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Synopsis The Mammoth Book of Short Crime Novels brings together for the fist time in book form twelve top-quality mystery and detective novellas by some of the best writers in the field, both past and present.From the Horrors of the past to the slaughter and savagery of the present this book contains accounts of murders for desire of gain or disposal of a spouse to the terrifying serial killing. These stores span more than fifty years of crime fiction writing in the United States and in England, and they feature a wide variety of heroes and heroines, villains, settings, story types, and stylistic approaches. Taken all together, they demonstrate how the mystery story has evolved in form, structure, and content over half a century and how authors have kept it fresh through thematic variation and ingenuity.  The stories also reflect the times in which they were written so that they can be enjoyed from a historical perspective (both individually and in toto) as well as pure entertainment.