“Membership has its privileges,” or so that ad campaign from the ’80s claimed. And in many cases, they were right. One such instance turned into the anthology you’re reading right now.
Back in the early 1980s, Mystery Writers of America came up with the idea to assemble an anthology of stories from the past presidents of the organization. While normally the editor of an anthology (in this case, recent MWA president and bestselling writer Brian Garfield) selects the stories from the submissions received, this volume was assembled a bit differently. Each invitee was requested to select one of their own published short stories that was a personal favorite, and write a brief essay about why that story held a special place in their heart. The resulting book collects an abundance of fantastic mystery short stories that span the previous fifty years of mystery writing.
The authors brought together for this anthology, including Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Edward D, Hoch, Lillian de la Torre, John D. MacDonald, Helen McCloy, Robert Bloch, Georges Simenon, Hilary Waugh, and Stanley Ellin, among others, represented the very best in the mystery field. Their selected stories are notable not only the breadth of style and approach, but for the wide range of sub-genres that already existed throughout the decades, from amateur sleuth to historical mystery to police procedural to crime of opportunity to locked room mystery to paranormal crime. One of the most intriguing stories in this anthology falls into the category of a social commentary mystery story, complete with an stunning last line that changes the reader’s view of everything that came before it.
The authors’ essays, while brief, also serve as fascinating glimpses into the minds of each writer, often pulling back the curtain on their thought processes to reveal exactly how the general concept of a story came to them, or why they chose to write about a particular theme. Each one is as enlightening as their selected story is engrossing.
We at MWA hope you enjoy this very special volume of mystery stories chosen by the people who knew them best—the authors that wrote them.
—John Helfers