100 American Crime Writers is a well-constructed anthology which includes concise biographies of a number of famous and lesser-known American crime writers. The key strengths of the collection include the wide time span which it covers, the significant presence of women crime writers, and the attention to racial diversity. The entries on each writer effectively combine a summary of key biographical facts with a discussion of how their work contributes towards the development of the genre, followed by a brief bibliography at the end. Powell's two opening critical essays help to frame the collection, as they discuss the origins of the crime fiction genre in the nineteenth century, the development of the twentieth-century hard-boiled tradition, and the experimentation with contemporary hybrid forms. Powell notes how complex the crime genre has become, as it comprises “movements and counter-movements, re-imaginings, inventions and expansions,” although he concludes that “Chandler's shadow arguably may still be the longest” (15).

The wide time span of the collection gives the reader a good indication of how the crime fiction genre has been influenced by literary trends and sociohistorical factors. The entry on Edgar Allan Poe analyses the creation of the classic nineteenth-century detective Dupin, the use of Gothic settings, and the fascination with urban violence which were to become influential on the work of later writers. Substantial discussions of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett chart the development of the hard-boiled tradition of the 1930s and 1940s, characterized by the emergence of the tough PI who tries to bring justice to the mean streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Experimentation with the police procedural genre, the influence of true crime, and generic hybridity are elements which are discussed in the biographies of contemporary writers such as Thomas Harris and James Ellroy.

The contribution of women writers is well represented in the anthology. In contrast to the male-dominated hard-boiled tradition which often cast the role of the woman as a femme fatale figure, increasingly women writers have sought to challenge key stereotypes of the crime genre. For example, the biography of Dorothy B(elle) Hughes reveals her to be a pioneering figure who offered a female perspective on the noir genre which also reflected anxieties typical of the McCarthy era. The discussion of the contemporary writer Janet Evanovich foregrounds the importance of a woman's independent role within the crime genre, as the female bounty hunter who stars in the Stephanie Plum series keeps the men in her life dangling so that she retains her personal freedom. The relationship between gender and genre is also brought out in the biography of Patricia Cornwell, which explores how her own turbulent domestic life, lesbian identity, and interest in forensic science influenced the creation of an innovative twist in the genre through the Kay Scarpetta police procedurals.

The anthology is also made racially diverse by the inclusion of the biographies of various African American and Native American writers. The discussion of the African American Walter Mosley addresses the creation of the black PI Easy Rawlins, who negotiates racial prejudice amidst the backdrop of events such as the Los Angeles Watts riots. The analysis of the African American Chester Himes also explores the use of the police procedural genre in his “Harlem domestic” series of the 1950s and 1960s, which subverts key aspects of the white-dominated hard-boiled tradition. The biography of Tony Hillerman emphasizes the important contribution made by his “Navajo” series of crime novels, which combine the police procedural genre with an exploration of problems inherent in life on the reservation, including alcohol abuse and lack of employment opportunities. Allusions to the Latino/a community are contained in the references to Latino/a detectives created by Marcia Muller and Elizabeth Linington, but it is surprising that the collection does not include any of the contemporary Chicano/a or Cuban American writers who have helped to take the crime genre in a new direction which reflects the social and psychological tensions faced by various Hispanic groups in the US today. Nevertheless, the biographies of the ethnic minorities who are included in the anthology do draw out important issues regarding racial discrimination in thought-provoking ways. Overall, this is an informative collection which contains perceptive insights that should be useful both to scholars of crime fiction and to the general reader.