The annual with its usual hyperbolic introduction -- here called ""Overture"" -- in high-C, and featuring, among the 29, Simenon and Asimov, the late(s) Gerald Kersh and Cornell Woolrich, Michael and Anthony Gilbert, etc., ascending toward Christianna Brand's faultless ""Scapegoat,"" Celia Fremlin's literally and figuratively smashing ""Don't Be Frightened,"" and Stanley Ellin with a new story of extortion in Paris. And for some new changes fry Michael Harrison, John Pierce with an unsettling gourmet item, and J. N. Williamson's ""They Never Even Seen Me."" In retrospect -- it's been a very good year.