Death is a Lovely Dame is a collection of all the best lines from books from the Golden Era of hardboiled crime fiction. It includes quotes from such great authors as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Jim Thompson, Gil, Brewer, Charles Willeford, Ross Macdonald, John D. MacDonald, Lawrence Block, Donald Westlake, Jonathan Latimer, Mickey Spillane, Brett Halliday, Ellery Queen, W. R. Burnett, Paul Cain and Cornell Woolrich.

Features over 180 excerpts and illustrated with 50 paperback covers from the era.