Murder on the Aisle 1987 Mystery Writers of America Anthology

"Mystery fans around the world eagerly await the annual Mystery Writers of America Anthology, and this year it has been well worth the wait. The 1987 collection, Murder on the Aisle, invites readers to join the audience for virtuoso performances by some of mystery writing's brightest stars. As Mary Higgins Clark says in her introduction: "We place you not only in an aisle seat but also in a seat in the bleachers, a box seat at the races, a seat in a movie house." The "we" who want ot entertain you include Henry Slesar and the late Stanley Ellin, who have contributed chilling tales of magic and mystery; Lawrence Treat with a symphonic sleuther; and Isak Romun with a concert of terror. The dark side of the silver screen is explored too by William F. Nolan in "Saturday's Shadow," a terrifying tale of compulsion and delusion which reminds us that the term "fan" derives from "fanatic." And John F. Suter takes us back to the Saturday afternoon hometown movie theater, lulls us into a happy nostalgia, and then scares us out of our seats. Then we can slip into the grandstand at the racetrack for "Captain Leopold goes to the Dogs," and in the football statdium for Gerald Tomlinson's "Snookered." We are introduced to the would-bes and the has-beens, the critics as well as the performers; stories as up-to-the-minute as Joan Richter's about a television news reporter doing a piece on strip mining and as period as the gas-illuminated terrors of Victorian London in "The Double Death of Nell Quigley." A glance at the contents is enough for us to know that with these fifteen gems we are in the skilled -- and dangerous -- hands of the masters of the genre. These writers together boast a total of thirteen Edgar Awards, and their talents shine as they present us with our tickets of admission to Murder on the Aisle. It's all here: the headaches, the heartaches, the backaches, the frowns...the heroes, the villains, and above all, the killers. Murder at its glittering and entrertaining best" --