Greatest Hits: Original Stories of Assassins, Hit Men, and Hired Guns

Robert J. Randisi has written more than four hundred Westerns, including the long-running Gunsmith series. He is also the editor of thirty anthologies and a Writer’s Digest book, Writing the Private Eye Novel. He founded the Private Eye Writers of America in 1982 and created the Shamus Award; he also cofounded Mystery Scene magazine and the American Crime Writer’s League. He lives in Clarksville, Missouri.

Lawrence Block is the recipient of a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and a New York Times bestselling author. His prolific career spans over one hundred books, including four bestselling series and dozens of short stories and articles. He has won multiple Edgar, and Shamus awards, two Falcon Awards from the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan, the Nero and Philip Marlowe Awards, the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of America, and many others. Aside from being a mystery writer, he has also written a number of episodes for television, including two episodes of the ESPN series Tilt; he also cowrote the screenplay for the film My Blueberry Nights, starring Norah Jones. Block currently lives in New York City with his wife, Lynne.

Jeffery Deaver is the #1 international bestselling author of more than forty novels, three collections of short stories, and a nonfiction law book. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into 25 languages. His first novel featuring Lincoln Rhyme, The Bone Collector, was made into a major motion picture starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. He's received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world, including Novel of the Year by the International Thriller Writers and the Steel Dagger from the Crime Writers' Association in the United Kingdom. In 2014, he was the recipient of three lifetime achievement awards. A former journalist, folksinger, and attorney, he was born outside of Chicago and has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University.

Max Allan Collins has earned fifteen Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” nominations, winning for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective and Stolen Away, and receiving the PWA life achievement award, the Eye. His graphic novel, Road to Perdition, which is the basis of the Academy Award–winning film starring Tom Hanks, was followed by two novels, Road to Purgatory and Road to Paradise. His suspense series include Quarry, Nolan, Mallory, and Eliot Ness, and his numerous comics credits include the syndicated Dick Tracy and his own Ms. Tree. He has written and directed four feature films and two documentaries. His other produced screenplays include “The Expert,” an HBO World Premiere. His coffee-table book The History of Mystery received nominations for every major mystery award and Men’s Adventure Magazines won the Anthony Award. Collins lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, writer Barbara Collins. They have collaborated on seven novels and numerous short stories, and are currently writing the “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mysteries.

Barbara Seranella (1956–2007) grew up in Pacific Palisades, California. After a restless childhood that included running away from home at the age of fourteen, joining a hippie commune in the Haight, and riding with outlaw motorcycle clubs, she decided to settle down and do something normal—she became an auto mechanic, and that was the occupation she chose for her heroine when she switched from fixing cars to writing about them. She later became a member of the Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Diego chapters of Sisters in Crime and the Mystery Writers of America.

Lee Child is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Jack Reacher series and the complete Jack Reacher story collection, No Middle Name. Foreign rights in the Reacher series have sold in one hundred territories. Two blockbusting Jack Reacher movies have been made so far, based on his novels. He is the recipient of many awards, including the CWA’s Diamond Dagger for a writer of an outstanding body of crime fiction, the International Thriller Writers’ ThrillerMaster, and the Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award. He is a native of England and a former television director.

Jeff Abbott is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous mystery and suspense novels, including the Sam Capra series. He is a winner of the Thriller Award and a three-time finalist for the Edgar Award, and his novels have been summer reading picks for The Today Show and Good Morning America. He lives in Texas with his family.

John Harvey, best known as a writer of crime fiction, his work translated into more than twenty languages, is also a dramatist, poet, publisher, and occasional broadcaster. The first of his Charlie Resnick novels, Lonely Hearts, was named by the Times as one of the “100 Best Crime Novels of the Century.” The recipient of honorary doctorates from the Universities of Nottingham and Hertfordshire, Harvey was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement in 2007.

James W. Hall is an American author and professor of literature and writing at Florida International University. He is the author of four books of poetry, a collection of short stories, and over a dozen novels. His Hit Lit examines twelve of the most commercially successful novels of the last century, and discusses a dozen common features they share.

Kevin Wignall, a British writer born in Brussels, is the author of several books, including Who Is Conrad Hirst, which was shortlisted for the Edward Award and the Barry Award, and The Hunter’s Prayer, which was originally titled For the Dogs in the USA and which was made into a film directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Sam Worthington and Odeya Rush.

Marcus Pelegrimas is an American author of fiction in numerous genres, including westerns, mystery, horror, and fantasy. He is the author of the Skinners series, the Gillis Ledgers series. Writing as Marcus Galloway, he is the author of the Man from Boot Hill series and the Accomplice series, along with many standalone novels. He graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in criminal justice.

Jenny Siler grew up in Missoula, Montana. For much of her life, she has traveled and worked her way around the world, starting as a prep cook in the scullery of a men’s soup kitchen, through working in a fish cannery in Alaska pulling salmon roe, to being a nude sketch model at an art museum in Frankfurt. Her work, she says, has defined her and her writing.

Ed Gorman is an award-winning American author best known for his crime, mystery, Western, and horror fiction. He has won a Spur Award for best short Western fiction and the Anthony Award for best critical work and in 2011 received the Eye, the lifetime achievement award from the Private Eye Writers of America. His award nominations include the Edgar Award, Bram Stoker Award, and numerous Anthony Awards. He has written over one hundred novels and short stories under various pen names and his stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, including The Shamus Winners.

Christine Matthews ’ short stories have been chosen for inclusion in many anthologies of year’s best stories. She is the coauthor with Robert J. Randisi of three cozy mysteries Murder Is the Deal of the Day, The Masks of Auntie Laveau, and Same Time, Same Murder.

Richard Gilliland is a veteran television and film actor.

John Rubinstein is an actor, composer, and director who won a Tony Award for his starring role in Broadway’s Children of a Lesser God. He has narrated dozens of audiobooks, earning several AudioFile Earphones Awards and being named a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2013.

Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than five thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than nine hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.

Gabrielle de Cuir, award-winning narrator, has narrated over three hundred titles and specializes in fantasy, humor, and titles requiring extensive foreign language and accent skills. She was a cowinner of the Audie Award for best narration in 2011 and a three-time finalist for the Audie and has garnered six AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her “velvet touch” as an actor’s director has earned her a special place in the audiobook world as the foremost producer for bestselling authors and celebrities.

Maxwell Caulfield is a film, stage, and television actor best known for his roles as Michael Carrington in the 1982 film Grease 2 and Miles Colby in the television shows The Colbys and Dynasty. His other acting credits include the films Gettysburg, The Real Blonde, and Emmerdale. He has won six AudioFile Earphones Awards.

Stephen Hoye has worked as a professional actor in London and Los Angeles for more than thirty years. Trained at Boston University and the Guildhall in London, he has acted in television series and six feature films and has appeared in London’s West End. His audiobook narration has won him fifteen AudioFile Earphones Awards.

Rex Linn, a winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2014, is an American film and television actor best known for his role as Frank Tripp in the television series CSI: Miami. Besides numerous other television roles, he has had roles in Django Unchained, Trial by Fire, and other major films. He was born and raised in the Texas panhandle and earned a BA in radio, television, and film from Oklahoma State University.

Charles Kahlenberg 's experience in the entertainment business spans over three decades. His film credits began with Coal Miner’s Daughter and, more recently, Wedding Crashers and Fun With Dick and Jane. His television credits include Justice, Cold Case, ER, and Seinfeld. His voice-over work has been heard in many major motion pictures and television shows and more than 100 national commercials.