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The dirtiest killer of the year was the man private investigator Ed Rivers had to save from the chair.Wally Tulman, Florida socialite, had been convicted of molesting and murdering a young girl.Tulman's lovely wife begged Rivers to take his case - to prove him innocent.Rivers wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.Then somebody tapped him...

Wilderness Patrol fficer Pamela Tate, scouting in the mountains of Washington, sees and touches a ground squirrel in the dusty path, blood trickling from its mouth. Forty-eight hours later she lies dead at her campsite, covered in mysterious welts and bruises.Across the lake, a boisterous camping party falls silent as they watch each other sicken...

The crew of the starship Ganymede were afraid their chief was losing his mind.Commander Walter Fox had explored and opened up more colony-worlds than any other man alive - yet it was rumored that he still believed there were other intelligent beings in the galaxy.Now as the ship grounded on unfamiliar terrain, the crew realized that the routine...

"e;We have watched your plants for millennia."e;The creature that spoke was barely three feet tall, with wrinkled gray skin and monstrous eyes . . ."e;Yours is a war of children. Only children would slaughter each other out of ignorance and fear. Only children would fail again and again to learn the lessons of their...

Under Eddie Burton's management, the ambitious starlet Lorna Maxwell seemed headed for the top of Broadway's glamorous world of make-believe. And then she vanished - through a wall where there was no door. Eddie found himself plunging after her into a city beyond reality. In that weird twin city to New York, Eddie became a hunted fugitive...

Crime fiction's biggest names have been rounded up for a truly impressive collection of 2008's best short stories. Featuring authors like Michael Connelly, Charlaine Harris, and 2009 Edgar Award winner T. Jefferson Parker, this volume should be on the shelf of every mystery fan....