Ladykillers is a collection of crime stories by both classic and contemporary women writers from Agatha Christie to Antonia Fraser. It is readily recognised that women are particularly adept at exposing the underlying tensions of a seemingly normal life which can often lead to a final breakdown and, sometimes, result in tragic murder. The stories collected here range from those illustrating the simple and humorous as in Dorothy L Sayers's "The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey" to the more calculated forms of blackmail shown in Elizabeth Ferrars's "Instrument of Justice" or, worse, the simple and pathetic depths of loneliness portrayed in Caroline Blackwood's "Addy", which culminate not in crime, but in a forlorn and desperate sense of isolation.

Some of these stories have been in print elsewhere, and others - Margery Allingham's "The Black Tent" and Margaret Yorke's "The Mouse Will Play" - have never before been published. Ladykillers is a riveting and stimulating volume which highlights the very best crime stories and clearly demonstrates the individual and superior quality of women as crime writers.