These Guns for Hire

"Why would one person snuff out another for money? This collection of hitmen (and hitwomen) stories offers 31 possible answers, one for each story included, and they range from professional pride to pure inbred dumbness. Authors include both the comparatively unknown (Julie Hyzy, whose "Strictly Business" is all down-and-dirty business) to such stalwarts as Max Allan Collins, Ed Gorman, Lawrence Block, and David Morrell (whose "The Attitude Adjuster" will ensure you notice the next road construction worker you pass). Brian M. Wiprud offers a brief comic dialog about the quandaries of disposing of a lemur. The many pleasures of pulp are here in abundance, befitting on several levels the anthology's subject. According to the publisher, which has been getting a lot of mileage out of edgy prose lately, the authors represent a combined total of $500 million in book sales. That ought to add up to at least a few requests at your library. For all public libraries."-Library Journal