title: Opening Shots: Great Mystery and Crime Writers Share Their First Published Stories
author:  Lawrence Block 
description: Readers enthralled by the works of great mystery and crime writers will find something new in "Opening Shots." This collection offers not only the first published short stories of twenty prominent writers, but also features each author's recollection of the trials and thrills of making that unforgettable first sale.
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  ![cover](images/7th.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  THE YEAR’S 25 FINEST
  
  
  
  
  
  CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES
  
  
  
  
  
  SEVENTH ANNUAL EDITION
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  From traditional mystery stories with devious
  
  
  doings and a plot full of clues to terse thrillers with edge-of-the-chair
  climaxes to the nail-biting
  
  
  tale of psychological suspense, no field of popular
  
  
  fiction can match contemporary crime writing in
  
  
  diversity, excitement, cunning, or satisfaction. And no annual anthology of
  crime stories can
  
  
  boast the kudos given _The Year’s 25 Finest Crime
  
  
  and Mystery Stories_ series.
  
  
  
  
  
  Like its predecessors, this seventh annual edition comprises stories that have
  best represented the many varieties of the crime and mystery genre
  
  
  in the past year. Its collection of masterful tales by the top-ranking,
  critically acclaimed authors
  
  
  in the field—among them Joyce Carol Oates,
  
  
  Lawrence Block, Marcia Muller, Stuart Kaminsky,
  
  
  Simon Brett, John Harvey, and Bill Pronzini
  
  
  —will raise the hair, ste