OTTO PENZLER PRESENTS

AMERICAN MYSTERY CLASSICS

MCKEE OF CENTRE STREET

HELEN REILLY (1891-1962) was a pioneering author of American Golden Age mysteries and considered to be one of the first women to write in the police procedural subgenre. She wrote over thirty novels starring Inspector Christopher McKee, of the fictitious Manhattan Homicide Squad. Most of her writing was published under her own name but she also published several novels under the pseudonym Kieran Abbey. A member of the Mystery Writers of America, she served as president of the organization in 1953.

OTTO PENZLER, the creator of American Mystery Classics, is also the founder of the Mysterious Press (1975); MysteriousPress.com (2011), an electronic-book publishing company; and New York City’s Mysterious Bookshop (1979). He has won a Raven, the Ellery Queen Award, two Edgars (for the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, 1977, and The Lineup, 2010), and lifetime achievement awards from NoirCon and The Strand Magazine. He has edited more than 70 anthologies and written extensively about mystery fiction.