TEMPERS FLARE IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT...

...And the wrong move, the wrong word, even the wrong look can set off any man or woman already driven past their boiling point. A Hot and Sultry Night for Crime, edited by bestselling author Jeffery Deaver, features 20 stories of people dealing with not just the torrid weather, but all different kinds of heat. From a retired police chief pitching in on a missing dog report that leads to him solving a murder to a mystery of Southern manners that proves the heat brings out the worst in everybody to a Los Angeles gumshoe who goes to a movie to cool off, but finds a still-warm body inside the theater, these mystery stories all prove that when the temperature rises, anyone can go crazy from the heat, and the most cold-blooded crimes can be committed during the hottest, darkest nights...

This volume contains the following award-winning or nominated stories: "Lady on Ice" by Loren D. Estleman, winner of the 2003 Shamus Award for Best Short Story; "Green Heat" by Angela Zeman, selected for The Best American Mystery Short Stories 2004, edited by Nelson DeMille and Otto Penzler; and "War Crimes" by G. Miki Hayden and "Child Support" by Ronnie Klaskin were both nominated for the Best Short Story Macavity Award.