This year's guest editor, Sue Grafton, has put together a wonderfully diverse collection of stories to surprise and satisfy all fans of the genre. In this volume, best-selling writers such as Mary Higgins Clark, Walter Mosley, Lawrence Block, Jay McInerney, and Donald E. Westlake stand alongside an impressive array of new talent. As Grafton writes in her introduction, "Nowhere is iniquity, wrongdoing, and reparation more satisfying to behold than in the well-crafted yarns spun by the writers represented here." Already a bestseller in its first year, this year's collection of The Best American Mystery Stories promises to keep readers intrigued and coming back for more.

Contents:

• Child Support by David Ballard
• Swear Not by the Moon by Scott Bartels
• Keller on the Spot by Lawrence Block
• The Man Next Door by Mary Higgins Clark
• This Is a Voice from Your Past by Merrill Joan Gerber
• The Old Spies Club by Edward D. Hoch
• Beyond Dog by Pat Jordan
• Find Miriam by Stuart M. Kaminsky
• Secrets by Janice Law
• The Adventure of the Giant Rat of Sumatra by John H. Watson, M.D. by John T. Lescroart
• Night Crawlers by John Lutz
• Prayer for Judgment by Margaret Maron
• Con Doctor by Jay McInerney
• Black Dog by Walter Mosley
• Faithless by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Two Ladies of Rose Cottage by Peter Robinson
• Twelve Days Out of Traction by Dave Shaw
• The Power of Suggestion by Helen Tucker
• Take It Away by Donald E. Westlake
• The Rest of Her Life by Steve Yarbrough