Murder, kidnapping, and theft are the principal crimes committed in these 12 American detective stories. The victim may be an innocent baby or a double-crossing mobster, the setting a department store or death cell at the state prison, but the detective's intellectual or intuitive powers must be unfailing, whether the important clue is a single bullet or a tiny splinter of wood. With stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Craig Rice, Ellery Queen, and Raymond Chandler.