Happiness is a Dead Poet — Sharyn McCrumb

CHARLOTTE MACLEOD ruffles feathers on Beacon Hill...BARBARA PAUL visits with a fatally clumsy clan...D.R. MEREDITH tells a murderer to go fly a kite...AUDREY PETERSON pursues a shadowy gentleman caller...VALERIE FRANKEL tracks a catnapper in Brooklyn...JANET LAPIERRE showcases two liars in lust...CAROLYN G. HART observes the making of murder in paradise...DIANE MOTT DAVIDSON reveals the perils of playing hooky...P.M. CARLSON stages a dramatic deception...SHARYN McCRUMB poison pens a murder at a writer's conference...JOAN HESS draws a bead on a widow's traitorous friend...L.B. GREENWOOD sets a cat among the pigeons at an isolated cabin...and CHARLOTTE AND AARON ELKINS defend a gorilla accused of murder in their Agatha Award-winning "Nice Gorilla."

What qualifies a mystery as a Malice Domestic mystery? "'Malice' is self-explanatory, I trust," writes the acclaimed Elizabeth Peters in her introduction to this outstanding collection. "'Domestic' distinguishes the personal and private aspects of crime from the public and impersonal. Our murderers don't kill for the fun of it (serial killers) or for a misguided ideal (assassins and terrorists) or for pay (hired hit men). They only do in people they know and love (or hate)."

Gathered in homage to the most beloved crimewriter of all, Dame Agatha Christie, MALICE DOMESTIC 1 presents today's best mystery writers at the top of their form.