The Best of Mystery (1980) Anthology

These 63 spine-tingling stories originally appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery magazine, and in the words of the master himself, they'll "make your blood run cold." Hitchcock coolly serves up cool cops, clever gangsters, bodies stuffed in trunks, kidnappings, adulterous affairs, murder, and espionage, and the resulting thrills are positively delicious. The writers include Ed McBain, whose "Sadie When She Died" features a strange cat-and-mouse game between a sharp detective and the husband of a murdered woman whom the police suspect of having committed the crime. Other tales come from Donald E. Westlake, Bill Pronzini, Patricia Highsmith, Henry Slezar, and Richard M. Ellis.