Annual.

Twenty stories

The Jukebox King / Doug Allyn -- Aardvark to Aztec / Christopher Chambers -- The Pickpocket / Christopher Cook -- After You've Gone / John Peyton Cooke -- Hostages / James Crumley -- Death on Denial / O'Neil de Noux -- The Jeweler / Pete Dexter -- Thug: Signification and the (De) Construction of Self / Tyler Dilts -- War Can Be Murder / Mike Doogan -- Richard's Children / Brendan Dubois -- When the Women Come Out to Dance / Elmore Leonard -- The Confession / Robert Mckee -- Lavender / Walter Mosley -- The Skull / Joyce Carol Oates -- The Dead Their Eyes Implore Us / George P. Pelecanos -- Sockdolager / Scott Phillips -- The Adventure of the Agitated Actress / Daniel Stashower -- Home Sweet Home / Hannah Tinti -- Controlled Burn / Scott Wolven -- That One Autumn / Monica Wood.

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind.

This seventh installment of the premier mystery anthology boasts pulse-quickening stories from all reaches of the genre. Michael Connelly's choices include a Prohibition-era tale of a scorned lover's revenge, a Sherlock Holmes-inspired mystery solved by an actor playing the famous detective onstage, and a tale of murder by psychology. This year's edition features mystery favorites as well as talented up-and-comers, for a diverse collection sure to thrill all readers.