Twenty great whodunnits from the first decade of this series, edited by the award-winning editor and founder of the Mysterious Press.

This anthology collects the top twenty stories from the first decade (1997–2006) of The Best American Mystery Stories, selected and introduced by Otto Penzler. Contributors include Russell Banks, Jeffrey Deaver, Louise Erdrich, Brendan DuBois, Dennis Lehane, Elmore Leonard, Lou Manfredo,...

81 short stories of criminal adventures by as many authors.

"When Ellery Queen, described by the London Times as "the logical successor to Sherlock Holmes," is invited by his friend, a doctor, to witness an operation, he accepts the offer in hopes of furthering his capabilities as an amateur detective, but soon ends up testing those same skills. The patient who is about to undergo the delicate procedure is Abigail Doorn, the richest and most famous woman in America; the doctor who will perform it is her protégé,...

At the age of twenty-four, Griselda Satterlee has already lived two lifetimes. A star of the silver screen, she gives up Hollywood after a year and moves to New York to become a designer. While her ex-husband, Con, is out of town, she is staying in his apartment. Walking back one night, she meets two cheerful young men who want to go home with her--and won't take no for an answer. David and Danny are twins, and they are the most beautiful men Griselda...

"Helen Kendal's woes begin when she receives a phone call from her vanished uncle Franklin, long presumed dead, who urges her to make contact with criminal defense attorney Perry Mason; soon after, she finds herself the main suspect in the murder of an unfamiliar man. Her kitten has just survived a poisoning attempt, as has her aunt Matilda, the woman who always maintained that Franklin was alive in spite of his disappearance. Lucky that Helen took...

"An all-around skeptic when it comes to the supernatural, literature professor William Porter gives no credence to claims that Twin Towers, the seaside manor he's just inherited, might be haunted. He finds nothing mysterious about the conditions in which his Uncle Horace died, leaving the property behind; it was a simple case of cardiac arrest, nothing more. So, though his wife, more attuned to spiritual disturbance, refuses to occupy the main house,...

"The note discovered beside Rosaleen Wright's hanged body is full of reasons justifying her suicide--but it lacks her trademark vitality and wit, and, most importantly, her signature. So the note alone is far from enough to convince her best friend Jane that Rosaleen was her own murderer, even if the police quickly accept the possibility as fact. Instead, Jane suspects Rosaleen's boss, New York theater impresario Luther Grandison. To the world at...

The bait is half of a $10,000 bill, delivered to Perry Mason by a man who promises the second half of the note should his companion, a silent masked woman, ever require the lawyer's services. When a dead body is discovered soon after, Mason feels the hook--but how can one prove the innocence of a person whose identity is unknown? Suspecting that he¿́¿s been set-up, but curious nonetheless, Perry sets out to solve the mystery from the ground up,...

Meet Captain Duncan Maclain. Blinded in the first World War, Maclain made up for his lack of vision by sharpening his other senses and mastering the subtleties often missed by those who see only with their eyes. Aided by his dogs Schnucke and Driest, he made a name for himself as New York City’s most sought-after private detective. Now it’s 1940, there’s a second World War breaking out, and Maclain is pulled into a case unlike any he’s investigated...