Mystery Writers of America Presents: Classics Series

NOTHING'S WHAT IT SEEMS IN THIS SLYLY SINISTER COLLECTION OF DAMES DONE WRONG...AND DOING THE SAME! Shocking surprises, chilling comeuppances, and mercies that are anything but tender are just part of what to expect from these memorable stories of women's wills...and wiles. Choosing them with an eye to the dangers ever lurking in our everyday lives, acclaimed editor Michele Slung very clearly wants to play with her readers' comfort levels-and succeeds. Among the nineteen tempting treasures she's come up with are stories by four Mystery Writers of America Grand Masters: be prepared to be unsettled by the twists of Edward D. Hoch's tale of burglary-turned-romance; the haunting neighbors dreamed up by Margaret  Millar; Stanley Ellin's unreliably recognized intruder; and the plight of Dorothy Salisbury Davis's sensible housekeeper suddenly stricken with a sleuth's awareness. Yet those are hardly all... there's suspense for every taste with each and every compelling page-turner you'll discover here.  

TEMPERS FLARE IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT… …And the wrong move, the wrong word, even the wrong look can set off any man or woman already driven past their boiling point. A Hot and Sultry Night for Crime, edited by bestselling author Jeffery Deaver, features 20 stories of people dealing with not just the torrid weather, but all different kinds of heat. From a retired police chief pitching in on a missing dog report that leads to him solving a murder to a mystery of Southern manners that proves the heat brings out the worst in everybody to a Los Angeles gumshoe who goes to a movie to cool off, but finds a still-warm body inside the theater, these mystery stories all prove that when the temperature rises, anyone can go crazy from the heat, and the most cold-blooded crimes can be committed during the hottest, darkest nights… This volume contains the following award-winning or nominated stories: "Lady on Ice" by Loren D. Estleman, winner of the 2003 Shamus Award for Best Short Story; "Green Heat" by Angela Zeman, selected for The Best American Mystery Short Stories 2004, edited by Nelson DeMille and Otto Penzler; and "War Crimes" by G. Miki Hayden and "Child Support" by Ronnie Klaskin were both nominated for the Best Short Story Macavity Award.

VIGILANTE? VICTIM? VILLAIN? Where is your breaking point? Would you defy the law in pursuit of justice? How far would you have to be pushed before you got…blood on your hands? Nineteen gripping crime and mystery stories reveal the transgressions ordinary people commit when they feel they have no other choice. What should be a marriage of wealth and privilege contains only dark secrets of the heart. A long-ago crime of passion on the lake returns to haunt everyone involved. A widow plots a unique revenge against the man who indirectly killed her husband. And an amateur detective tries to solve the murder of two exotic dancers…and finds a killer hiding in plain sight. Edited and with a new foreword by New York Times-bestselling author and Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Lawrence Block, Blood On Their Hands features these and other tales of men and women who have crossed that line between law and lawlessness. Read on to find out who gets away with it…and who doesn't…  

THE FAIRER SEX? NOT THESE LADIES… The female of the species is absolutely deadlier than the male in these 14 cunningly-crafted tales of suspense, crimes of passion, and murder, all by women writers. Edited by MWA Grandmaster and bestselling mystery author John D. MacDonald, these bone-chilling stories show the depths that men and women will stoop to in pursuit of what they want. Christianna Brand brings us a story of two sisters who engage in the ultimate cat-and-mouse game, with the prize being their lives. A woman accustomed to the finer things appears in Margaret Manners' twisting tale of a socialite who will go to any lengths to keep what's hers. Carolyn Thomas spins a tale of long-overdue revenge in the balmy Caribbean. From Veronica Parker Johns come the story of a cheating wife who's too clever for her own good. And Juanita Sheridan delivers a marriage slipping toward disaster amid the tropical paradise of Hawaii. Fourteen tales of scheming women (and even a few dangerous men) told by the very best classic women mystery writers as they reveal…The Lethal Sex.  

CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES BY 20 VENDORS OF VILLAINY Mystery Writers of America is pleased to present this sinister volume of larceny, deception, and murder, brought to you by the very finest purveyors of perfidy. Donald E. Westlake tells a tale of a cheating wife who tries to turn the tables on her blackmailer, only to find herself caught in a bigger web of lies than she could have imagined. From Robert Bloch comes a story of a man whose very best friend has the very worst plans for his wife. Miriam Allen deFord tells the mystery of a family that is disappearing off the face of the Earth, one by one. And master of suspense Cornell Woolrich takes us south of the border for a sultry tale of jealousy, death, and revenge from beyond the grave. And now that the transaction is complete, there is nothing left but to open the book and lose yourself in any one of these twenty suspenseful stories, each written by a true merchant of menace.  

WHEN IT COMES TO MURDER, THERE'S ALWAYS A CHOICE… The only thing more varied than how people are killed is the many, many ways people try to get away with this terrible crime. Now masterful mystery writer Dorothy Salisbury Davis brings together 23 classic stories of crime and suspense, whodunits and detective stories from some of the finest authors of the 1950s. Ross Macdonald's classic P.I. Lew Archer takes a chilling case in California, where the mob isn't the only deadly thing under the West Coast sun. Margaret Millar brings us the tale of the couple next door who ensnares their neighbor in a tangled web of love and deception. Margaret Manners invites us to a bar for a drink and a quick little story of a con man who got what he deserved—and how the man accused of his murder walked free. And Michael Gilbert brilliant detective Gladwyn Hughes must get to the bottom of an ambassador assassinated in front of forty-five witnesses before a war breaks out in Europe over the murder. Twenty-three stories of criminals, victims, and always, always multiple choices of murder…

30 CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES GOOD TO THE LAST LINE The McGuffin has long been a staple tool in any crime and mystery writer's arsenal. A perfectly placed last line of a short story can pull together subtle plot threads into a devastating dénouement or give everything that came before it a brand-new meaning, sometimes even reshaping the story entirely for the reader.  Joe Gores and Bill Pronzini, two of the most talented mystery writers of the 20th century, joined forces to assemble the very best McGuffin stories by such celebrated authors as Anthony Boucher, Harlan Ellison, Joe L. Hensley, Edward D. Hoch, John Lutz, John D. MacDonald, and Donald E. Westlake. They, along with 24 more authors, have created some of the very best mystery stories that often save their best twists for the very last line...  

A VERY SPECIAL MYSTERY ANTHOLOGY FEATURING THE BEST BY THE BEST… In 1984, Mystery Writers of America brought together a roster of authors that has rarely been equaled before or since. Every living MWA President (including several who were also Grand Masters) was asked to select one of their own published stories and write a brief introduction as to why it was their favorite one. The resulting volume, edited under the keen eye of author and screenwriter Brian Garfield, contains some of the finest crime and mystery stories of the previous 50 years. Dorothy Salisbury Davis delights with tale of a most unusual art "heist." Master of the macabre Robert Bloch is in fine form with a story of a con man who takes advantage of lonely women, until he meets his match in deception. Helen McCloy goes to the other side of the world for her engrossing story of 19th century China. John D. MacDonald introduces us to a salesman suffering from the wickedest of hangovers, and bestselling French author Georges Simenon tells a cat-and-mouse tale between a mild-mannered tailor and the serial killer he believes is living across the street from him. Thirteen masterful tales of mystery and suspense, selected by the people who know them best—the authors themselves.