UNUSUAL SUSPECTS

Unusual suspects is right. First, because the 17 contributors to this mostly new collection (there's a stellar reprint by James Lee Burke and a collector's item by Jim Thompson) include the unlikely likes of Jan Adkins, David Corn, Art Monterastelli, and John Weisman. And, second, because most of the authors, knowing that the profits from the volume are earmarked for Share Our Strength, the D.C.based hunger-battling organization, are spurred on to memorably nasty heights (or depths). Jessica Auerbach and Mark Olshaker serve up efficient nightmares in documentary frames; Joyce Carol Oates and Julie Smith provide incisive takes on the well-worn themes of stalking and switching murders; and the whodunits by John Lutz, Jeremiah Healy, and Benjamin F. Schutz are terse and ingenious. A satisfyingly grim harvest that's well worth your time and money, even if you don't care about fighting world hunger.