Envisioned as a vehicle to carry stories the editors think represent the best in crime and mystery writing in our time.

Includes both well-known and unknown stories, all representing the greatest in crime short fiction.

The man who knew how /Dorothy L. Sayers -- The girl with the silver eyes / Dashiell Hammett -- Red wind / Raymond Chandler -- The wench is dead / Frederic Brown -- Gone girl / Ross Macdonald -- The couple next door / Margaret Millar -- By the scruff of the soul / Dorothy Salisbury Davis -- Flowers that bloom in the spring / Julian Symons -- Woodrow Wilson's necktie / Patricia Highsmith -- Loopy / Ruth Rendell -- Great Aunt Allie's fly papers / P.D. James -- First lead gasser / Tony Hillerman -- Chee's witch / Tonly Hillerman -- Breathe deep / Donald E. Westlake -- Rumpole and the bubble reputation / John Mortimer -- A poison that leaves no trace / Sue Grafton -- Photo finish / Sara Paretsky -- The crime of Miss Oyster Brown / Peter Lovesey -- Red clay / Michael Malone -- Barking at butterflies / Ed McBain -- Running out of dog / Dennis Lehane -- Hostages / James Crumley -- When the women come out to dance / Elmore Leonard -- The hanged man / Ian Rankin -- The holly and the poison ivy / Catherine Aird -- Copycat / Jeffery Deaver -- He loved to go for drives with his father / Alexander McCall Smith.