Selected by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg and Joseph D. Olander, this is a hefty anthology of short mystery fiction built around the small, sharp pleasures of the form: reversals, traps, grudges, poisonings, professional embarrassments, bad neighbours, tidy murders and untidy motives.

The table of contents is the pleasure here as much as the individual stories: Asimov, Bill Pronzini, Barry N. Malzberg, Henry Slesar, Jack Ritchie, Edward D. Hoch, Helen McCloy and a whole run of mid-century crime-magazine operators who knew how to make a murder move quickly. These are not sprawling psychological doorstops. They are little mechanisms. Some probably purr; some probably snap shut on your finger.

Good bedside, bath, train, waiting-room, “I cannot commit to a novel because reality has already been rude today” reading.

1992 Barnes & Noble hardcover. Light shelf wear and page toning; decorative personal bookplate/inscription on front endpaper. Clean, solid copy.