Murder Short & Sweet

Overview

Vintage tales of foul play

With murder as the unifying theme, this collection of classic stories brings together the best of the genre and features such celebrated authors as Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell, A. Conan Doyle, O. Henry, Donald E. Westlake, Ellery Queen, Roald Dahl, John Updike, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lawrence Block. With stories compiled from the last century and selections that are more literary than hard boiled, this compendium features a bevy of colorful characters, including a jealous wife who kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb before cooking and serving the evidence to investigators and a novelist who offs his critics, one by one, in increasingly imaginative ways. These masterful stories—with motives that vary from hate and revenge to greed and the thrill of the act—are sure to excite any murder mystery maven.

Reviews

"Rich collection of crime stories . . . not a single clunker in the bunch." —Booklist

"This wonderful anthology should provide many hours of enjoyment for mystery readers of every genre." —Mystery Scene

"A dastardly curation of stories . . . perfect." —popmatters.com

"Always a twist, often humorous . . . a marvelous collection." —Erie Times-News, Bulletin, Express-Times, Dominion Post, and Sunday Sentinel

"Indefatigable." —Shepherd Express and expressmilwaukee.com

"A marvelous collection of mystery standards that deserves a place on the shelf of every fan of the old-fashioned 'gotcha' story." —Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"In terms of sheer quality, it would be hard to find an anthology to top [Murder Short and Sweet] . . . comparably excellent." —Ellery Queen

"A marvelous collection . . . deserves a place on the shelf of every fan of the old-fashioned 'gotcha' story." —The Sunday Journal Sentinel

Author Biography

Paul D. Staudohar is the editor of numerous anthologies, including Baseball's Best Short Stories, Boxing's Best Short Stories, Fishing's Best Short Stories, Golf's Best Short Stories, Hunting's Best Short Stories, and Sports Best Short Stories. He lives in Lafayette, California.