What does it mean to be a father? What does it mean to be a son? What does it mean to be a man? Gathered together in this anthology are sixteen short stories and a novella from some of the masters of crime fiction who answer these questions in myriad ways. These are worlds that are instantly recognisable and believable yet as widely apart as a deprived London housing estate and the trenches of the First World War, the claustrophobia of a late-night back room poker game or a rundown jazz joint in Manhattan and the slow but irrevocable decay of the small New England town. Again and again - but never two ways the same - the people who inhabit these stories are having to determine what is right, what will give them dignity, what will earn them self-respect. Authors are: Mark Billingham, Lawrence Block, Michael Connelly, Jeffery Deaver, John Harvey, Reginald Hill. Bill James, Dennis Lehane, Bill Moody, George P Pelecanos, Peter Robinson, James Sallis, John Straley, Brian Thompson, Don Winslow, Daniel Woodrell, and a novella by Andrew Coburn.