Tricks and Treats

The McGuffin has long been a staple tool in any crime and mystery writer’s arsenal. A perfectly placed last line of a short story can pull together subtle plot threads into a devastating dénouement or give everything that came before it a brand-new meaning, sometimes even reshaping the story entirely for the reader.

Joe Gores and Bill Pronzini, two of the most talented mystery writers of the 20th century, joined forces to assemble the very best McGuffin stories by such celebrated authors as Anthony Boucher, Harlan Ellison, Joe L. Hensley, Edward D. Hoch, John Lutz, John D. MacDonald, and Donald E. Westlake. They, along with 24 more authors, have created some of the very best mystery stories that often save their best twists for the very last line...