LONG LIVE THE DEAD

If Cave, prolific author of over 40 books (with 3 more forthcoming from the still-active 90-year-old) and over 1200 short stories, isn’t exactly a forgotten classic, he’s a seasoned practitioner whose ten tales (1934–41) collected here, together with a substantial introduction and interview by Deutsch, are bound to appeal to fans of Spicy Detective Stories, Dime Detective, and, yes, Black Mask. If stories like “Dead Dog,” “Shadow,” and “Long Live the Dead” seem merely routine, even pulpophobes will admire “The Missing Mr. Lee,” which packs six different narrators’ versions of what happened to a vanished liquor salesman into a dozen clever, fast-paced pages.