In The Simple Art of Murder, which was prefaced by the famous Atlantic Monthly essay of the same name, noir master Raymond Chandler argues
the virtues of the hard-boiled detective novel, and this collection, mostly drawn from
stories he wrote for the pulps, demonstrates Chandler’s imaginative, entertaining
facility with the form. Included are the classic stories Spanish Blood, Pearls Are a Nuisance, and Guns at Cyrano’s, among others.