Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Five Murders | 1944 | Raymond Chandler | N/A |
| 2 | Five Sinister Characters | 1945 | Raymond Chandler | Buy |
| 3 | Red Wind | 1946 | Raymond Chandler | Buy |
| 4 | Spanish Blood | 1946 | Raymond Chandler | Buy |
| 5 | The Finger Man | 1947 | Raymond Chandler | Buy |
| 6 | The Simple Art of Murder | 1950 | Raymond Chandler | Buy |
| 7 | Trouble is My Business | 1950 | Raymond Chandler | Buy |
| 8 | Pickup on Noon Street | 1952 | Raymond Chandler | Buy |
| 9 | Smart-Aleck Kill | 1953 | Raymond Chandler | Buy |
| 10 | Pearls are a Nuisance | 1958 | Raymond Chandler | Buy |
| 11 | Killer in the Rain | 1964 | Raymond Chandler | Buy |
| 12 | The Smell of Fear | 1965 | Raymond Chandler | Buy |
Raymond Chandler published twelve short story collections between 1944 and 1965. Early collections like Five Murders, Five Sinister Characters, and Red Wind gathered his pulp magazine output from the 1930s. Later collections like The Simple Art of Murder and Trouble is My Business became definitive anthologies of his shorter work.
The Simple Art of Murder is particularly notable because it includes Chandler’s essay of the same name, one of the most influential pieces of criticism in detective fiction. The essay argued for a realistic, morally complex approach to crime writing and laid out the principles that guided Chandler’s own work.