Ever since the first caveman sketched out the bison hunts on the walls of the Lascaux caves 16,000 years ago, mankind has found a way to communicate. For centuries the letter was the primary form of communication across any distance. Kings, popes, lords, heads of state, scholars, authors -- all used pen and paper to plot against one another, gossip, woo and win each other's hearts, and play intricate games of intrigue.

In the 21 stories in Murder Most Postal, all by masters of the mystery genre, the mail takes center stage. Edgar Allan Poe is here with his classic detective tale of a letter gone astray and the cunning way in which it is retrieved. Lawrence Block tells of the correspondence between a death-row inmate and the brother of the woman he killed, and of the deadly consequences for both. Ellery Queen investigates a puzzling philatelic theft. And Matt Costello writes of letters in cyberspace, as a man pours out his heart to a stranger in a chat room in the last messages he will ever write.