- Foreword
- Introduction / Jeffery Deaver
- Rust / N. J. Ayres
- My interview with the Avenger / Tom Bissell
- Winning / Alafair Burke
- Big midnight special / James Lee Burke
- Beanball / Ron Carlson
- Father's Day / Michael Connelly
- Pretty little parasite / David Corbett
- Meantime, Quentin Ghlee / M. M. M. Hayes
- Two thousand volts / Chuck Hogan
- Manila burning / Clark Howard
- Down home blues / Rob Kantner
- My son / Robert McClure
- Free radicals / Alice Munro
- Dear husband / Joyce Carol Oates
- Wanted man / Nic Pizzolatto
- Kamila and the king of Kandy / Garry Craig Powell
- The man who fell in love with the stump of a tree / Randy Rohn
- G-Men / Kristine Kathryn Rusch
- Bola de la fortuna / Jonathan Tel
- This or any desert / Vu Tran
- Contributor's notes
- Other distinguished mystery stories of 2008.