Silver Bullets

This entertaining reprint anthology, which celebrates 25 years of publishing short story collections at Crippen & Landru, showcases 14 exemplary stories, which include impossible crimes, surprising tales of revenge, and PI noir. Edward Hoch is represented by a typically ingenious puzzle mystery, “The Flying Fiend,” in which Sir Gideon Parrot is confronted with a series of baffling deaths on an island in Washington State; the three victims’ faces and heads were slashed repeatedly, as if by a bird, and no footprints were anywhere near the corpses. Kathy Lynn Emerson’s 16th-century-set “Mistress Threadneedle’s Quest” demonstrates a plausible way of using lightning to commit a murder. Peter Lovesey’s mordant, understated humor is evident in “Reader, I Buried Them,” in which members of a London monastery begin dying off after plans are announced to relocate the community. Jeremiah Healy’s “A Matter of Honor” is an excellent introduction to his Boston gumshoe, John Francis Cuddy, who attempts to help a woman from Iceland track down a fellow countryman who’s come into an inheritance. The impressive roster of talent is a testament to the publisher’s high standards. (Dec.)