The Year's Twenty-Five Finest Crime and Mystery Stories

Using a liberal definition of the genre and embracing a wide range of narrative styles, the editors have assembled an impressive array of talent in this first annual collection of the year's best short crime fiction. Joe R. Lansdale skirts the edges of the horror story with his ``Incident On and Off a Mountain Road,'' in which a troubled woman stumbles into a killer's lair and uncovers a neat solution to her own problem. Joan Hess pursues unexpected psychological angles as she follows an apartment dweller through the strange new addition to her tiny domicile in ``Another Room.'' British writer Peter Lovesey pens ``The Valuation,'' a droll tale about a pushy real estate agent who sells a timid woman's home out from under her, or so he imagines. Varying from Bill Pronzini's retro style to the darkly urban view of Andrew Vachss and the downright coziness of Charlotte MacLeod, the quality of storytelling here remains a pleasing constant. (Dec.)