With a new wife and a baby on the way, Keller, a.k.a. Nicholas Edwards, is done killing people for money until a phone call from Dot draws him back into the old game, taking him from Dallas to settle a domestic dispute to New York, where people might remember him.

John Keller is everyone's favorite hit man. He's cool. Reliable. A real pro: the hit man's hit man. The inconvenient wife, the aging sports star, the business partner--he's taken care of them all, quietly and efficiently. Keller's got a code of honor, though he'd never call it that. And he keeps the job strictly business--"What happens is you wind up thinking of each subject not as a person to be killed but as a problem to be solved." But while Keller...

Bernie Rhodenbarr, prince of New York thieves, signs on to steal a unique volume of Kipling from a Long Island mansion and, when he goes to deliver the book to Madeleine Porlock, finds himself the prime suspect in her murder.

To escape punishment for a murder he didn't mean to commit, insurance man Don Barshter has to take on a new identity: Nathaniel Crowley, ferocious up-and-comer in the New York mob. But can he find safety in the skin of another man...a worse man...a sinner man...?

A sharp assassin who has always been cool, confident, and remote finds himself struggling with a mid-life crisis that plunges him into loneliness, and as he continues with his work, he begins to question his choice of careers.

"A new town, a fresh start. A chance to escape old demons. Or meet new ones. He got on the Trailways bus in Galbraith, North Dakota, booked all the way through to Spokane. But the Help Wanted sign at the diner in Cross Creek was calling his name. Soon, he had a job working in the grill and a place to stay, and a new name to go with them. But what he didn't have was peace of mind. Or a clear conscience. Or any memory at all of what he'd done the night...

The Burglar in Short Order for the first time ever collects all of Bernie's short-form appearances in one complete volume. From the story in which a prototype of Bernie first appeared ("A Bad Night For Burglars") to his appearances in Playboy and (maybe? It's kinda complicated) Cosmopolitan...from an essay discussing Bernie's misadventures in Hollywood (how in the world did Whoopi Goldberg ever get cast?) to a piece commissioned by a European publisher...

Well past retirement age and feeling his years--but still staying sober one day at a time--Matthew Scudder learns that alcoholics aren't the only ones who count the days since their last slip. Matt's longtime partner, Elaine, tells him of a group of former sex workers who do something similar, helping each other stay out of the life. But when one young woman describes an abusive client who's refusing to let her quit, Elaine encourages her to get help...