Jack Ritchie

A fourth edition of The Best of Manhunt arrived as a complete surprise. Instead of the variety of the previous three, this one features only short stories by Jack Ritchie; mostly from Manhunt, with the added bonus of five more from ancillary titles. As laid out in editor Jeff Vorzimmer’s introduction, Ritchie was a consummate short story scribe. His openings grab, his prose sizzles, his characters jump off the page into your mind, and his stories transport you into a world of gamblers, crooks, killers, fatales, wiseguys, and all seven sins.

So authentic, Ritchie’s stories could be dramatized versions of true crimes. The prose is terse, at times brutal; the voice is street savvy, hard-hearted, and true to his downtrodden cast of deeply flawed misfits. Whether you’re a reader or writer of crime fiction, this volume is exemplary.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Vol. 9 No. 6 June 1964
Alfred Hitchcock: Dear Friends
Contents
Richard Deming “Medicine Woman”
Jack Ritchie “Everybody Except Wilbur”
Leo R. Ellis “Fresh Thuringer Today”
Robert Edmond Alter “Echo of a Savage”
Jay Folb “Hero of the Silver Screen”
Frank Sisk “The Clean Platter”
Carl Henry Rathjen “A Debt to Doc”
Rog Phillips “Legacy of Office”
Carroll Mayers “Until Death Us Do Part”
Thomasina Weber “Judgment Day”
Dick Ellis “Final Performance”
Richard Hardwick “The Dangerous Age”
Jan MacKenzie “Show Me First Your Penny”
Steve O’Connell “Kill the Taste”
Ed Dumonte “Summer Session Only”
Each story includes an illustration by Marguerite Blair Deacon

Editor and Publisher: Richard E. Decker
Managing Editor: G.F. Foster
Associate Editors: Victoria S. Benham, Pat Hitchcock, Ned Benham
Art Director: Marguerite Blair Deacon
164 pages, 50¢

The Best of Manhunt 4: Jack Ritchie

Alfred Hitchcock June 1964