Short Story Wednesday: BEST DETECTIVE STORIES OF THE YEAR: 17TH ANNUAL COLLECTION (1962) edited by "Brett Halliday" (Davis Dresser)

Dell did a much better job paperbacking, or at least merchandising, this book in 1965 than Dutton did with the hardcover first edition in 1962...

first edition (Dutton '62) pagination: 

7 · Foreword by "Brett Halliday" (Davis Dresser)
11 · Service Call · Bruno Fischer · ss Ed McBain’s Mystery Book [#3, 1961] 
28 · Game · Herbert D. Kastle · ss Ed McBain’s Mystery Book [#3, 1961] 
41 · For All the Rude People · Jack Ritchie · ss Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine [v6 #6, June 1961]
60 · A Home Away from Home · Robert Bloch · ss Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine [v6 #6, June 1961]
71 · Drum Beat [Chester Drum] · Stephen Marlowe · ss Ed McBain’s Mystery Book [#2, 1960]
76 · Midnight Blue [Lew Archer] · Ross Macdonald · nv Ed McBain’s Mystery Book [#1, 1960]
115 · I’m Tough · Davis Dresser · vi Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine [v8 #6, May 1961]
119 · For the Love of $10,000,000 · Douglas Farr · ss Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine [v6 #5, May 1961]
140 · How Much to Kill? · Michael Zuroy · ss Manhunt [v9 #1, February 1961]
158 · Retribution · Michael Zuroy · ss Manhunt [v9 #2, April 1961]
164 · How to Kill Your Aunty · Theodore Sturgeon · ss Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine [v8 #4, March 1961]
191 · Hard Sell [John J. Malone] · Craig Rice (ghost written by Lawrence Block) · ss Ed McBain’s Mystery Book [#1, 1960]
202 · Second Honeymoon · Richard Deming · ss Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine [v8 #4, March 1961]
210 · The Night Before Christmas · Paul M. Fitzsimmons · ss Ed McBain’s Mystery Book [#2, 1960]
230 · Put Together a Man · Steve O’Connell · ss Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine [v6 #5, May 1961]
239 · I’m Better Than You! · Henry Slesar · ss Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine [v6 #6, June 1961]
251 · A Death in the Family · Miriam Allen deFord · ss The Dude [November 1961]
267 · Tale from Tangier · Mack Reynolds · ss Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine [v8 #4, March 1961]

What seems immediately notable about the contents of this volume is how few magazine issues they are taken from (and how few...one...of the contributors are women, albeit one was ghosted by a man for a woman who used a male pseudonym). Nonetheless, it is a reasonably good representation of the era, with a selection of some notable stories from some of the more notable authors working short forms at the time; the one n0n-crime-fiction-magazine story, the deFord, was adapted a decade later for the Night Gallery television anthology series. 

The June 1961 AHMM boasts both "A Home Away from Home" by Robert Bloch, a fine suspense story (and one of the by-products of his writing several stories leading directly to the novel Psycho, perhaps) and one which was adapted for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and was the source of the framing story for the anthology film Asylum, with a script by Bloch adapting four of his stories (including this one) and "For All the Rude People", possibly the most widely reprinted and best-remembered single short story by Jack Ritchie.

Dresser continues not to reprint from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, due to some ongoing tension between him and Frederic Dannay ("How dare you also be a pseudonymous writer of cf series stories with a magazine named for your most famous character!"), but below a gallery of covers from the issues these stories are drawn from:

Notable that the deFord story, among so many writers and stories, was first read by me in this among other Robert Arthur and Harold Q, Masur "Hitchcock" anthologies (and those produced by others, but the RH volumes edited by Arthur and Masur were the cream)...notable that the UK edition, from Rinehart, of this one substituted a US novel for the UK novel in the original...see below...wonder why the Disch, the St. Clair, the "Ellis Peters" and "Adobe James" stories were dropped...

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Scared Even Me ed. Alfred Hitchcock (ghost edited by Robert Arthur with assistance from Thomas M. Disch) (Random House LCC# 67-22678, 1967, $6.95, 463pp, hc)

Derivative anthologies: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Scared Even Me (Rinehart 1967), Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Scream Along with Me, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Slay Ride, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Scared Even Me, Part One (Dell, various dates). 
• 
  
• xiii · Ahem! If I May Have a Moment- · Alfred Hitchcock (presumably ghosted by Robert Arthur)  · in
• 3 · Fishhead · Irvin S. Cobb · ss The Cavalier Jan 11 1913
• 13 · Camera Obscura · Basil Copper · nv The Sixth Pan Book of Horror Stories, ed. Herbert van Thal, London: Pan 1965
• 33 · A Death in the Family · Miriam Allen deFord · ss Dude Nov 1961
• 46 · Men Without Bones · Gerald Kersh · ss Esquire Aug 1954
• 55 · Not with a Bang · Damon Knight · ss F&SF Win/Spr 1950
• 61 · Party Games · John Burke · ss The Sixth Pan Book of Horror Stories, ed. Herbert van Thal, London: Pan 1965
• 73 · X Marks the Pedwalk · Fritz Leiber · ss Worlds of Tomorrow Apr 1963
• 79 · Curious Adventure of Mr. Bond · Nugent Barker · nv The Cornhill Magazine Jul 1939
• 102 · Two Spinsters [Nicholas Goade] · E. Phillips Oppenheim · ss The Grand Magazine Jun 1926, as “The Spinsters”
• 114 · The Knife · Robert Arthur · ss The Mysterious Traveler Magazine Nov 1951
• 122 · The Cage · Ray Russell · ss 1959
• 129 · It · Theodore Sturgeon · nv Unknown Aug 1940
• 154 · Casablanca · Thomas M. Disch · nv *original publication here (the only story so published in the Robert Arthur "Hitchcock" volumes)
• 174 · The Road to Mictlantecutli · Adobe James · ss Adam Bedside Reader #20 1965
• 189 · Guide to Doom · Ellis Peters · ss This Week Nov 10 1963
• 195 · The Estuary · Margaret St. Clair · ss Weird Tales May 1950, as “The Last Three Ships”
• 200 · Tough Town · William Sambrot · ss 1957, as “Stranger in Town”
• 207 · The Troll · T. H. White · ss Gone to Ground 1935
• 219 · Evening at the Black House · Robert Somerlott · ss Cosmopolitan Oct 1964
• 230 · One of the Dead · William Wood · nv The Saturday Evening Post Oct 31 1964
• 258 · The Real Thing · Robert Specht · ss Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Apr 1966
• 263 · Journey to Death · Donald E. Westlake · ss Mystery Digest Jun 1959
• 272 · The Master of the Hounds · Algis Budrys · nv The Saturday Evening Post Aug 27 1966
• 301 · The Candidate · Henry Slesar · ss Rogue Aug 1961
• 309 · Out of the Deeps [The Things from the Deep, Everybody’s 1952; The Kraken Wakes, M. Joseph 1953] · John Wyndham · n. Ballantine 1953

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Scared Even Me ed. Alfred Hitchcock (ghost edited by Robert Arthur) (Rinehart, 1967, 20/-, 384pp, hc)
revised from Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Scared Even Me (Random House 1967)
• Ahem! If I May Have a Moment- · Alfred Hitchcock · in
• Fishhead · Irvin S. Cobb · ss The Cavalier Jan 11 1913
• Camera Obscura · Basil Copper · nv The Sixth Pan Book of Horror Stories, ed. Herbert van Thal, London: Pan 1965
• A Death in the Family · Miriam Allen deFord · ss Dude Nov 1961
• Men Without Bones · Gerald Kersh · ss Esquire Aug 1954
• Not with a Bang · Damon Knight · ss F&SF Win/Spr 1950
• Party Games · John Burke · ss The Sixth Pan Book of Horror Stories, ed. Herbert van Thal, London: Pan 1965
• X Marks the Pedwalk · Fritz Leiber · ss Worlds of Tomorrow Apr 1963
• Curious Adventure of Mr. Bond · Nugent Barker · nv The Cornhill Magazine Jul 1939
• Two Spinsters [Nicholas Goade] · E. Phillips Oppenheim · ss The Grand Magazine Jun 1926, as “The Spinsters”
• The Knife · Robert Arthur · ss The Mysterious Traveler Magazine Nov 1951
• The Cage · Ray Russell · ss 1959
• It · Theodore Sturgeon · nv Unknown Aug 1940
• Tough Town · William Sambrot · ss 1957, as “Stranger in Town”
• The Troll · T. H. White · ss Gone to Ground 1935
• Evening at the Black House · Robert Somerlott · ss Cosmopolitan Oct 1964
• One of the Dead · William Wood · nv The Saturday Evening Post Oct 31 1964
• The Master of the Hounds · Algis Budrys · nv The Saturday Evening Post Aug 27 1966
• The Candidate · Henry Slesar · ss Rogue Aug 1961
• The Body Snatchers · Jack Finney · n. Collier’s Dec 10 1954 (+2); Dell 1955

For more of today's SSW entries, please see Patti Abbott's blog.