The Year’s 25 Finest Crime & Mystery Stories

From the broken sidewalks of the Bronx in S. J. Rozan’s “Hoops” to the broken spirits in Nancy Pickard’s “A Rock and a Hard Place,” you’ll find the best in contemporary crime fiction. Here among the 25 first-rate stories featured, you’ll find private eye V. I. Warshawski triumphantly returning in Sara Paretsky’s “Publicity Stunts,” while Donald Westlake spins a bizarre noir yarn of Santa Clause in the drunk tank in “The Burglar and the Whatsit. ” Bill Pronzini conjures up a parent’s worst nightmare in “The Monster,” and Anne Perry plots a course of treachery and murder throughout Paris during the French Revolution in “The Escape.” * The Mystery in 1995 by Jon L. Breen * The Dark Snow by Brendan DuBois * The Escape by Anne Perry * Clothes by Ruth Rendell * The Cracks in the Sidewalk by Marcia Muller * Dead Drunk by Lia Matera * Running from Legs by Ed McBain * The Cassoulet by Walter Satterthwait * Toad Crossing by John Lutz & David August * Wild Horses by Sam Pizzo * The Last Word by Maude Miller * My Murder by David Corn * The Narrow House by Edward D. Hoch * Married to a Murderer by Alan Russell * The Perfect Murder Club by Reginald Hill * Kiss the Sky by James Grady * Intent to Kill by Monica Quill * The Girl Who Talked to Horses by Robert J. Randisi * Stalking Horse by Susan B. Kelly * A Good Thing by Simon Brett * Hoops by S.J. Rozan * Real Life by Sarah Shankman * A Rock and a Hard Place by Nancy Pickard * The Burglar and the Whatsit by Donald E. Westlake * Publicity Stunts by Sara Paretsky * The Monster by Bill Pronzini Edited Joan Hess, Ed Gorman, Martin H. Greenberg.