From the creased pages of 1930s pulp magazines Black Mask and Dime Detective come eight of Raymond Chandler''s finest short stories:KILLER IN THE RAIN, THE MAN WHO LIKED DOGS, THE CURTAIN, TRY THE GIRL, MANDARIN''S JADE, BAY CITY BLUES, THE LADY IN THE LAKE and NO CRIME IN THE MOUNTAINSSet against a Southern Californian backdrop, the stories are rich with suspense, violence and tragedy, and each comes laced with booze, bullets and a detective with an eye for a damsel in distress and an even keener eye for justice . . .Readers will also recognize episodes, characters and flashbacks from the Marlowe novels that made Chandler the undisputed master of his genre.''Anything he writes about grips the mind from the first sentence. It is a spare, finished performance: full of life and character: as tense as a tiger, springing into action'' Daily Telegraph''One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain'' Sunday Times''Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes'' Anthony Burgess