The Vicious Circle, Otto Penzler
The Vicious Circle, Otto Penzler
List: $12.99 | Sale: $9.10
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The Vicious Circle
Mysteries & Crime Stories from the Algonquin Round Table

Author: Otto Penzler

Narrator: James Romick

Unabridged: 4 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/23/2021


Synopsis

The mystery and crime fiction of the Algonquin Round Table.

With the possible exception of the expatriate writers living in Paris in the 1920s, no single group of American literary figures has achieved as much fame or notoriety as the New York sophisticates who met to match wits and attempt to outshine each other as members of what came to be called the Algonquin Round Table.

The humorists Robert Benchley and S. J. Perelman, playwrights Marc Connelly and George S. Kaufman, novelists Edna Ferber and Alexander Woollcott, and most famously, Dorothy Parker, were the literary luminaries who made up this group, and each one produced a piece or two of crime fiction at some point, which have been collected in this anthology by acclaimed mystery editor Otto Penzler.

About Otto Penzler

Otto Penzler, proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, founded The Mysterious Press in 1975, now an imprint at Grove/Atlantic, and publishes classic crime fiction through MysteriousPress.com. Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, MWA's Ellery Queen Award, and the Raven Award. He has been given Lifetime Achievement awards by Noircon and the Strand Magazine.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sally on October 01, 2019

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did since I enjoy the writings of many of the members of the Algonquin Round Table. But the stories are of uneven quality, and some of them are a stretch to be in a collection of mystery and crime stories. An example of this is Dorothy Parker’s “Big Bl......more

Goodreads review by Colleen on February 09, 2016

I was excited when I found this book, since I love the Algonquin Round Table authors and it contains an interesting selection of short stories. Was especially pleased that Marc Connelly is included, because I've never read anything of his before. However... The book contains an introduction like all......more

Goodreads review by Maureen on October 06, 2009

always love reading stories by ring lardner, and dorothy parker. realized how much i don't enjoy perelman. some of it was tedious, and as another review suggests, they're not really crime stories, but hey, its a nice visit with a bunch of witty people.......more

Goodreads review by Beth on January 30, 2022

As readers commented, the stories are uneven in their relationship to crime or mystery and probably not the best of some writers works. But there are a few I enjoyed - Rein Ne Va Pas, Coroner’s Inquest, and Big Blonde - plus reading the slang from the 1920s was a hoot.......more