin was accented by subtle blue shadows... suggesting an attenuated purity of texture that conveyed somehow an idea of loveliness beyond actuality."" Pulp aficionados and readers in need of a hard-boiled fix will more fully enjoy Wandrei's depictions of the Minnesota underworld. (Dec.)