The Best American Mystery Stories 2014: The Year's Premier Short Story Anthology of Crime Books and Mysteries

by Laura Lippman

“With so many great authors contributing to this fiction collection . . . it doesn’t take detecting skills to discover the gem. And every story dazzles . . . These stories, in prose both elegant and compelling, get to the heart of why people do what they do.” — USA Today

The Best American Mystery Stories 2014 will be selected by “writing powerhouse” (USA Today) Laura Lippman. With her popular Tess Monaghan series and her New York Times best-selling standalone novels, Lippman has greatly expanded the boundaries of modern mystery fiction and psychological suspense.

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery, Fiction, Anthologies, Mystery Thriller, Literary Fiction, Collections

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Since Laura Lippman’s debut, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the “essential” crime writers of the last 100 years. Stephen King called her “special, even extraordinary,” and Gillian Flynn wrote, “She is simply a brilliant novelist.” Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her teenager.

Reviews

[Cybercrone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really impressed with most of the stories.

[Jenny Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first story was great. The second story was really good, too. Then there's a lot of Terrible Things Happening to Girls. Not much mystery. Plenty of grisly crime. Maybe two stars is kind of harsh, but I'd say it reflects the drop-off after the first story and my growing disappointment/anger as I went on.

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some were enjoyable, some were ok, and some were just plain weird. I don't think I'll ever understand why some stories are thought to be good enough to be included in a "Best" book.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some amazing stories in this collection. Well worth a read if you enjoy short fiction and can deal with the dark stuff.

[Sarah Toppins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series of short stories and savor over each entry. I think the mystery and short stories are the best books. I also enjoy the travel and essay books. It's the way to get the best of the best without having to subscribe to a lot of magazines. Laura Lippman is also one of my favorite authors.

[Laura Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am generally not a fan of short stories. However, since I recently broke a wrist, I'm finding holding books, especially hardcovers difficult and since i had this lying around, i figured I'd give it a shot. I really liked a few of them and they were by writers I have read before and enjoyed. The others, I found myself just skipping over after reading the first page.

[Lisa Tollefson · Rating 2 out of 5]

More horror than mystery for the most part, though at least she's pretty clear about that upfront. She says that she tends
to the dark. Still, I found myself starting but not finishing several of the stories in here.
The ones I read through were without fail well written, so if you don't mind mysteries that chill, you'll probably like this collection.

[John Boyda · Rating 2 out of 5]

What happened to mystery stories? There are a couple of mysteries in this collection and a bunch of stories that left me shaking my head. Yes, they were well written and maybe they deserved to be included in a "Best of" volume...THEY WERE NOT MYSTERIES!!!

I can't recommend this volume to anyone wanting to read a collection of mystery stories because this isn't one!

[H Dixner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting collection of short stories. A few grabbed and delighted me while others left me terribly depressed. The thing I liked most about this compilation is each writers’ own words about their short story in Contributor’s Notes. What a great idea!

[Dagnija · Rating 3 out of 5]

Supposedly the best American mystery stories of 2014. I read all 20 of them, but the only one that I really liked or thought was any good was the first one, My Heart Is Either Broken, by Megan Abbott. The others were, at best, a diversion.

[AGMaynard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read these four, all excellent in different ways. Overall, it seems a nicely diverse collection in tone and scope.
My Heart is Either Broken, Megan Abbott
Collectors, Daniel Alarcon
I Will Follow You, Roxane Gay
Small Kingdoms, Charlaine Harris

[Andréa]

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved most of the stories there was only one I could not finish. Not saying could be your favorite, I doubt it.

[Brad Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second volume of The Best American Mystery Stories that I've read, and the same holds true: mystery is a vague term that encompasses a lot of types of stories. That's at least as chosen by Laura Lippman, this year's editor. None of these stories are the "whodunit" variety, which kind of eliminates the word "mystery" from the picture, but they are about crime and the darkness of the soul.

My favorite stories were those that had a noir edge to them, or those that were funny, or both. What I did not expect was a posthumous story by Joseph Heller, the author of my favorite novel, Catch-22, and a very funny man. He wrote a story called "Almost Like Christmas" that has no laughs at all, and is brutal in its presentation. Another tough story is "Going Across Jordan," by James Lee Burke, a very well-established crime author, about itinerant workers in the 1950s. He opens his story with the following: "Who would believe somebody could drive a car across the bottom of ancient glacial lake at night, the high beams tunneling in electrified shafts of yellow smoke under the surface, but I stood on the bank and saw it, my head still throbbing from a couple of licks I took when I was on the ground and couldn't protect myself."

Continuing with noir, how can you beat an opening like Ernest Finney's "The Wrecker": "I'm sitting at the bar in the semigloom of the Silver Dollar, as far away as I can get from the loud music. A babe comes through the door. It's still before nine; too early for anyone else to eyeing the sign taped to the bar mirror: NOBODY'S UGLY AT 2 A.M." Unfortunately, the story doesn't match that socko start.

Other authors from outside the mystery genre participate. Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Proulx takes us to the founding of Quebec in "Rough Deeds," which showcases chicanery in the logging business and has a grisly end. Roxane Gay has "I Will Follow You," which is about twin sisters who are very close, even though one marries a no-goodnick. The story is both menacing and a tad funny, such as when the narrator describes her brother-in-law, Darryl: "Carolina married when she was nineteen. Darryl, her husband, was a decade older, but he had a full head of hair and she thought that meant something." Or, "Darryl worked nights managing a small airfield on the edge of town. It was a mystery how he had fallen into the job. He knew little about managing, aviation, or work."

Also in the funny vein, there is Nancy Pauline Simpson's "Festered Wounds," set in a small Southern town in the year 1900, with a sheriff investigating the death of a man who took a header from a railroad bridge. It's full of cornpone humor like saying of the undertaker, "Penrose could make a ninety-year-old scrofula victim look like a Floradora girl.

Also set at the turn of the century is "The Covering Storm," by David H. Ingram, which has a man planning to commit the perfect murder, but he's undone by something unforeseen: the devastating hurricane that pummeled Galveston, Texas.

Two very good stories concern fathers and sons. Russell Banks' "Former Marine" has the title character spending his retirement robbing banks, but his son is a policeman. An even better story is "Pleasant Grove" by Scott Loring Sanders, which also is about a bank robbery and a father and a son, and is very, very dark: "The events of those few days, of the truck crashing, of him taking the money, of finding out the man's identity, of then blowing the guts out that same man, his father, of dragging him through the snow and burying him him in a makeshift grave, all of those events had haunted him." Any story that contains the words "makeshift grave" is bound to be dark.

Perhaps the best story is one that really can't qualify as a mystery, or even a crime thriller, but it's here. That's "Snuff," by Jodi Angel. It's about a teenage boy who is over at some friend's house with some boys watching what they think is a snuff movie. He ends up needing a ride, so calls his sister, who picks him up and hits a deer. It's dead, but it's pregnant, and she tries to deliver the fawn. It's a great story that connects on a number of levels. But I do believe there has never an authenticated snuff film ever found by law enforcement.

So, this is a pretty good collection. I can't go without mentioning Charlaine Harris, the author of the novels that True Blood is based on, with "Small Kingdoms," about avenging teachers. As a teacher, I can relate.

[Andi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was expecting these to be pulp fiction but they were literary. But I wasn't disappointed at all. The stories turned out to be great and I'm happy I stumbled upon the book.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not usually a collection I would be looking for but I was able to purchase at a huge discount on the Kindle. Overall it was a pretty enticing collection of stories. Some of those most notable included

- in the story " Collectors ", Daniel Alarcon shows why reading one of his novels is on my list. This story features Henry and Rogelio, two men in the famous Mexican prison. We see how Henry grows up, gets involved with crime, and sentenced to prison. He meets Rogelio in prison and the two become friends and more. Navigating the prisons social structure is difficult but eventually Henry finds his way. When he is released he misses his friends, especially Rogelio. A fire at the prison ends any thought of a reunion.

- Meghan Abbot's " My Heart is Nearly Broken" takes a look at the tabloid journalism that pops up around a missing child case while " Former Marine " by Russell Banks shows us an aging vet, facing foreclosure and insolvency, who comes up with a unique way to raise money.

- James Lee Burke writes a fantastic story called " Going Across Jordan." This is a story I can already see the movie of in my head. Featuring two drifters trying to make something of themselves who end up on the wrong side of a tyrannical rancher we see the story develop into a revenge plot that works much better than most.

- in the story " The Wrecker" written by Ernest Finney a middle aged tow truck driver is hit on by an attractive, wealthy, younger woman. He does not understand it but determines to enjoy the ride. A couple of months later he is in jail and realizing what an elaborate frame job she has done to pin him for a murder.

- Charlaine Harris in writing " Small Kingdoms" let's us meet a high school principal who in some former life was a hired killer. Funny to think those skills might come in useful in her small town high school

- Joseph Heller's " Almost Like Christmas" is a sad story set in the days of overt racism and segregation. Bravery comes in many forms.

- Another story set in the past is David H Ingram's " The Covering Storm." A man decides to take care of a situation where his wife's honor has been besmirched. He creates the perfect alibi but one thing goes wrong. It starts to rain and blow that day in Galveston.

- The always readable Anne Proulx adds a story called " Rough Deeds." In this story we visit woodsman in the territory of Maine as they battle and jump each other's claims for prize wood. There is money to be made and that usually brings corruption and violence.

- Ending the collection is Laura Van Berg's story " Antarctica". A woman visits the continent to explore what happened to her scientist brother as he has been killed in an accident at a research facility. As she learns more we also revisit her past relationship with her brother which had gone from incredibly close to a drifting away she now, of course, regrets.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 2.5 of 5

I've really come to like the "Best American ____" series of books, though I typically go in for the non-fiction series'.

Because of recently become much more interested in reading mystery genre books, I was hoping to broaden my reading by becoming quickly acquainted with some of the new mystery writers through a collection such as this. This particular collection is not one of my favorites. I struggled to get through this book and very few of the stories stands out to me. In fact this book challenged my understanding of what a mystery genre story is (or should be). I don't know that I would have classified everything here as a mystery. This is neither good nor bad, except that I was expecting mysteries.

My favorite story here was "Antarctica" by Laura van den Berg. Yes, being the last story in the book makes it the easiest to remember, but because it features the location of Antarctica (a place I've long wished to visit) and a subject of theatre (my profession), I held a special affinity for the story.

I also enjoyed "Princess Anne" by Jim Allyn, which takes on a tone of a 'typical' mystery story.

Patricia Engel's "Aida" also caught my attention and was a worthy read.

This collection contains:
"My Heart is Either Broken" by Megan Abbott
"Collectors" by Daniel Alarcon
"Princess Anne" by Jim Allyn
"Snuff" by Jodi Angel
"Former Marine" by Russell Banks
"Going Across Jordan" by James Lee Burke
"Aida" by Patricia Engel
"The Wrecker" by Ernest Finney
"I Will Follow You" by Roxanne Gay
"Bush-Hammer Finish" by Michelle Butler Hallett
"Small Kingdoms" by Charlaine Harris
"Almost Like Christmas" by Joseph Heller
"The Covering Storm" by David H. Ingram
"A Good Marriage" by Ed Kurtz
"Gauley Season" by Matthew Neill Null
"Rough Deeds" by Annie Proulx
"Pleasant Grove" by Scott Loring Sanders
"Festered Wounds" by Nancy Pauline Simpson
"Satan's Kingdom" by Dennis Tafoya
"Antarctica" by Laura van den Berg

While this wasn't my favorite collection in the "Best American" series, it certainly won't stop me from checking new volumes. An individual editor's taste can definitely set the tone for a collection such as this and the "Best American" series rotates their editors.

Looking for a good book? Best American Mystery Stories 2014 is not the strongest collection in the Best american Mystery Stories series, but it's still worth a look if you're looking to sample the mystery short-fiction market.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really solid collection. Standouts for me were:
-- Roxane Gay's "I Will Follow You"
--Laura van den Berg's "Antarctica"
--Annie Proulx's "Rough Deeds"
--Jim Allyn's "Princess Anne"

[Bojan Tunguz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a longtime reader (and reviewer) of “The Best American Short Stories” series. These days when I have very little time to dedicate to reading high-quality fiction they server the purpose of keeping my interest in literature aflame. However, that collection has been very uneven in terms of quality of writing. Some years I would read one amazing story after another, while with a different guest editor I would struggle to go through the entire collection. My biggest complaints would always revolve around the same issue: even though I appreciate good writing in its own right, I still insist that the stories I read be in fact stories. They need to tell something consequential. That usually, but not always, means that I want “something to happen.” Too many of the stories that have been coming out of literary workshops in recent years have been incredibly well crafted, but ultimately sterile.

This is the first year that I had branched out and decided to check out “The Best American Mystery Stories.” I don’t know why I didn’t do this before. The very title of this collection suggests a very dynamic and eventful assortment of stories. Indeed, in that regard the collection has lived up to its premise. However, there is more to a mystery story than some very exciting set of events, involving often (but not always) some kind of surprise. The editors of this collection seem to have understood “mystery” to mean a crime of some kind. Therefor it would be a big stretch to call most of the stories in this collection a “mystery.” Don’t get me wrong: these are all very well written and interesting stories. Most of them are very dark and even depressing though, so this is not necessarily a “fun” book to read. If they made movies or TV series based on these stories they would most accurately be described as dramas. I feel that the editors, when deciding between the literary value of the stories and their merit as true mysteries may have given the first of these two criteria much more weight. Nonetheless, this is a very good collection of short fiction. Now I will look into reading the collections from the previous few years, and hopefully at least some of them will be dominated by “true” mystery stories.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good collection, though somehow the high points didn't seem quite as high as in the 2005 collection edited by Joyce Carol Oates. There seemed to be more stories here that fell squarely into the genre, straight-ahead mystery stories instead of literary stories that happened to contain a mystery. Maybe that's the difference between Oates and Lippman as editor. I also noticed a recurrence of violence toward women—women and girls kidnapped, held capitive, tortured, murdered. At the same time, in this collection 9 of the 20 stories were written by women, as opposed to only 3 in the other. Overall, this is a darker, more noir collection than the 2005 one.

Favorite Stories
"My Heart is Either Broken," by Megan Abbott—creepy story about a daughter's kidnapping and its effect on a woman and her husband's perception of her
"Going Across Jordan," by James Lee Burke—a lyrical story about two drifters (a la Of Mice and Men, except one patterns himself after Woody Guthrie or Tom Joad) who come up against an evil cowboy actor
"Almost Like Christmas," by Joseph Heller—a posthumously published story about an incipient lynching
"Gauley Season," by Matthew Neill Null—exquisitely written story about a West Virginia town and the whitewater rafting industry created by a dam
"Festered Wounds," by Nancy Pauline Simpson—delightfully narrated if somewhat predictable story set in a small Southern town in the early twentieth century

[Billie Pritchett · Rating 3 out of 5]

The truth about these sorts of collections is that they are going to be a hodgepodge. Sometimes it feels worth it because I'll read one really amazing story that I am very glad that I did. In this collection The Best American Mystery Stories 2014, I was very happy to have read the first story in the book, "My Heart Is Either Broken" by Megan Abbott. It is a true modern-day mystery story, with lots of twists and turns. It tracks a husband's perspective about his daughter going missing and the question of whether the wife was responsible for getting rid of the baby. Incredibly compelling.

Here are some of the other stories in the book that I thought were worth reading:

"Going Across Jordan" by James Lee Burke. Powerful story about a couple of rabble-rousers traveling around America and promoting unionization. The big conflict comes when they run afoul with the law while trying to protect someone.

"Small Kingdoms" by Charlaine Harris. This is the story of a woman who has some mysterious background, kind of James Bondish, but who moonlights/covers as a school principal. Really fun.

"Pleasant Grove" by Scott Loring Sanders. Pretty good story about a strange encounter that leads to coming into some money, which leads to more problems after that. Country people getting into trouble for doing bad deeds.

Other than those few, I didn't really enjoy the collection much, to tell you the truth. But I really liked these stories.

[Andy Henion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished The Best American Mystery Stories 2014, edited by Laura Lippman. A lot of big names in this edition: Russell Banks, Annie Proulx, Joseph Heller, James Lee Burke. For my money, though, the best story was "Aida" by Patricia Engel. The story, which originally appeared in the Harvard Review, is written from the viewpoint of a teenage girl whose identical twin sister Aida has disappeared -- apparently taken -- from their small town ...

"I waited for the pain. Something to tell me what was happening to Aida. I tried to feel her. I wanted to make our bodies one again. Remember that her veins were once my veins and her heart was my heart and her brain was my brain and her pain was mine. I waited for the sensations. I wanted them to hit me and within them I'd be able to know the story of her disappearance. I'd know who stole her. What they were doing to her. How they were punishing her."

Other gems: Dennis Tafoya's "Satan's Kingdom" (from Needle), Scott Loring Sanders' "Pleasant Grove" (Floyd County Moonshine) and Megan Abbott's "My Heart is Either Broken" (Dangerous Women).

Overall, a solid edition, with noir well represented. "If my final selection veers to the dark ones ... that's my personal taste," Lippman writes in the intro. Amen, sister.

[Richard Brand · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it is difficult to review a collection of stories, I must confess that most of them were not like the mystery stories that I was accustomed to. Maybe it is the short story part of it, that the limit on size means that the mystery has to be different. While I did not have to force myself to read the book, I did find that most of the stories were about missing people and what auction and abuse do to the victim and to the victim's family. There were a couple of stories where I wondered why the obvious response was not the one picked by the characters in the story. There were stories where the deed done early returned to inflict its own punishment on the doer. I do not take any of the magazines in which these kinds of stories would appear so I do not know the standards for their publication. I have often enjoyed these The Best American....... series and I will not let this one end that willingness to buy others. This collection was not bad, it was just a surprise and less than satisfying because of that.

[Ellen Behrens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this collection for reminding me that mysteries surround us, in all shapes and types of stories. Too often I think of short mystery stories as who-dunnits from the Ellery Queen & Alfred Hitchcock magazines, so this volume opened up the genre to me in ways I hadn't expected. The final story in the collection, "Antarctica" by Laura Van Den Berg (originally published in Glimmer Trail) has especially stayed with me -- the edgy, unusual setting; the puzzling incident that took the life of the narrator's brother; his spooky (at least I thought so) wife combined to submerge me in a world where an icy sheen covers and distorts the truth. Van Den Berg reminded me, in "Antarctica," that the most profound mysteries are those closest to us, the ones we're least likely to solve. I'll be looking for this "Best" volume on an annual basis!

[Grady · Rating 3 out of 5]

This year's Best American Mystery Stories includes some mysteries, but in general, these are more crime stories than mystery stories, and several of them focus primarily on the effects of crime on the family members of the victims or the perpetrators. Overall, the collection is pretty dark, which is probably why I only enjoyed it moderately - folks who like dark stories may love this. I did very much like James Lee Burke, 'Going Across Jordan', which uses slang to great effect; Charlaine Harris, 'Small Kingdoms', with its offbeat backstory and loopy plot; and Daniel Alarcon, "Collectors", an unsentimental story of despair, love, and prison brutality.

[Mitsuru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nowadays, this series consist of quite good stories. I felt the meaning of the mystery was wider than ever. It's not a bad thing.

I like "Aida" by Patricia Engel, "Rough Deeds" by Annie Proulx, and "Pleasant Glove" by Scott Loring Sanders. Especially, "Rough Deeds" by Annie Proulx. The feelings of protagonist are floating on between the lines. I've ever read her story, "Them Old Cowboy Songs" in Best American Short Stories 2009, and PEN/O'Henry Prize Stories 2010. It was also the great story. If I had the time, I'd like to read her novels.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only dip into short stories a few times a year, but I find myself consistently returning to this series for a sampler of what I've invariably missed in the realm over the previous 12 months. Lippman's a favorite of mine, and her esthetic comes through in this collection as the stories center on themes she works in her own fiction - buried secrets, tough women, and dark domestic crimes. Many of the authors here were new to me, but stand up well alongside favorites like Megan Abbott.

[Bess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really was thinking more like 3 1/2 stars, but why be picky - some of these were absolutely amazing!

Sadly, some of them weren't, but overall I was really glad to have read it and would definitely recommend it to other mystery lovers.

(Also, to be honest, I was able to buy it for $1.99 for Kindle, which made it all the sweeter.)

[Lisa Hern · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lisa Lippman has a dark heart. I love a good mystery, but some of these stories relied too much on violence against women for plot. Granted, the helpless waif is a common theme of old noir, most of those featured tough women. These stories are just bleak. I have enjoyed this anthology series for years, but this is the weakest offering thus far. Antarctica is the best of the bunch.

[Beth Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you choose stories for an anthology, I think you have to choose a representative sample of different types of stories to please various subgroups of your audience. And the result is very few people liking all of the stories. I really liked Aida and Antarctica. I liked several others. And a couple I didn't like starting with the first paragraph.