An anthology of storiesThese all-new short stories of movies, music, murder, and mayhem by today's brightest talents will take you from vaudeville to Vegas, and make it chillingly clear that in the world of entertainment, if you want to make it, you may have to step on some people-or over their dead bodies…Includes first-run stories from€ Carolyn Wheat€ John Lutz€ Elaine Viets€ Parnell Hall€ Stuart M Kaminsky€ Edward D Hoch€ Annette Meyers€ Angela Zeman€ David Bart€ Bob Shayne€ Mark Terry€ Gary Phillips€ Suzanne Shaphren€ Libby Fischer Hellman€ Charles Ardai€ Gregg Andrew Hurwitz€ Steve Hockensmith€ Shelley Freydont€ Robert Lopresti€ Mat Coward

An anthology of stories edited by Sara ParetskyThis eclectic anthology from a variety of female mystery writers has something to please every fan. Editor and contributor Paretsky (V.I. Warshawski series) introduces the anthology with a brief history of Sisters in Crime, an organization formed by Paretsky in 1987 to help boost the profiles of women crime writers. The stories range in tone from Sue Henry's (Jessie Arnold series) haunting, lyrical "Sister Death" to "Murder for Lunch," Carolyn Hart's (Death on Demand series) tale of misunderstandings and murder. Libby Fischer Hellmann (Ellie Foreman series) and Susan Dunlap (Jill Smith series) both tackle the turbulent world of 1960s radicals from different perspectives, with tales of a captured fugitive and violent conflicts with the police. The collection also includes an early story from the late Charlotte MacLeod's impressive body of work, as well as a new story from Dorothy Salisbury Davis, a pioneer in the genre since the 1950s. Mystery fans will delight in reading new pieces from old favorites, as well as discovering new voices from every corner of this diverse genre.

Bestselling novelist James Ellroy introduces this year’s collection of the finest mystery writing. Many of the contributors herein are novelists themselves, displaying their talents in short story form: Michael Connelly tells a fatal tale of revenge in “Two-Bagger.” In Joe Gores’s “Inscrutable,” the Feds beat the Mafia at their own game. Stuart Kaminsky demonstrates how horribly wrong things go when a robber gets cocky in “Sometimes Something Goes Wrong.” And Robert B. Parker shows just how important Jackie Robinson’s fans can be in “Harlem Nocturne.”

Also featured are veterans of the short story form and favorites of this series. Brendan DuBois’s “A Family Game” introduces a former Mafia family trying to lead a normal life in the Witness Protection Program. Joyce Carol Oates tells a chilling tale of a crush taken too far in “The High School Sweetheart.” A tenant sneaks into the murder crime scene next door in Michael Downs’s “Man Kills Wife, Two Dogs.” Readers will be captivated by all the stories herein, whether by famed novelists or masters of the short story.