The Mammoth Book of Pulp Fiction, edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Robinson, £6.99 in UK)

On the face of it, this book does everything right. It assembles a host of all the right writers - Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, Donald E. Westlake, you name them, they're in here - with a collection of stories which features all the essential ingredients for hard boiled heaven. Voluptuous molls, crooked cops, shady sleuths, an unending stream of smart ass one liners and twist in the tail denouements. But still I couldn't warm to it: the print is small; the book is big; it all, in the end, seems awfully wearisome.