First appearing on newsstands in late 1952, Manhunt was the acknowledged successor to Black Mask, which had ceased publication the year before, as the venue for high-quality crime fiction. By April of 1956 it was being billed as the "World's Best-Selling Crime-Fiction Magazine." On its pages, over its 14-year run, appeared a veritable Who's Who of the world's greatest mystery writers including: Ed McBain, Mickey Spillane, Richard Deming, Jonathan Craig, Hal Ellson, Robert Turner, Jack Ritchie, Frank Kane, Craig Rice, Fletcher Flora, Talmage Powell, Richard S. Prather, David Alexander, Harold Q. Masur, Gil Brewer, Helen Nielsen, Erskine Caldwell, Henry Slesar, David Goodis, Lawrence Block, John D. MacDonald, Clark Howard, Fredric Brown, Donald E. Westlake, Harlan Ellison, Harry Whittington and Steve Frazee.

The Best of Manhunt includes 39 of the original stories, a Foreword by Lawrence Block and Afterword by Barry N. Malzberg, as well as an introduction to the tortured history of the magazine by editor, Jeff Vorzimmer.