A superb collection of the year's most outstanding short crime fiction published in the UK. Jakubowski has succeeded, as ever, in showcasing the impressive breadth of crime writing, from cosy tales of detection to noir mayhem and psychological suspense and terror. There are puzzles to solve, nagging questions about the nature of the society in which we live, but, above all, there is an abundance of first-class entertainment. Last year saw a sixth Crime Writers Association Dagger award for the series – shared between Margaret Murphy and Cath Staincliffe – and an Edgar award for Peter Turnbull. All three award-winning stories are included in this volume. Lee Child makes his debut and there is...

A note on the kitchen table was the last that her boyfriend, Jason, heard of Amy Sinclair. At first, he had let her have her space but as the weeks turned to months the worries had set in… and eventually he went after her. What he found appalled him.