In the hands of some of the most respected mystery writers of the decade, stories such as the confinement of Rapunzel, the peril of Little Red Riding Hood, and many others are given a compelling, suspenseful twist. But unlike the well-known traditional tales, the endings found here aren't always the familiar ones you remember - or expect. In Sharyn McCrumb's "Gerda's Sense of Snow," an ingenious retelling of a classic, Gerda must rescue her best friend Kay from the Snow Queen, a crack dealer whose white powder erases pain - and makes the user her slave. A troubled teen assumes seven separate personalities after her wicked stepmother, determined to be the fairest of them all, drives her to an isolated cabin - and to dangerous deeds - in "Heptagon" by Joan Hess. In a charmingly contemporary adaptation of "The Six Swans," a country singer tries to outwit his agent by hiding a promising new act in a secluded cabin. But the agent has devious plans of her own... in "Swan Song" by John Lutz. And an uproarious new version of "The Emperor's New Clothes," by Simon Brett, has a top gangster finding salvation in televangelism - until a young gang member reveals the leader's true nature...

Contents:

• After Happily Ever by Gillian Roberts
• Clever Hans by Jon L. Breen
• Heptagon by Joan Hess
• It Happened at Grandmother’s House by Bill Crider
• Now Fetch Me an Axe by Simon Clark
• Old Sultan by Mat Coward
• Harvest Home by Elizabeth Engstrom
• Prince Charming by William L. DeAndrea
• Rapunzel by Jane Haddam
• Resurrection Joe by Gary A. Braunbeck
• Rapunzel’s Revenge by Brendan DuBois
• Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs by Edward D. Hoch
• Swan Song by John Lutz
• The Better to Eat You With by John Helfers
• Of the Fog by Ed Gorman
• The Brave Little Costume Designer by Les Roberts
• The Emperor’s New Clothes by Simon Brett
• The Musician of Breman, GA by Peter Crowther
• Anniversary Ball by Audrey Peterson
• Invisible Time by Janet Dawson
• Love and Justice by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" Revisited by Anne Wingate
• Thousandfurs by Doug Allyn
• Gerda's Sense of Snow by Sharyn McCrumb

Edited by: Martin H. Greenberg and Ed Gorman.