As Pelecanos notes in his introduction, the twenty “original and unique voices” in this collection pay homage to the genre’s forebears by taking crime fiction into a thrilling new direction. “But make no mistake,” he says, “we are all standing on the shoulders of writers who came before us and left an indelible mark on literature through craftsmanship, care, and the desire to leave something of worth behind.” Tales range from Michael Connelly’s “Mulholland Drive” to Rupert Holmes’ “The Monks of the Abbey Victoria,” which looks at hijinks in the highly competitive 1960s TV industry and features a delicious twist ending. It’s a shout-out to the “Mad Men” era, featuring a group of NBC network executives whose weekly poker game gives them an excuse to engage in extracurricular activities.