Foreword
Introduction
Gary Alexander
Charlie and the Pirates
from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
R. A. Allen
The Emerald Coast
from The Literary Review
Doug Allyn
An Early Christmas
from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
Mary Stewart Atwell
Maynard
from Alaska Quarterly Review
Matt Bell
Dredge
from Hayden’s Ferry Review
Jay Brandon
A Jury of His Peers
from Murder Past, Murder Present
Phyllis Cohen
Designer Justice
from The Prosecution Rests
John Dufresne
The Cross-Eyed Bear
from Boston Noir
Lyndsay Faye
The Case of Colonel Warburton’s Madness
from Sherlock Holmes in America
Gar Anthony Haywood
The First Rule Is
FROM Black Noir
Jon Land
Killing Time
from Thriller 2
Dennis Lehane
Animal Rescue
from Boston Noir
Lynda Leidiger
Tell Me
from Gettysburg Review
Phillip Margolin
The House on Pine Terrace
from Thriller 2
Chris Muessig
Bias
from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
Albert Tucher
Bismarck Rules
from Oregon Literary Review
Kurt Vonnegut
Ed Luby’s Key Club
from Look at the Birdie
Part One
Part Two
Joseph Wallace
Custom Sets
from The Prosecution Rests
Mike Wiecek
The Shipbreaker
from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
Ryan Zimmerman
Blood and Dirt
From Thuglit
Contributors’ notes