Anthologies

Book by Dick Francis, Ed McBain, Nicholas Blake, C. S. Forester, John Dickson Carr

With its roots in the American private-detective fiction of the 1920s but traceable back as far as Sherlock Holmes, the private-eye story remains as popular as ever. Here are thirty of the finest short novels and stories from the hardboiled world of the private eye. The characters in this collection range from the tough, cynical, hard-drinking Philip Marlowe type to hard-hitting female sleuths and the one-armed intellectual Dan Fortune. This collection features old favorites and new contributions from masters of the genre, past and present, including Ross Macdonald, Raymond Chandler, Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, Michael Collins, Ed McBain, William Campbell Gault, and many more.

Gathers stories by Robert Block, Lawrence Block, Max Collins, Joe Gores, Ed McBain, Mickey Spillane, Donald Westlake, and Bill Pronzini

Trace the hard-boiled mystery back to its roots with this collection of twenty-eight detective stories set in tough, urban settings. From classics by Poe and Vidocq to contemporary favorites such as Hammett and Spillane, this is a literary feast for all mystery fans. Introduction / David Willis McCullough -- The simple art of murder / Raymond Chandler -- The clue of the yellow curtains / Francois Eugene Vidocq -- The mystery of Marie Roget / Edgar Allen Poe -- The lodger / Marie Belloc Lowndes -- Princess Sonia's bath / Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre -- The investors / Edgar Wallace -- The tenth clew / Dashiell Hammett -- The rubber trumpet / Roy Vickers -- No proof / Yoh Sano -- Dead-end for Delia / William Campbell Gault -- At the Etoile du Nord / Georges Simenon -- I always get the cuties / John D. MacDonald -- This world, then the fireworks / Jim Thompson -- The gold fever tapes / Mickey Spillane -- Wild goose chase / Ross MacDonald -- The nine-to-five man / Stanley Ellin -- Small homocide / Ed McBain -- Blind man with a pistol / Chester Himes -- Pigeon blood / Paul Cain -- Just one of those days / Donald E. Westlake -- Election day / Joseph Hansen -- The Parker shotgun / Sue Grafton -- The Johore murders / Paul Theroux -- Sure, blue, and dead, too / Janwillem van de Wetering -- Skin deep / Sara Paretsky -- Death by water / William Marshall -- Flake piece / Carolyn Wheat -- Dead soldier / Loren D. Estleman -- Double indemnity, the screenplay / Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder

Twenty-Three Tales of Love and Hate. Contributions by: Nancy Pickard, Lawrence Block, Sara Paretsky, Joan Hess, Jan Grape, Max Allan Collins, Richard T. Chizmar, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Margaret Maron, Judith Kelman, Ed Gorman, F. Paul Wilson, Peter Lovesey, Charlotte MacLeod, Sharyn McCrumb, Wendy Hornsby, Dorothy Cannell, Robert Barnard, Joyce Carol Oates, Simon Brett, Bill Pronzini, Marcia Muller, Ed McBain.

Gathers mystery stories by Lawrence Block, Marcia Muller, Sharyn McCrumb, Peter Staub, and others

Eight men and eight women--the best writers in and out of the mystery field--render their very own, original take on love gone wrong in this fresh collection of stories. Animosity and affection intermingle dangerously in these delightfully deadly works William J. Caunitz, Carol Higgins Clark, Mary Higgins Clark, James Crumley, John Gardner, Faye Kellerman, Jonathan Kellerman, Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain, Michael Malone, Bobbie Ann Mason, Joyce Carol Oates, Sara Paretsky, Anne Perry, Shel Silverstein, and Donna Tartt.An innovative anthology about men, women, and crimes of passion, Murder For Love brings to light the dark side of love. Dying time / William J. Caunitz -- For whom the beep tolls / Carol Higgins Clark -- Definitely, a crime of passion / Mary Higgins Clark -- Hot springs / James Crumley -- The loving you get / John Gardner -- The stalker / Faye Kellerman -- The things we do for love / Jonathan Kellerman -- Karen makes out / Elmore Leonard -- Red clay / Michael Malone -- Nancy Drew remembers (A parody) / Bobbie Ann Mason -- Running from legs / Ed McBain -- At the Paradise Motel, Sparks, Nevada / Joyce Carol Oates -- Heartbreak house / Sara Paretsky -- The blackmailer / Anne Perry -- For what she had done / Shel Silverstein -- True crime / Donna Tartt.

Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" launched the detective story in 1841. The genre began as a highbrow form of entertainment, a puzzle to be solved by a rational sifting of clues. In Britain, the stories became decidedly upper crust: the crime often committed in a world of manor homes and formal gardens, the blood on the Persian carpet usually blue. But from the beginning, American writers worked important changes on Poe's basic formula, especially in use of language and locale. As early as 1917, Susan Glaspell evinced a poignant understanding of motive in a murder in an isolated farmhouse. And with World War I, the Roaring '20s, the rise of organized crime and corrupt police with Prohibition, and the Great Depression, American detective fiction branched out in all directions, led by writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, who brought crime out of the drawing room and into the "mean streets" where it actually occurred. In The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories , Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert bring together thirty-three tales that illuminate both the evolution of crime fiction in the United States and America's unique contribution to this highly popular genre. Tracing its progress from elegant "locked room" mysteries, to the hard-boiled realism of the '30s and '40s, to the great range of styles seen today, this superb collection includes the finest crime writers, including Erle Stanley Gardner, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Rex Stout, Ellery Queen, Ed McBain, Sue Grafton, and Hillerman himself. There are also many delightful surprises: Bret Harte, for instance, offers a Sherlockian pastiche with a hero named Hemlock Jones, and William Faulkner blends local color, authentic dialogue, and dark, twisted pride in "An Error in Chemistry." We meet a wide range of sleuths, from armchair detective Nero Wolfe, to Richard Sale's journalist Daffy Dill, to Robert Leslie Bellem's wise-cracking Hollywood detective Dan Turner, to Linda Barnes's six-foot tall, red-haired, taxi-driving female P.I., Carlotta Carlyle. And we sample a wide variety of styles, from tales with a strongly regional flavor, to hard-edged pulp fiction, to stories with a feminist perspective. Perhaps most important, the book offers a brilliant summation of America's signal contribution to crime fiction, highlighting the myriad ways in which we have reshaped this genre. The editors show how Raymond Chandler used crime, not as a puzzle to be solved, but as a spotlight with which he could illuminate the human condition; how Ed McBain, in "A Small Homicide," reveals a keen knowledge of police work as well as of the human sorrow which so often motivates crime; and how Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer solved crime not through blood stains and footprints, but through psychological insight into the damaged lives of the victim's family. And throughout, the editors provide highly knowledgeable introductions to each piece, written from the perspective of fellow writers and reflecting a life-long interest--not to say love--of this quintessentially American genre. American crime fiction is as varied and as democratic as America itself. Hillerman and Herbert bring us a gold mine of glorious stories that can be read for sheer pleasure, but that also illuminate how the crime story evolved from the drawing room to the back alley, and how it came to explore every corner of our nation and every facet of our lives.

An anthology of psychological thrillers, whodunits, and suspense stories by popular mystery writers takes readers deep into dark hearts and twisted minds in stories by Anne Perry, Sara Paretsky, Ed McBain, Ruth Rendell, and others

In its brief existence, THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES has established itself as a peerless suspense anthology. Compiled by the best-selling mystery novelist Ed McBain, this year's edition boasts nineteen outstanding tales by such masters as John Updike, Lawrence Block, Jeffery Deaver, and Joyce Carol Oates as well as stories by rising stars such as Edgar Award winners Tom Franklin and Thomas H. Cook. The 1999 volume is a spectacular showcase for the high quality and broad diversity of the year’s finest suspense, crime, and mystery writing. "Keller's Last Refuge" by Lawrence Block, "Safe" by Gary A. Braunbeck, "Fatherhood" by Thomas H. Cook, "Wrong Time, Wrong Place" by Jeffery Deaver, "Netmail" by Brendan DuBois, "Redneck" by Loren D. Estleman, "And Maybe the Horse Will Learn to Sing" by Gregory Fallis, "Poachers" by Tom Franklin, "Hitting Rufus" by Victor Gischler, "Out There in the Darkness" by Ed Gorman, "Survival" by Joseph Hansen, "A Death on the Ho Chi Minh Trail" by David K. Harford, "An Innocent Bystander" by Gary Krist, "The Jailhouse Lawyer" by Phillip M. Margolin, "Secret, Silent" by Joyce Carol Oates, "In Flanders Fields" by Peter Robinson, "Dry Whiskey" by David B. Silva, "Sacrifice" by L. L. Thrasher, "Bech Noir" by John Updike

The World's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, First Annual Edition finally fills the void for those with a hunger for the best mystery and suspense stories of the past year. Multi-award--winning editor Ed Gorman has collected stories from the world over, to present more than 200,00 words of superlative fiction. These acclaimed writers, from both the United States and the British Isles, include: Doug Allyn Lawrence Block Jeffery Deaver Loren D. Estleman J.A. Jance Ed McBain Marcia Muller Anne Perry Bill Pronzini Ian Rankin Jerry Sykes Donald E. Westlake and many others.

It’s not easy to collect, in a single volume, the finest mystery and suspense fiction the world has to offer, but The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories: Second Annual Collection rises to that challenge, inviting you to discover what Kirkus Reviews dubs “ . . . the year’s anthology of choice.” In his Second Annual collection, Ed Gorman once again brings together the year’s most powerful fiction by such outstanding authors as Lawrence Block, Stuart M. Kaminsky, Ed McBain, Joyce Carol Oates, Ian Rankin, and Donald E. Westlake. The volume also abounds with fresh new stories by newer authors, from U. S. publications, and also from sources on other shores, including England, Germany, and the Netherlands. Ed Gorman set benchmark for great mystery and suspense fiction with the First Annual Collection . Overflowing with award-winning authors and terrific stories, The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories: Second Annual Collection also promises to be a treasure for anyone who loves a mystery. More than 200,000 words of superlative mystery and suspense fiction from around the world, with stories by: Lawrence Block Jan Burke Dorothy Cannell Clark Howard Peter Lovesey Joyce Carol Oates Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Ian Rankin And many others A Banquet of Mystery and Crime Fiction For those who love outstanding mystery and crime reading, award-winning author and editor, Ed Gorman, has once again collected the best stories of the year from around the world. Immerse yourself in stories that baffle, tantalize, and delight, by the following authors: Miguel Agustí Doug Allyn Noreen Ayres Robert Barnard Lawrence Block Jan Burke Dorothy Cannell Stanley Cohen Mat Coward Peter Crowther Brendan DuBois Jurgen Ehlers Pete Hamill Joseph Hansen Edward D. Hoch Clark Howard Stuart M. Kaminsky Richard Laymon Gillian Linscott Peter Lovesey John Lutz Christine Matthews Ed McBain Bob Mendes Denise Mina Joyce Carol Oates Gary Phillips Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Robert J. Randisi Ian Rankin Les Roberts Peter Robinson S. J. Rozan Kristine Kathryn Rusch Donald E. Westlake

Original essays from 46 of today's most celebrated writers that explores lit. & the literary life. The reflections range from the craft of writing to the intersection of art & the world. The writers are Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, Nat. Book Award recip., best-selling authors & teachers; novelists, poets, & playwrights. Includes: Russell Banks, Saul Bellow, Carolyn Chute, E. L. Doctorowe, Louise Erdrich, Richard Ford, Gail Godwin, Mary Gordon, Gish Jen, Diane Johnson, Jamaica Kincaid, Barbara Kingsolver, Hans Koning, David Mamet, Walter Mosley, Joyce Carol Oates, Marge Piercy, Annie Proulx, Roxana Robinson, James Salter, William Saroyan, Susan Sontag, Scott Turow, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Alice Walker, & Elie Wiesel.

A collection of short stories celebrates twenty-five years of publishing by Mysterious Press, with contributions from M. C. Beaton, Charlotte Carter, Jerome Charyn, Stuart M. Kaminsky, and many other notable authors. 18,000 first printing.

More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fiction Each year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories , have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A. Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field. In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. (Jon L. Breen), England (Maxim Jakubowski), Canada (Edo Van Belkom), Australia (David Honeybone), and Germany (Thomas Woertche). Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year's compilation, "the best value-for-money of any such anthology." The A-to-Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader: Robert Barnard • Lawrence Block • Jon L. Breen • Wolfgang Burger • Lillian Stewart Carl • Margaret Coel • Max Allan Collins • Bill Crider • Jeffery Deaver • Brendan DuBois • Susanna Gregory • Joseph Hansen • Carolyn G. Hart • Lauren Henderson • Edward D. Hoch • Clark Howard • Tatjana Kruse • Paul Lascaux • Dick Lochte • Peter Lovesey • Mary Jane Maffini • Ed McBain • Val McDermid • Marcia Muller • Joyce Carol Oates • Anne Perry • Nancy Pickard • Bill Pronzini • Ruth Rendell • S. J. Rozan • Billie Rubin • Kristine Kathryn Rusch • Stephan Rykena • David B. Silva • Nancy Springer • Jac. Toes • John Vermeulen • Donald E. Westlake • Carolyn Wheat.

A detective fiction anthology filled with award winning short stories, information on the authors who wrote them, discussion about the history and evolution of the genre, and important literary criticism.

The acclaimed authors in this anthology are collectively responsible for dozens of "New York Times" bestsellers. Legendary editor Otto Penzler owns the Mysterious Bookshop in New York and is founder of the Mysterious Press and Otto Penzler books.

Forge Books is proud to present an amazing collection of novellas, compiled by New York Times bestselling author Ed McBain. Transgressions is a quintessential classic of never-before-published tales from today's very best novelists. Faeturing: "Walking Around Money" by Donald E. Westlake: The master of the comic mystery is back with an all-new novella featuring hapless crook John Dortmunder, who gets involved in a crime that supposedly no one will ever know happened. Naturally, when something it too good to be true, it usually is, and Dortmunder is going to get to the bottom of this caper before he's left holding the bag. "Hostages" by Anne Perry: The bestselling historical mystery author has written a tale of beautiful yet still savage Ireland today. In their eternal struggle for freedom, there is about to be a changing of the guard in the Irish Republican Army. Yet for some, old habits-and honor-still die hard, even at gunpoint. "The Corn Maiden" by Joyce Carol Oates: When a fourteen-year-old girl is abducted in a small New York town, the crime starts a spiral of destruction and despair as only this master of psychological suspense could write it. "Archibald Lawless, Anarchist at Large: Walking the Line" by Walter Mosley: Felix Orlean is a New York City journalism student who needs a job to cover his rent. An ad in the paper leads him to Archibald Lawless, and a descent into a shadow world where no one and nothing is as it first seems. "The Resurrection Man" by Sharyn McCrumb": During America's first century, doctors used any means necessary to advance their craft-including dissecting corpses. Sharyn McCrumb brings the South of the 1850s to life in this story of a man who is assigned to dig up bodies to help those that are still alive. "Merely Hate" by Ed McBain: When a string of Muslim cabdrivers are killed, and the evidence points to another ethnic group, the detectives of the 87th Precinct must hunt down a killer before the city explodes in violence. "The Things They Left Behind" by Stephen King: In the wake of the worst disaster on American soil, one man is coming to terms with the aftermath of the Twin Towers-when he begins finding the things they left behind. "The Ransome Women" by John Farris: A young and beautiful starving artist is looking to catch a break when her idol, the reclusive portraitist John Ransome offers her a lucrative year-long modeling contract. But how long will her excitement last when she discovers the fate shared by all Ransome's past subjects? "Forever" by Jeffery Deaver: Talbot Simms is an unusual cop-he's a statistician with the Westbrook County Sheriff Department. When two wealthy couples in the county commit suicide one right after the other, he thinks that it isn't suicide-it's murder, and he's going to find how who was behind it, and how the did it. "Keller's Adjustment" by Lawrence Block: Everyone's favorite hit man is back in MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block's novella, where the philosophical Keller deals out philosophy and murder on a meandering road trip from one end of the America to the other.

New York Times bestsellers and thriller legends John Farris and Stephen King each provided a brand-new, never-before-published tale for this unique collection of stories edited by New York Times bestselling author and mystery legend Ed McBain. The Ransome Women by John Farris: A psychological thriller that questions the role beauty plays in society and the cult of celebrity. A young and beautiful, starving artist catches a break when her idol, the reclusive portraitist John Ransome offers her a lucrative modeling contract. But how long will her excitement last when she discovers the fate shared by all Ransome's past subjects? The Things They Left Behind by Stephen King: A hauntingly moving tale of survival guilt in New York City after 9/11. Scott Staley called in sick for his job at the World Trade Center that Tuesday morning. Now in the aftermath of 9/11, he must face his guilty conscience as he begins to find the things his deceased coworkers left behind.

Walking around money / Donald E. Westlake. - Hostage / Anne Perry. - The resurrection man / Sharyn McCrumb. - The ransome women / John Farris.

New York Times bestsellers Sharyn McCrumb, Joyce Carol Oates, and Anne Perry each provided a brand-new, never-before-published tale for this unique collection of stories edited by New York Times bestselling author and mystery legend Ed McBain. "The Resurrection Man" by Sharyn McCrumb: During America's first century, doctors used any means necessary to advance their craft―including dissecting corpses. Sharyn McCrumb brings the South of the 1850s to life in this story of a man who is assigned to dig up bodies to help those that are still alive. "The Corn Maiden" by Joyce Carol Oates: When a twelve-year-old girl is abducted in a small New York town, the crime starts a spiral of destruction and despair as only this master of psychological suspense could write it. "Hostages" by Anne Perry: The bestselling historical mystery author has written a tale of beautiful yet still savage Ireland today. In their eternal struggle for freedom, there is about to be a changing of the guard in the Irish Republican Army. Yet for some, old habits―and honor―still die hard, even at gunpoint.

A walk on the wild side! In this series of collections of gritty Noir and Hardboiled stories, you’ll find some of the best writers of the craft writing in their prime. The following stories are included in this first volume of Masters of Noir: IDENTITY UNKNOWN by JONATHAN CRAIG, THE GIRL BEHIND THE HEDGE by MICKEY SPILLANE, CARRERA'S WOMAN by ED McBAIN writing as RICHARD MARSTEN, BUTCHER by RICHARD S. PRATHER, LOOK DEATH IN THE EYE by LAWRENCE BLOCK, ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON by GIL BREWER, FRAME by FRANK KANE, DOUBLE by BRUNO FISCHER, and AS I LIE DEAD by FLETCHER FLORA.

This anthology features some of the most famous authors writing at the peak of their careers! Volume three of Master of Noir has the following ten great stories: THE KILLERS by JOHN D. MACDONALD, ATTACK by ED McBAIN, JUST WINDOW SHOPPING by LAWRENCE BLOCK, SIX FINGERS by HAL ELLSON, STRANGER IN THE HOUSE by THEODORE PRATT, MAY I COME IN? by FLETCHER FLORA, COP FOR A DAY by HENRY SLESAR, PRECISE MOMENT by HENRY KANE, GRAVEYARD SHIFT by STEVE FRAZEE, BAIT FOR THE RED-HEAD by EUGENE PAWLEY

The world’s most beloved mystery writers celebrate their favorite mystery novels in this gorgeously wrought collection, featuring essays by Michael Connelly, Kathy Reichs, Ian Rankin, and more. In the most ambitious anthology of its kind, the world’s leading mystery writers come together to champion the greatest mystery novels ever written. In a series of personal essays that reveal as much about the authors and their own work as they do about the books that they love, over a hundred authors from twenty countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers. From Agatha Christie to Lee Child, from Edgar Allan Poe to P. D. James, from Sherlock Holmes to Hannibal Lecter and Philip Marlowe to Lord Peter Wimsey, Books to Die For brings together the best of the mystery world for a feast of reading pleasure, a treasure trove for those new to the genre and for those who believe that there is nothing new left to discover. This is the one essential book for every reader who has ever finished a mystery novel and thought… I want more!