Ten Year Stretch

In honor of a decade of CrimeFest, Edwards and Muller have assembled top-notch talent in this entertaining anthology of 20 original short stories. Highlights include two impossible crime tales: Simon Brett’s “The Last Locked Room,” about a retired policeman’s attempts to solve the cold case of the locked-room death of his grandfather, a mystery novelist specializing in concocting such crimes; and Ann Cleeves’s “Moses and the Locked Tent Mystery,” set during a safari in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. Mick Herron’s “How Many Cats Have You Killed?” pokes fun at the double standards of mystery readers, who easily tolerate the fictional slaughter of people, but not of cats. Maj Sjöwall fans will revel in “Long Time, No See,” about the chilling aftermath of an uncomfortable reunion of schoolmates almost 40 years after their last encounter. High-quality entries from the likes of Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, and Ian Rankin, as well as from lesser-known authors such as Bill Beverly, elevate this above similar volumes. [em](Apr.) [/em]