'Hard-Boiled', an anthology of twentieth-century "hard-boiled" short stories compiled by Pronzini and Adrian, should have been great. Unfortunately out of the thousands of stories to choose from they picked the dregs from some of the best writers (Ellroy, Goodis, Thompson, ..), and the best from a great many (deservedly) unknown writers. It took me a long time to slog through the dozens of stories contained in this volume.However the only positve aspect of the book are the commentaries before each story, giving a bit of background on each author and their placement in the history of 'hard-boiled' short fiction. Clearly Pronzini/Adrian have done their homework in this regard. But this only made me more frustrated with the all the mediocre stories they amassed.Bottom line: a missed opportunity. Very disappointing.