The latest novel from Hard Case Crime is a collection of twenty short stories, originally published over a 33-year period. Coming in March 2024, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Hard Case Crime, Ardai, the editor and founder of Hard Case Crime, releases this collection of twenty unrelated little gems.

Besides crime fiction, the sort of consistent theme running through these stories – at least some of them- is a sense of sardonic surprise because not everything or everyone is quite who you think they are. This remains true from a wartime ration checker to a guy who takes on the crew who put his wife in a coma to the guy who manages to win a concession from a hardened gangster. As you read these stories, be on the lookout for characters who rise to the occasion and become someone they never would have suspected.

The review follows an advance reader’s copy47 s2 comments Jamie1,266 158

An outstanding collection of wide ranging crime fiction. Ardai has serious talent for evocative prose, snappy dialogue and keen detail. My particular favorites include:

A Bar Called Charley's - A character study of a despondent traveling salesman that gets caught up in a messy robbery.

The Case - A botched assassination brimming with explosive suspense.

Nobody Wins - A classic case of a PI hunting down a missing person, only the client is a mob enforcer whose fiancé has disappeared. Full of deliciously shady characters.

Thank you to Hard Case Crime for providing an ARC!16 s1 comment Howard264 8

Thank you Charles Ardai and Hard Case Crime (HCC) for a prepublication eARC of Death Comes Too Late, a collection of 20 short stories by Ardai celebrating 20 years since HCC started publication. The stories by Ardai were originally published from 1990 to 2023 and include award winners. Some of the original publications include Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Expected publication is March 2024.

The stories are a mixture of noir / crime stories and do not disappoint. The first two stories are a punch to the solar plexus and the collection continues from there through to the final story, a Confucian detective (police) procedural. many short stories, there often is a twist at the end. Ardai does an excellent job of writing an unexpected (but believable) ending. I basically read the stories through over a week, but definitely a recommended read if you to go through them one after another, or if you to savor them one at a time over weeks.

Here's hoping for many more years of HCC. Thanks C. Ardai!8 s Blair Roberts229 5

I had the pleasure to read an advance copy of Charles Ardai's upcoming collection of 20 short stories to celebrate Hard Case Crime's 20th anniversary. Death Comes Too Late was one of my most anticipated reads for 2024, and the collection exceeded my expectations!

"Grow until your mind is the size of the world. Do not try to compress the world to make it fit inside your mind."
–Charles Ardai13 s Tyler Barlass26 2

Charles Ardai writes in the introduction of this book that when compared to a novel, "a well-crafted short story has pleasures all its own, not limited to brevity." I couldn't agree more. I've always been a lover of short stories and was more than excited when Ardai's collection celebrating 20 years of Hard Case Crime was announced. These stories are certainly tied together by a theme, even if decades separate their writing. The collection never feels homogenized though. There's just too much variety for that. Stories of Chinese detectives, comic book super heroes and Elvis lie within these pages. It's fun, it's heavy, it's dark - it's a wonderful celebration of 20 years of wonderful crime fiction. Here's to 20 more.hard-case4 s Benjamin A201 7

Writing of short story collections is hard. Maybe a little easier when it's the same author. With Death Comes Too Late Charles Ardai has made it pretty easy to review since they're all really, really good. The Hard Case Crime Library has become automatic reads for me in the past twenty years and this collection celebrates that by reminding us that he himself, is a gifted writer. I've read a few of these before, along with a couple of his novels and comic books and my admiration for him has only grown. with any good short story collection there were some stories I d more than others, but there isn't a bad one in the bunch and writing short fiction is its own art and Charles Ardai is a master of this art.

Special Thanks to Hard Case Crime, Titan Books and Edelweiss Plus for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.4 s Martin Maenza743 12

Titan Books provided an early galley for review.

This cover, painted by Paul Mann, looks it came right from the paperbacks I would see around town in the early 1970's. Its nostalgic feel drew me into checking this one out.

In the introduction, Ardai talks about how satisfying a good short story can be. He certainly knows from experience as these tales of his here are quite good indeed. The lengths vary - some longer while others shorter (the shortest being just two pages). Ardai though knows how to make the most of his words, to move the narrative along and to convey the concepts cleanly and consisely. I easily found several favorites in the tales presented.

The stories cover over three decades of the author's work, from 1990's "A Bar Called Charley's" to 2023's "Game Over". I definitely connected with some of the stories more than others, but that is always the benefit of collections this. There is bound to be something that will appeal to every reader.

I also d the fact that we are given a bit of variety in the settings. Sure, there are several tales with similar themes ( finding a missing woman or committing a murder), but Ardai switches it up by putting the stories into different environments. Vareity is the spice of life, after all.anthology crime fiction ...more2 s1 comment Wesley Mead30

Work from Hard Case Crime founder Charles Ardai is always a real treat, and this collection of short stories, originally published across the last thirty-plus years - is the perfect celebration of 20 years of the imprint.

My favourites here include:

"The Home Front" - an Edgar Award winner about a man tasked with tracking down black-market fuel sales in WW2 that rapidly veers in and out of tragedy; will appeal to fans of Lawrence Block

"Game Over" - a jet-black story about kids, arcade games and ne'er-do-wells that shares Stephen King's aptitude for coming-of-age observation

"The Case" - an incredibly readable race-against-time

"Nobody Wins" - a pleasingly dark mystery with a very satisfying conclusion

"Mother of Pearl" - a brief, jet-black tale of a penknife salesman that doesn't go where you'd expect

"Sleep! Sleep! Beauty Bright" - a satisfying revenge story with few twists and turns

"A Bar Called Charley's" - a tense story set in a bar, that segues into a fascinating character study

All in all, essential reading for hardboiled noir fans._-owned-physical fiction-adult fiction-short ...more2 s Elihu6

I have just finished reading the ARC furnished by Hard Case Crime. Short stories are a very different genre that novels. It required a special talent for developing character and plot in a compressed format. Charles Ardai has done so masterfully. Kudos to Mr Ardai. These stories run the gamut from exciting, clever, witty, poignant and about a dozen other adjectives that I just can't come up with right away. It was a great read2 s Jesse400 7

An enjoyable batch of expertly antiqued stories. My only hesitation is that the achievement here feels more formal than I would ; in other words, in only a few stories do I really care about the protagonists. (Also, Ardai too frequently resorts to the same noirish twist ending.) In many of them, I admire the craftsmanship and the sentence-to-sentence construction, and I think, "this would surely have stood out in 1955 or 1975 or 1995 in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine." But I think that to get beyond well-crafted professionalism, you need something deeper--which, to be fair, happens here: whether it's the compressed James M. Cain emotionalism of the award-winning "Home Front," the hilariously sociopathic narrator (imagine Ripley played as straight-faced comedy) in "My Husband's Wife," the goofily surrealistic Elvis-cultist PI tale, the one set in a Ming-dynasty Buddhist monastery, or the one featuring a normcore PI coping with romantic/career infighting among superheroes. So I preferred something extraordinarily heartfelt...or offbeat, or imaginative, that nudges Ardai out from the familiar. Don't get me wrong: this is one of those books you just race through, in large part for the evocation of bygone times (the vast majority are set in the past, and characters have names and professions traveling salesman that seem more appropriate to midcentury America) and the classic tang of a good hard-boiled kiss-off. I just wanted to feel a bit more a bit more often.1 Ian Dixon74 2

My thanks to Charles Ardai Hard Case Crime for the digital proof (
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