Crime in all its devious incarnations is presented in this treat of murderous morsels dished out by old pros and promising newcomers. Artfully crafted and impossible to put down, each story bountifully demonstrates why these authors are la crème de la crime.

Contents:

• # Clewsey’s Cliché’s Frontispiece: ‘Have a care, Constable, it may be a clue’ by Clewsey
• A Needle for the Devil by Ruth Rendell
• The Hampstead Vegetable Heist by Mat Coward
• Mr Idd by H.R.F. Keating
• The Birdman of Bow Street by Joan Lock
• Someone Got to Eddie by Ian Rankin
• Too Many Crooks [John Dortmunder] by Donald E. Westlake
• The Writing on the Wall by Val McDermid
• Social Work by William G. Tapply
• Clewsey’s Clichés: ‘It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important’ by Clewsey
• Six in the Morning by Maxim Jakubowski
• The Hand That Feeds Me [Rover (a dog)] by Michael Z. Lewin
• The Butcher of St Pierre by Susan Kelly
• The Great Tetsuji by Sara Paretsky
• Cryptic Crime Acrostic by Sarah Caudwell & Michael Z. Lewin
• The Train by Stephen Murray
• Fancy by Bill James
• The Crumple Zone by John Malcolm
• Good Investments by Celia Dale
• Clewsey’s Clichés: ‘Come, come, Major—did nothing peculiar strike you about the time?’ by Clewsey
• Chased Delights; Or, The Missing Minutes [Catherine & William Blake] by Keith Heller
• The Christmas Present by Bob Lock
• Something Happened at the Time by Madelaine Duke
• Night Flight by James Melville
• Give Us a Clue by Joan Lock
• Second Best Man by David Williams
• Clewsey’s Clichés: ‘How did you know the victim was a pawnbroker?’ by Clewsey
• Trumpets for Max Jericho by Robert Brack; trans. by William Adamson
• Cold and Deep by Frances Fyfield
• Solution to the Cryptic Crime Acrostic
• The Crime Writers’ Association by John Malcolm
• Biographical Notes