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 is behind the machine guns and had grenades on a stormy night in Couffignal.