• ISBN13: 9780752860206
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: General Books
• Publisher: David & Charles
• Publisher Imprint: David & Ch
• Publication Date: October 16, 2006
• Pages: 128
• Original Price: GBP 12.99
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 500 grams

THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction in the genre, and this is the third volume to be published in the UK. 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 the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognised 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. THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 3 will thrill fans from all reaches of the genre. This year, bestselling and acclaimed author James Ellroy lends his talent to the series, offering pieces from the likes of Robert B. Parker, Joyce Carol Oates and Michael Connelly.

Otto Penzler is the owner of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City and the founder of the Mysterious Press and Otto Penzler Books. He received an Edgar Award for The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection and was honoured by the Mystery Writers of America 1994 with the Ellery Queen Award for his contributions in the publishing field. Donald Westlake, a Mystery Writers of America grand master, has written dozens of novels during his prolific thirty-year career, including his latest thriller, The Hook. His many honours include several Edgar Awards and an Academy Award nomination. The novels in Ellroy's LA quartet - THE BLACK DAHLIA; THE BIG NOWHERE; LA CONFIDENTIAL and WHITE JAZZ - were international bestsellers. His novel AMERICAN TABLOID was Time's Best Book of 1995. Otto Penzler is the owner of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City and the founder of the Mysterious Press and Otto Penzler Books. He has been the series editor of THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES since its inception in 1997.