Murder by the Dozen - Wiley, Hugh

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Résumé :
Murder by the Dozen collects twelve vintage James Lee Wong detective stories by Hugh Wiley, featuring one of pulp mystery's notable Chinese American sleuths. Set amid murder, Chinatown intrigue, corrupt businessmen, hidden criminal networks, opium dens, gangsters, and dangerous secrets, these fast-moving stories follow Wong as he applies intelligence, nerve, and elegant violence to crimes that cross San Francisco society and the underworld. The result is a sharp, compact collection of 1930s detective fiction with period atmosphere, hard-edged action, and classic puzzle-mystery momentum. Originally appearing in the popular magazine market of the 1930s and later gathered in book form, these stories belong to the same era of brisk pulp detection that produced hard-boiled private eyes, exoticized urban mysteries, and cinematic crime heroes. For readers of vintage mystery, classic detective fiction, pulp crime, Chinatown mystery stories, and Golden Age-era popular fiction, Murder by the Dozen preserves the full dozen James Lee Wong cases in a single Black Curtain edition....

Sommaire:
Hugh Wiley (1884-1968) was an American writer best remembered for creating James Lee Wong, the Chinese American detective who appeared in a series of popular mystery stories during the 1930s. Wiley's Wong stories were part of the magazine crime-fiction world that thrived in publications such as Collier's, where compact plotting, swift action, memorable investigators, and vivid urban danger were essential to reader appeal. His fiction combined classic detection with pulp momentum, often drawing on San Francisco settings, Chinatown atmosphere, organized crime, corruption, and sudden violence.Wiley's James Lee Wong became widely known beyond the printed page through the Mr. Wong film series, most famously associated with Boris Karloff and later Keye Luke. While the stories reflect period conventions and attitudes, they remain significant within the history of American mystery fiction, pulp detective storytelling, and early Asian American detective representation in popular culture. Murder by the Dozen brings together twelve of Wiley's Wong cases, preserving the fast-paced crime writing that made the character one of the recognizable fictional sleuths of the interwar mystery market....