The popularity of the private eye story remains undiminished, with its roots in the American private detective fiction of the 1920s but traceable back as far as Sherlock Holmes. Here are 26 of the finest short novels and stories from the hardboiled world of the private eye, from masters of the genre past and present. The characters in this collection range from the tough, cynical hard-drinking dick to hard-hitting female private eyes and the one-armed intellectual Dan Fortune.