Mystery Writers of America

Unlikely pairs join forces to crack a slew of intriguing cases in an anthology edited by New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry, featuring original stories by Jacqueline Winspear, Jeffery Deaver, Allison Brennan, Charles Todd, and many more, including Perry herself. Throughout the annals of fiction, there have been many celebrated detective teams: Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Nick and Nora Charles. Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings. Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. That last pair is the creation of beloved mystery writer Anne Perry, who, as the editor of Odd Partners and in conjunction with Mystery Writers of America, has enlisted some of today's best mystery writers to craft all-new stories about unlikely duos who join forces--sometimes unwillingly--to solve beguiling whodunits. From Perry's own entry, in which an English sergeant and his German counterpart set out to find a missing soldier during World War I, to a psychological tale of an airplane passenger who wakes up unsure of who he is and must enlist his fellow passengers to help him remember, to a historical mystery about a misguided witch-hunt and the unlikely couple that brings it down, each story deals in the wonderful complexities of human interactions. And not just human interactions: Honey bees avenge the death of their beekeeper, a wandering cat brings home clues to a murder, and a gray wolf and a fly fisherman in the Minnesota woods try to protect their land from a brash billionaire. Featuring work by New York Times bestselling authors, Edgar Award winners, and up-and-coming members of the Mystery Writers of America, these tales of friends, enemies, and pairs who lie somewhere in the middle will satisfy every type of mystery reader. With each author's signature brand of suspense, these stories give new meaning to the word "teamwork." Featuring stories by: Ace Atkins - Allison Brennan - Shelley Costa - Jeffery Deaver - Robert Dugoni - William Frank - Georgia Jeffries - Lou Kemp - William Kent Krueger - Joe R. Lansdale - Lisa Morton - Claire Ortalda - Anne Perry - Adele Polomski - Stephen Ross - Mark Thielman - Charles Todd - Jacqueline Winspear - Amanda Witt

Selected by Jeffrey Deaver and Raymond Benson, this is a collection of mystery/thriller short stories from some of today's top writers. Nuclear brinksmanship, psychological warfare, spies, double agents, femmes fatales, and dead drops... The Cold War-a terrifying time when nuclear war between the world's two superpowers was an ever-present threat, an all-too-real possibility that could be set off at the touch of a button-provides a chilling backdrop to this collection of all-new short stories from today's most celebrated mystery writers. Bestselling authors Jeffery Deaver and Raymond Benson-the only American writers to be commissioned to pen official James Bond novels-have joined forces to bring us twenty masterful tales of paranoia, espionage, and psychological drama. In Joseph Finder's Police Report, the seemingly cut-and-dried case of a lunatic murderer in rural Massachusetts may have roots in Soviet-controlled Armenia. In Miss Bianca by Sara Paretsky, a young girl befriends a mouse in a biological warfare laboratory and finds herself unwittingly caught in an espionage drama. And Deaver's own Comrade 35 offers a unique spin on the assassination of John F. Kennedy-with a signature twist.