A collection of the year’s best mystery short fiction selected by New York Times best-selling and Edgar Award–winning author C. J. Box.

This volume brings together seasoned masters and fresh voices, following a thief fleeing across Brooklyn with stolen cash, an aging hitman sent to train his reckless replacement, and a guitarist carrying her instrument through Hollywood.

Individual stories span the darker corners of crime, placing an investigator in a small-town butcher shop, an armed showdown on a Mississippi sandbar, and a Wyoming sheriff on the trail of two cunning bank robbers.

C. J. Box , #1 New York Times best-selling author of the hugely popular Joe Pickett series, selects the best short mystery and crime fiction of the year in this annual “treat for crime-fiction fans” (Library Journal).

• Crime Short Stories: Secret Service Special Agent Art Tomson partners with an alert convention hall guard when an elusive sniper targets a presidential candidate on the campaign trail.
• Noir Short Stories: An observant wife studies five reels of vintage 8mm home movies to uncover the chilling truth behind her glamorous neighbor’s sudden disappearance.
• Mysteries and Thrillers: In a near-future Detroit courtroom, a defense attorney and a psychologist confront simulated-consciousness juror avatars during a high-stakes murder trial.
• Short Story Anthology: A world-weary mercenary accompanied by a wild black jaguar infiltrates an island compound off the southern Mexican coast to extract a captive investigative reporter.