The preeminent short fiction series since 1915, The Best American Short Stories is the only volume that annually offers the finest works chosen by a distinguished best-selling author.Hermit's story / Rick Bass --Sun, the moon, the stars / Junot Diaz --Mrs. Dutta writes a letter / Chitra Divakaruni --Kansas / Stephen Dobyns --Tumblers / Nathan Englander --Piano tuner / Tim Gautreaux --Uncharted heart / Melissa Hardy --The 5:22 / George Harrar --Islands / A. Hemon --Best girlfriend you never had / Pam Houston --In the kindergarten / Ha Jin --Marry the one who gets there first / Heidi Julavits --Live life king-sized / Hester Kaplan --Africans / Sheila Kohler --Interpreter of maladies / Jhumpa Lahiri --Real estate / Lorrie Moore --Save the reaper / Alice Munro --Bunchgrass edge of the world / Annie Proulx --Robbers of Karnataka / James Spencer --Good shopkeeper / Samrat Upadhyay --Rest of her life / Steve Yarbrough

    For instance, why does a noted Madison Avenue art lover suddenly decide to sell his entire collection in an effort to raise a cool million? And why was a well-known Arab oil magnate assassinated? Almost too late, Reardon sees the connection between the deaths of a multi-millionaire and a small-time restaurateur, and the fluctuations in the international markets for crude oil, fine art, and precious metals. And now that he knows the truth, just how long has he got to live?" - Book Jacket for Book Club edition.

    Published in crime magazines, composed for events, broadcast on radio, they all share the best qualities of his phenomenally popular Rebus novels.Brought together for the first time, and including brand new material, this is the ultimate Rebus short-story collection and a must-have book for crime lovers and for Ian's millions of fans alike.No Rankin aficionado can go without it.

    To save herself she had to kill him. Or did she? As Tara's self-defense claim crumbles, attorney Leslie Conners must overcome more than first trial jitters to mount a credible defense. Leslie must save Tara’s life...against her client’s will. Can a Lawyer Save a Client from Herself?Defense attorneys expect to catch their clients lying. It’s part of the game. But nothing in law school prepared Leslie for this. Tara’s confession doesn’t add up, and the reason may be more shocking than the crime itself. In the midst of this taxing case, Leslie’s wedding plans to law partner Brad Carson are interrupted by devastating news: she suffers from a dangerous rare heart condition. Does she dare tell Brad? Before the final gavel falls, Leslie must confront the truth about herself and her mysterious client, or the darkness of the past will swallow them both.

    The Continental Op was his great first contribution to the genre and these seven stories, which first appeared in the magazine Black Mask, are the best examples of Hammett's early writing, in which his formidable literary and moral imagination is already operating at full strength. The Continental Op is the dispassionate fat man working for the Continental Detective Agency, modelled on the Pinkerton Agency, whose only interest is in doing his job in a world of violence, passion, desperate action and great excitement.The tenth clew.--The golden horseshoe.--The house in Turk Street.--The girl with the silver eyes.--The whosis kid.--The main death.--The farewell murder.

    We have chosen the same principle here, and the book's contents do a good job of covering the island, from C.J. Sullivan's Inwood and John Lutz's Upper West Side, to Justin Scott's Chelsea and Carol Lea Benjamin's Greenwich Village. The range in mood and literary style is at least as great; noir can be funny, it can stretch to include magic realism, it can be ample or stark, told in the past or present tense, and in the first or third person. I wouldn't presume to define noir - if we could define it, we wouldn't need to use a French word for it -- but it seems to be that it's more a way of looking at the world than what one sees.The good Samaritan / Charles Ardai --The last supper / Carol Lea Benjamin --If you can't stand the heat / Lawrence Block --Rain / Thomas H. Cook --A nice place to visit / Jeffrey Deaver --The next best thing / Jim Fusilli --Take the man's pay / Robert Knightly --The laundry room / John Lutz --Freddie Prinze is my guardian angel / Liz Martínez --The organ grinder / Maan Meyers --Why do they have to hit? / Martin Meyers --Building / S.J. Rozan --The most beautiful apartment in New York / Justin Scott --The last round / C.J. Sullivan --Crying with Audrey Hepburn / Xu Xi

    Contains Chandler's essay on the art of detective stories and a collection of 8 classic Chandler mysteries.

    Andrew Vachss might have scissored his characters from today's headlines: a stalker prowling around an anonymous high-rise; a serial killer whose transgressions reflect a childhood of hideous abuse; an inner-city gunman who is willing to take out a blockful of victims in order to win a moment of acceptance.Tautly written and endowed with murderous ironic spin, Born Bad plunges us into the hell that lies just outside our bedroom windows.

    The brief was deceptively simple - each story must be set in Edinburgh and feature a crime. The results range from hard-boiled police procedural to historical whodunit and from the wildly comic to the spookily supernatural.

    They are: 1 The Actress2 Girl in the Train3 While the Light Lasts4 Red Signal4 Blue Jar6 Jane in Search of a Job7 Mr Farnsworth's Adventure8 Philomel College9 Manhood of Edward Robinson10 Witness for the Prosecution11 Wireless12 Within a Wall13 Listerdale14 Fourth Man15 House of Dreams16 S.O.S.17 Magnolia Blossom18 Lonely God19 Rajah's Emerald20 Swan Song21 Last Séance22 Edge23 Tuesday Night Club24 Idol House of Astarte25 Ingots of Gold26 Bloodstained Pavement27 Motive v. Opportunity28 Thumb Mark of St Peter29 Fruitful Sunday30 Golden Ball31 Accident32 Next to a Dog33 Sing a Song of Sixpence34 Blue Geranium35 Companion36 Four Suspects37 Christmas Tragedy38 Herb of Death39 Affair at the Bungalow40 Manx Gold41 Death by Drowning42 Hound of Death43 Gypsy44 Lamp45 Sir Arthur Carmichael46 Call of Wings47 In a Glass Darkly48 Miss Marple Tells a Story49 Strange Jest50 Tape-Measure51 Caretaker52 Perfect Maid53 Sanctuary54 Greenshaw's Folly, and55 Dressmaker's Doll.Librarian's note: this is the entry for the collection: "Miss Marple and Mystery: Over 50 Stories." Individual entries for each short story can be found elsewhere on Goodreads.

    By the author of One Police Plaza. Reprint. K.

    A two-in-one, this volume includes The Last Coyote in which suspended LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch investigates the unsolved murder of his mother, and Trunk Music which finds Harry returning to the force to investigate the murder of a movie producer with Mafia ties.

    Which is why he's now living the good life -- playing consultant to a Hollywood producer. Taking care of his employer's boat in the Florida Keys, Rick figures he's finally got it made. That changes when he rescues a mysterious pilot from a downed seaplane, and is intercepted by a fishing boat that happens to be packing heavy artillery. Rick knows enough to shoot first and, if you're still alive, ask questions later -- and finds himself caught in a tropical maelstrom of international power and politics between the U.S. and Cuba. To reach safe waters, he'll have to navigate a violent course of intrigue and betrayal between his code of honor and his well-worn sense of self-preservation....

    This positively addictive anthology is full of surprises -- a patchwork of settings and characters not soon forgotten, and mysterious twists and revelations not quickly shaken! 18 includes: "Devotion" Agatha Award nominee for Best Short Story "Unharmed" Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Award and Macavity Award winner "The Man in the Civil Suit" Agatha Award winner "The Abbey Ghosts" Edgar Award nominee ...and also features her first Irene Kelly story, "A Fine Set of Teeth."

    Includes:Jim Shepard’s "Tedford and the Megalodon"Glen David Gold’s "The Tears of Squonk, and What Happened Thereafter"Dan Chaon’s "The Bees"Kelly Link’s "Catskin"Elmore Leonard’s "How Carlos Webster Changed His Name to Carl and Became a Famous Oklahoma Lawman"Carol Emshwiller’s "The General"Neil Gaiman’s "Closing Time"Nick Hornby’s "Otherwise Pandemonium"Stephen King’s "The Tale of Gray Dick"Michael Crichton’s "Blood Doesn’t Come Out"Laurie King’s "Weaving the Dark"Chris Offutt’s "Chuck’s Bucket"Dave Eggers’s "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly"Michael Moorcock’s "The Case of the Nazi Canary"Aimee Bender’s "The Case of the Salt and Pepper Shakers"Harlan Ellison’s "Goodbye to All That"Karen Joy Fowler’s "Private Grave 9"Rick Moody’s "The Albertine Notes"Michael Chabon’s "The Martian Agent, a Planetary Romance"Sherman Alexie’s "Ghost Dance"