American crime stories

Criminals in the United States of America are much the same as criminals in any other place. They lie, cheat, steal, carry guns, break into houses — and murder people. Sometimes they get caught, sometimes they don't. And some of them have bad dreams for the rest of their lives. These seven stories by well-known American writers show us the many faces of crime. There are murders of passion, and of revenge; murders that look like suicides or accidents. There is robbery and mugging, fear and hate, love and laziness. There are the innocent and the guilty — but which are which? And there are the detectives: the amateur Louise, who won't accept that her cousin's death was suicide, and who goes looking for a lipstick; and the coolly professional private eye, who knows whose hand is behind the machine guns and hand grenades on a stormy night in Couffignal. We begin with Death Wish, with a man leaning over the Morrissey Bridge late at night — a man with dark thoughts of suicide in his mind…