Black Mask Audio Magazine, Vol. 1 - Abridged

Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961) was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He is widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time. In addition to The Maltese Falcon, his pioneering novels include Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Glass Key, and the #1 New York Times bestseller The Thin Man.

Hugh B. Cave (1910–2004) was born in England and came to the United States as a child, eventually settling in Boston. Best known for his works of pulp fiction, he authored hundreds of books, short stories, and collections, including The Cross on the Drum, Larks Will Sing, The Dawning, Long Live the Dead, Bitter/Sweet, and many others. He received lifetime achievement awards from the International Horror Guild, the Horror Writers Association, and the World Fantasy Convention.

Frederick Nebel was born on November 3, 1903. He was a charter member of the Black Mask school, a group of writers who worked for the magazine and championed the hardboiled detective noir style of the 1920s. While most of Nebel’s published work was short stories, he also authored three novels, Sleeper’s East, Fifty Roads to Town, and But Not the End. He died in Laguna Beach, California, in 1967.

Paul Cain, pseudonym of George Carol Sims (1902–1966), was a pulp fiction author and screenwriter. He was the author of seventeen short stories in Black Mask and wrote the screenplay for The Black Cat.

Read by Richard Ferrone, Stephen Bel Davies, Prentice Onayemi, Scott Aiello, Michael David Axtell, Jessica B. Harris, and Amanda Leigh Cobb

Alexander Adams is an award-winning audiobook narrator. He is best known for his reading of the novelization of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. He has also narrated numerous books by Jonathan Kellerman and John Grisham.

George Guidall is one of the foremost narrators in the audiobook industry, having recorded more than 800 unabridged novels. His 40-year career includes leading roles on- and off-Broadway and numerous appearances in film and television. He has won an Obie Award for best performance.

Anthony Heald, an Audie Award–winning narrator, has earned Tony nominations and an Obie Award for his theater work; appeared in television’s Law & Order, The X-Files, Miami Vice, and Boston Public; and starred as Dr. Frederick Chilton in the 1991 Oscar-winning film The Silence of the Lambs. Heald has also won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards. He lives in Ashland, Oregon, with his family.

Malcolm Hillgartner has narrated over 175 audiobooks. He was named an AudioFile Best Voice of 2013. His work ranges from children's titles such as On the Blue Comet (AudioFile Best of 2011, Earphones), and Neal Stevenson's sci-fi epic REAMDE (Audible.com Best of 2011) to the biographies Kissinger (AudioFile Best of 2013, Earphones) and Cheever (AudioFile Best of 2009, Earphones). He is also an accomplished actor, writer, and musician. With his wife and partner, Jahnna Beecham, he has written over 130 books for teens and young readers, as well as the musicals Chaps! and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Musical, which have been produced in the U.S. and Canada.

William Hughes is a professor of political science, jazz guitarist, and an actor and narrator. Books he has narrated include FDR: The First Hundred Days by Anthony J. Badger, Brothers, Rivals, Victors by Jonathan W. Jordan, and Lincoln’s Spymaster by David Hepburn Milton.

Lorna Raver, named one of AudioFile magazine’s Best Voices of the Year, has received numerous Audie Award nominations and many AudioFile Earphones Awards. She has appeared on stage in New York, Los Angeles, and regional theaters around the country. Among her many television credits are NYPD Blue, Judging Amy, Boston Legal, ER, and Star Trek. She starred in director Sam Raimi’s film Drag Me to Hell.

Christine Williams is a singer and actor based in Ashland, Oregon. Her performance credits include productions at regional theaters and on concert stages across the country and around the world, from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Barbican Centre in London to the Aspen Music Festival and the Grotowski Institute in Poland.

Tom Weiner, a dialogue director and voice artist best known for his roles in video games and television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Transformers, is the winner of eight Earphones Awards and Audie Award finalist. He is a former member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Jeff Woodman is a theater and television actor and an Audie Award–winning narrator. He has received seventeen Earphones Awards and was named one of the Fifty Greatest Voices of the Century by AudioFile magazine.

Richard Allen is a five-time Audie-nominated narrator whose work has been acknowledged on the Best Audiobooks Lists for Audiofile and Library Journal. He was named an AudioFile Best Voice in 2008 and has won four AudioFile Earphones Awards. His audiobooks include From Midnight to Dawn, Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney, Futureland, and Right as Rain.