Ellin -- Back and in Fine Form

This may be the best news I’ll come across all day. In July publisher Open Road Integrated Media will reissue--in e-book form, at least--seven of mystery writer Stanley Ellin’s novels, including 1958’s The Eighth Circle, which I have previously extolled. Other works scheduled to become available include: The Specialty of the House, a 1979 volume of short stories; The Dark Fantastic (1983), his second novel featuring Manhattan private investigator John Milano; and House of Cards (1967), a psychological thriller that was turned into a 1968 big-screen picture starring George Peppard (of Banacek fame).

Find out about all the Ellin re-releases here.

Let’s hope that in the near future Open Road will be able to bring back Ellin’s other seven novels (preferably in print-edition form), as well as the handful of short-story collections he produced during his four-decades-long career. Being a perfectionist, Ellin wasn’t a fast writer, but his stories never failed to engage and entertain. If you’ve not yet read any of his fiction, now is your chance.

(Hat tip to Rap Sheet reader Ray Garraty.)