If ever a subject begged to be associated with crime it is gambling, writes Otto Penzler in his introduction to this collection of short stories set at the poker table and beyond. In Walter Mosley's Mister In-Between, a bagman is sent to collect from a rigged poker game, but soon begins to wonder who the real mark is. In One Dollar Jackpot, Michael Connelly's detective Harry Bosch finds himself looking for tells when facing off against a professional poker player in the interrogation room. And a young woman learns how to bluff the hard way in Hardly Knew Her, by Laura Lippman. In these and others stories, aces of the mystery-writing world—including Joyce Carol Oates, Alexander McCall Smith,...

You’ve seen the headlines. On the court they brawl with opponents, fight with fans, and attack their own coach. Off the court they get drunk, grope women, and, sometimes, get tried for murder. Now these all-star bad boys from the ranks of today’s pro basketball provide easy layup material for the fictional imaginations of our finest contemporary mystery writers. Refereed by prizewinning editor Otto Penzler, this anthology collects fourteen dazzling, original tales of buzzer-beating suspense and postgame mayhem. In “Keller’s Double Dribble,” Lawrence Block tails a clueless hitman with courtside tickets to unplanned bloodshed… Jeffery Deaver’s power guard summons his formidable game instincts...