Bloodlines: The Little Book of Vampires Book

Apparently there has never been a collection of purpose-written espionage short stories, and you can see why because the degree of difficulty here is immense. International thrillers take a buttload of mise-en-scene, tradecraft, atmosphere, sometimes historical exegesis, and especially character motivation -- a lot to cram into 30 pages or less. I think with only one exception none of these authors chose to use a series character, and that one barely appeared, so they really did all start from scratch.

This isn't your triumphalist James Bond and Tom Clancy type of thriller fiction, but in almost all cases more the "heirs of Graham Greene" type -- you really aren't going to want to reach for this collection when you're feeling sad. Every story is suffused with... not nostalgia exactly, but a sense that the spy trade might now be so limp and tatty that it can't even support fiction set in the modern era. Almost all of the authors chose an explicitly or implicitly 20th century era, and even the post 9-11 tales are oddly backwards-looking.

As always, the pick of the litter is Charles McCarry hands down. Robert Wilson's cinematic outing is as bracing as a shot of neat bourbon, and Andrew Klavan turns in a haunting yet woozy nocturne that reads almost more like contemporary science fiction than a spy thriller.