The World's Finest Mystery & Crime Stories

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.

Contents:

THE YEAR IN MYSTERY AND CRIME FICTION: 2000 Jon L. Breen

A 2000 YEARBOOK OF CRIME AND MYSTERY Edward D. Hoch

WORLD MYSTERY REPORT: GREAT BRITAIN Maxim Jakubowski

WORLD MYSTERY REPORT: AUSTRALIA David Honeybone and Lucy Sussex

WORLD MYSTERY REPORT: CANADA Edo van Belkom

WORLD MYSTERY REPORT: GERMANY Thomas Woertche

THE 2000 SHORT STORY EDGAR AWARDS Camille Minichino

THE YEAR 2000 IN MYSTERY FANDOM George A. Easter

SPINNING Kristine Kathryn Rusch

THE SUMMER PEOPLE Brendan DuBois

AFRAID OF THE DARK Nancy Pickard

FOR ALL THE SAINTS Gillian Linscott

LET'S GET LOST Lawrence Block

UNDER SUSPICION Clark Howard

CHILDHOOD S. J. Rozan

ART & CRAFT Donald E. Westlake

THE ALLOTMENT Peter Crowther

TWELVE OF THE LITTLE BUGGERS Mat Coward

MISSING IN ACTION Peter Robinson

THE HAGGARD SOCIETY Edward D. Hoch

SCORPION'S KISS Stuart M. Kaminsky

NOBLE CAUSES Bob Mendes

THE SLEEPING DETECTIVE Gary Phillips

A NIGHT IN THE MANCHESTER STORE Stanley Cohen

WHAT MR. MCGREGOR SAW Dorothy Cannell

DELTA DOUBLE-DEAL Noreen Ayres

THREE NIL Mat Coward

THE MAN IN THE CIVIL SUIT Jan Burke

BLACK AND WHITE MEMORIES Robert J. Randisi

NOTHING TO LOSE Robert Barnard

WIDOWER'S WALK Joseph Hansen

CHARACTER FLAW Christine Matthews

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE— A VIEW FROM BELOW Jürgen Ehlers

BOO Richard Laymon

VETERANS John Lutz

THE ABBEY GHOSTS Jan Burke

THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND Doug Allyn

HAPPINESS Joyce Carol Oates

THE CONFESSION Ian Rankin

THE PERFECTIONIST Peter Lovesey

A WALL TOO HIGH Edward D. Hoch

THE SILENCE Kristine Kathryn Rusch

THE BIG BITE Bill Pronzini

THE GATHERING OF THE KLAN Les Roberts

WHEN THE BLACK SHADOWS DIE Clark Howard

REBIRTH (CAIN AND ABEL) Miguel Agustí

HELENA AND THE BABIES Denise Mina

OLD SOLDIERS Brendan DuBois

THE VICTIM Ed McBain

THE POET OF PULP Pete Hamill

Scanned, converted, re-formatted, proofed and eBook creation by Jerry.

Unlike volume one, Dark Crimes 2 is a contemporary version of noir. Even John D. MacDonald’s beautifully told tale from the forties, Miranda, has a decidedly contemporary feel.
Like most forms of popular fiction, noir has evolved and changed over the past decade and a half.
No longer does Bogie stand at his lonely window, staring out at a world he frequently despises. Nor does the conventional private eye take us through his conventional private eye routines; and the conventional femme fatale . . . well, she doesn’t invite us upstairs any more, either.
The new noir is as likely to be set in a trailer park as a gambling casino; in a small Texas town more often than New York; and feature not a slick mobster but a child molester as villain.
The "gem" of this collection is the stand-out, Triangle , the stunning 1982 short novel by Teri White. This Edgar winner traces the trajectory of a trio of lowlifes: a pair of Vietnam war vets who have become a highly successful underworld assassination squad, and an obsessed cop whose partner they have killed. White displays a brilliant sense of character, an accurate ear for colloquial speech and a sure control of tone in this early work.
Several of the featured detectives (and their authors) are familiar--such as Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone, here investigating an apparent suicide, and Loren Estleman's Amos Walker, faced with the murder of clients who wanted to renovate an old saloon. There is a cunning John Lutz tale about an ill-fated Mexican cliff-diver and a wry Lawrence Block inversion of It's a Wonderful Life , in which a man who survives a murder attempt realizes that he has to be nicer.

Contents
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Introduction - Ed Gorman
The Dripping - David Morrell
And Miles to Go Before I Sleep - Lawrence Block
Miranda - John D. Macdonald
Deceptions - Marcia Muller
The Long Silence After - Ed Gorman
The Dead Past - Nancy Pickard
All the Same - Bill Pronzini
The View - Brian Garfield
Hector Gomez Provides - John Lutz
The Steel Valentine - Joe R. Lansdale
The Triangle - Teri White
The Luckiest Man in the World - Rex Miller
The Party - William F. Nolan
Predators - Edward Bryant
In the Fast Lane - Thomas F. Monteleone
The Perfect Crime - Max Allan Collins
Paint the Town Green - Robert Colby
Jody and Annie on TV - John Shirley
Snow Angels - Loren D. Estleman
The Memorial Hour - Wade Miller
Pretty Boy - Billie Sue Mosiman
Secrets - Gary Lovisi

Converted, re-formatted, proofed, layout & design, all internal images, first edition cover restoration and eBook creation by Jerry.

Evoking the dark underside of life, this oddly diverse collection of two novellas and 19 short stories in the noir tradition ranges from examples of the highly praised Gold Medal softcovers published by Fawcett in the '50s to contemporary offbeat genre offerings. Gil Brewer's novella The Red Scarf skillfully conveys the despair of a man with a lifelong dream after he succumbs to the temptation provided by a mob fortune. In the second novella, Anatomy of a Killer , Peter Rabe demonstrates how a contract killer's emerging humanity leads to his destruction. The short stories are a mixed lot, with some perhaps more appropriate to a fantasy or horror collection. "While She Was Out" by Edward Bryant follows a dissatisfied housewife as she outwits four joyriding killers who tail her out of a shopping mall. Loren D. Estleman's "The Crooked Way" features a Detroit PI who foils a headline-happy Texas lawman. Lawrence Block's "Hot Eyes, Cold Eyes" tells of a woman who fears being watched by men (and what she does about it), while Thomas Monteleone's "Taking the Night Train" finds myth and prehistory in the New York subway system. Author profiles provide a historical perspective.


Contents

Introduction - Ed Gorman

While She Was Out - Edward Bryant
On the Sidewalk Bleeding - Evan Hunter
The Seventh Grave - Vann Anson Lister
Hot Eyes, Cold Eyes - Lawrence Block
Souls Burning - Bill Pronzini
A Handgun for Protection -John Lutz
The Croooked Way - Loren D. Estleman
Exit - Andrew Vachss
Deathman - Ed Gorman
Introduction to The Red Scarf - Bill Pronzini
The Red Scarf - Gil Brewer
But You’ll Never Follow Me Again - Karl Edward Wagner
The Tunnel of Love - Robert Bloch
Tony- William Relling
By the Hair of the Head - Joe R. Lansdale
Red Light - Max Allan Collins
Taking the Night Train - Thomas F. Monteleone
Stoner - William F. Nolan
Introduction to Anatomy of a Killer - Ed Gorman & Bill Crider
Anatomy of a Killer - Peter Rabe
Night-Walker - Robert J. Randisi
Dust to Dust - Marcia Muller
Faces - F. Paul Wilson