Flint Kill Creek: Stories of Mystery and Suspense

by Joyce Carol Oates

A new collection of stories by one of America’s greatest writers


These new, recent, and reformulated stories by Joyce Carol Oates, collected here for the first time, showcase a wide range of crime fiction and psychological suspense. A young, insecure woman finds her relationship changing as she grows more and more dependent on a man who likes to take her on long walks beside a dangerously roaring creek. Another woman, nervous around men, not quite knowing how to act when paid a compliment, becomes flustered when a doctor suggests they go out for coffee, or possibly a drink. She finally decides that she will join him when he suggests they meet at his home. A man is so forgetful that his wife panics and yells into his phone, asking where their daughter has gone. A young man is curious to see why sirens have filled the night and the police arrest him, beginning an unimaginable nightmare. A woman resents that a colleague has achieved greater success and thinks she ought to do something about it.



It is impossible to know where a story by the creative genius of Joyce Carol Oates will end and what frightening paths will lead to that end.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Short Story Collection

288 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2024

About the author

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.

Reviews

[Cody | CodysBookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much, much needed 5-star read! Of course: it’s Joyce Carol Oates, my literary north star. Still, this collection is quite exceptional—even for her. Not a single dud here. Every story lives up to the promise of “mystery and suspense”, emphasis on the suspense (with flavors of horror thrown in—especially in the bleak, wretched “Mick and Minn”), every story promising to enthrall. Oates’ previous collections The (Other) You and Zero-Sum were good, possibly great, but both contained filler stories. Not Flint Kill Creek. My God, am I grateful my favorite writer is still working and still in top form.

Contents:

1. Flint Kill Creek 5🌟
2. The Phlebotomist 5 🌟
3. The Heiress. The Hireling. 4 🌟
4. Weekday 5 🌟
5. *** 5 🌟
6. Friend of My Heart 5 🌟
7. Bone Marrow Donor 4 🌟
8. Happy Christmas 4 🌟
9. The Nice Girl 5 🌟
10. Mick and Minn 5 🌟
11. Late Love 4 🌟
12. The Siren: 1999 4 🌟

[❀Heather❀Brown❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re a fan of this author this is one book you NEED to read. It’s fabulous!

We get a mix of stories with this book. This is the first time a collection of her work has been put together and made into a book.

There’s 12 stories that are a mix of crime fiction and psychological suspense. And you know I’m here for it all.

While all the stories were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G “The Nice Girl” and “The Heiress. The Hireling” were my favorite.

[Coffee&Cliffhangers · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Flint Kill Creek: Stories of Mystery and Suspense" is the first work I've read by Joyce Carol Oates. Being a fan of mystery and suspense, I anticipated that this collection of short stories would be engaging. Indeed, I found her writing style captivating, with many stories serving as intriguing introductions to what could unfold into fully-fledged novels. However, the abrupt endings of most stories left me dissatisfied, cutting off just as I was eager to discover the resolution. Despite this, I am eager to explore more of Oates's work, preferably in a longer format, as her talent is undeniable. Additionally, Kelli Tager's narration of the audiobook was exceptional, vividly bringing the characters and narratives to life. My gratitude goes to Netgalley for providing this ARC in return for my honest review.

[Mark Wenz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love JCO, especially her short stories. Unlike some readers, who complain that her stories are “unfinished” or “have no resolution,” I marvel at her ability to reveal the psychological darkness that lurks under facades of normality. She often leaves us right at the climax—or just before it—and compels us to connect the final lines ourselves. I read this book in 24 hours because I used all my free time to enter JCO’s darkly creative narratives.

[Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly these are stories about

[ ] unlikable
[ ] weak
[ ] confused
[ ] depressed
[ ] awful

people doing

[ ] unpleasant
[ ] horrific
[ ] disgusting
[ ] incomprehensible
[ ] all of the above

things. Some of the stories (e.g. Weekday) were disappointingly predictable. I was particularly annoyed by the women in these stories -- they're mostly weak creatures who can't manage themselves or their lives, constantly afraid and/or bewildered.

DO NOT READ MICK AND MINN. I can't stress this enough. It is grotesque and horrible with zero redeeming features. Really, I'm serious. Don't read it. You will wish you hadn't. I know I do.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Abandoned at 30%. It’s just not for me.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed The Phlebotomist. Mick and Minn was a tough read. Nothing really stood out.

[Tanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection of twelve recent short stories—all in the crime fiction and psychological suspense realm—was my first touching point with JCO's short fiction... and I was unfortunately not a fan. While I really liked that all of them started out in quite ordinary situations you could find yourself in, I found all of them to be at varying stages of under-baked, often little more than vignettes, with not much of a point or resolution. Hence, with the exception of Mick & Minn (a controversial and disturbingly graphic story about child abuse and its consequences), they were hardly memorable, and largely forgotten as soon as I moved on to the next one. I think I'll stick to her long-form work from here on out, which I have enjoyed in the past.

Contents: Flint Kill Creek · The Phlebotomist · The Heiress. The Hireling. · Weekday · *** · Friend of My Heart · Bone Marrow Donor · Happy Christmas · The Nice Girl · Mick & Minn · Late Love · The Siren: 1999

—————

Note: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Neko~chan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so excited for this bc I wanted to see how a literary fiction writer tackled the mystery / suspense framework. All I got was Joyce Carol Oates lazily writing in the dramatic hiccupy style that comes so easily to her with some extremely heavy-handed, contrived situations that weren’t really that mysterious or even psychologically that horrifying. I kind of liked Flint Kill Creek when I read it in the New Yorker but it didn’t hit for me the second time around? Her timbre really takes getting used to. Mick and Minn was probably the most delicious of the bunch but the gaze felt fat phobic.

[beyond_blue_reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF p.30. Disturbed by the way the author writes about albinism - a condition a friend of mine has - felt fetishised and full of harmful disability tropes. Didn't get far, but far enough to know it's not for me.

[AC · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly good collection (some stories work better than others)

Joyce Carol Oates, Flint Kill Creek (2024)

“Flint Kill Creek” [4.5]
“The Phlebotomist” [4.5]
“The Heiress. The Hireling” [3]
“Weekday” [4.25]
“***” [4.5]
“Friend of My Heart” [4.5]
“Bone Marrow Donor” [5]
“Happy Christmas” [4.5]
“The Nice Girl” [4+]
“Mick & Minn” [—]
“Late Love” [3]
“The Siren: 1999” [3.5]

[Erin Bennett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a great first read of 2025 lol. So weird and boring

[Ray Palen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joyce Carol Oates is one of the finest living writers in the world and her latest release, FLINT KILL CREEK, is a collection of new, recent and reformulated short stories. They are written in her own indomitable style that has made her a legend and even in the short story form her keen eye and way with words are keenly evident.

The tales come from both short story collections and magazines each one operates within the genres of crime fiction and/or psychological thriller. All of these stories, from the extremely short to novella length, are quite enjoyable and I will highlight some of my favorites here:

• FLINT KILL CREEK – the title story for this collection refers to a creek in Upstate New York around the Buffalo area. Kill is an old Dutch term that meant ‘creek’ and this roaring stream in the Adirondack Mountains was not one you wanted to get caught up in. We hear early on about the unfortunate young woman known as Inga, who fell into the Creek and washed away to her death. What Oates does is retell the events between the mysterious Inga and the young man who walks with her along the Flint Kill Creek and may have had a hand in her infamous demise.
• THE PHLEBOTOMIST – a young woman is giving blood during a routine doctor’s visit at the local medical center and is dismayed when it takes three different employees to draw her blood. The final person, a young man with a pony tail neatly tucked at the back of his head, was the successful one. As she is leaving, the same young man is smoking a cigarette outside the building and they strike up a conversation. Things get a little to creepy for the woman and she gets in a situation where he wants to come over her place for a drink --- rattling off her address from memory.
• *** - this highly unique tale was by far my favorite in the collection. The narrator, a person who typically keeps a very detailed personal calendar of appointments is taken aback when he looks at the date of Monday, June 11th and just sees *** marked there. He knows that this should indicate that something important is happening, he just cannot remember what. He also would not just put down characters like that without some name or abbreviation to remind him of the event. He goes through his entire calendar and internal memory database but comes up blank. He then wonders if it indicates he should return to his childhood home in Cleveland. What have next is a return to days of youthful innocence from one’s past that called to mind many of the great Twilight Zone themes created by Rod Serling.
• THE NICE GIRL – Lila Dey was always called a nice girl, and she often resented that. It was hard not to be viewed that way in her small family, which only consisted of her parents and a sister named Sabine who always seemed to be in trouble. Sabine had been living off campus in a seedy part of Buffalo, NY, in an attempt to finish her degree and get her life together. When she is unresponsive to numerous calls from her parents they gather Lila and head off to find Sabine hopefully alive and not deceased from another drug-induced suicide attempt.
• LATE LOVE – a husband and wife, both on their second marriages, are going through some nocturnal changes that may challenge what they really know about each other. They are both widowed, and the wife has begun waking up in a panic in the middle of the night unsure of who the stranger was beside her. At the same time, the husband has been talking in his sleep and behaving erratically in such a manner that begins to worry his wife and make her wonder how his previous wife actually died.
FLINT KILL CREEK features some fine storytelling as only someone with Joyc Carol Oates’ pedigree can produce. I even felt like there was a running theme through some of the tales in this collection which added an extra layer of complexity and ‘coolness’ to them.

Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual the descriptive writing is superb by Oates. Each story, all unique keeps the reader challenged to the end. Short stories are not my favorite but i very much enjoyed all the stories in this book.
I would suggest reading one at a time, rather than muddle them all together. Much more enjoyable

[Meg Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must stop reading books related to cancer.

[Pablo Reyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colección de historias perversas y paranoicas, algunas pocas bordeando el terror aunque la mayoría solo son dramas psicológicos sobre violencias cotidianas, con varios temas comunes: la enfermedad, la viudedad, las tragedias familiares, las relaciones abusivas. Los doce cuentos de peor a mejor:

12- 'Donante de médula ósea': terror hospitalario con un final demasiado cruel y gratuito.

11- 'Mick y Minn': violentísimo, cruel e interminable relato de un padre adoptivo abusivo.

10- 'El flebotomista': otro cuento de terror hospitalario algo confuso y alucinado.

9- 'Feliz navidad': encuentro incómodo y amenazante entre la narradora y el nuevo marido de su madre.

8- 'La heredera. El asalariado.': cuento dedicado a Cortázar y basado en una de sus historias paradójicas, con la viuda de un hombre rico a la que su nueva familia detesta.

7- 'Arroyo Flint Kill': romance universitario entre un psicópata y una chica misteriosa.

6- 'La sirena:1999': relato de perdición de un universitario precario víctima de la violencia policial.

5- 'Amistad de corazón': hipnótico y tenso relato de dominación y venganza entre dos viejas amigas.

4- 'Día laborable': durísima crónica de los detalles cotidianos que llevan a un padre a olvidar a su hijo encerrado en el coche.

3- 'Amor tardío': el cuento más pesadillesco de la colección, un poco Rebeca, sobre una mujer a la que su nuevo marido le hace gaslighting.

2- '***': muy divertida aventura de un hombre que no recuerda una cita que ha marcado como muy importante en su agenda.

1- 'Chica buena': el día de la graduación de la narradora se estropea para ir a buscar a su hermana mayor, en lo que parece un plan perverso que merece una venganza.

[Yannick - La Bouquineuse boulimique]

Mystérieuses, troublantes, étranges. Trois mots qui décrivent bien les nouvelles Mystérieuses, troublantes, étranges. Trois mots qui décrivent bien les nouvelles contenues dans ce recueil publié chez Philippe Rey, par Joyce Carol Oates.

Les structures changent pour chaque nouvelle. Parfois il y a de très longues phrases, dans certains cas des paragraphes de plus d’une page, puis à d’autres moments le rythme est en saccade. Le ton aussi diffère. Chaque texte est bien distinct.

Si tu connais Joyce Carol Oates, tu sais que les histoires ne se terminent pas bien ou ont des fins ouvertes et ambiguës. Moi, j’adore ça ! Je n’ai jamais été fan de happy endings. Même enfant, je trouvais ça un peu irréaliste.

Celles que j’ai le plus aimées sont : Jour de semaine (l’erreur tragique d’un parent, déchirante), Amie de mon cœur (vengeance planifiée, satisfaisante), Mick & Minn (famille d’accueil maltraitante, abominable), pour ne nommer que celles-là. Elles tournent autour de la peur, de l’obsession, de la confusion, de la terreur, de la perte, de violence, de la portée d’un choix, entre autres.

Si les dénouements ne sont pas toujours inattendus, la puissance des histoires racontées est une constante. L’émotion intense est souvent au rendez-vous. La frayeur, le malaise, la douleur, la colère, le dégoût. On en prend pour notre grade ! La construction des personnages est infaillible et la manière dont l’autrice met en lumière leurs zones d’ombre est honnête et impressionnante.

Attache ta tuque avec d’la broche, c’est un recueil qui bouleverse !

[Amy Mackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn’t really for me. Lots of short stories that I couldn’t really get in to.

[Lacey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really did not understand this book. I was using an audiobook, but I could not get into each story that was being told.

[Margot Note]

There's nothing like a rainy day laying in bed with a heating pad on, reading some JCO!

[DOMINIQUE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Écriture nerveuse si particulière, histoires noires, dérangeantes,, tout Joyce Carol Oates en 12 nouvelles, reflet d'une Amérique névrosée et violente.

[Lina 🤠 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have only read a couple of JCO novels, and never previously a short story collection by her. I was quite excited to pick one up, seeing as her short stories are often hailed as even better than the novel length ones.

I was however disappointed with this read. Mick & Minn and Late Love were decent, but the rest just absolutely weren’t to my taste. I honestly found them all kind of grating.

Firstly, why is there exactly two types of women in a JCO story — either a waifish, small, skinny blonde with blue eyes who is a manic pixie dreamgirl, or an ugly, bitter, dark haired woman who is usually also tall and/or overweight. Secondly, why does JCO hate fat people and ugly people so much? This collection comes across as shockingly hateful to women especially.

It also felt like JCO just didn’t really care about these stories. She overuses the same similes and metaphors over and over, and the plots themselves are repetitive and uninspired. Weekday especially made me roll my eyes; a very ancient and thus predictable tall tale that I was bored of the 100th time I heard it.

I will check out some of JCO’s older stuff, but this one wasn’t for me.

[Leo Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s always gold in a JCO mixed bag!

[BookwormCat · Rating 1 out of 5]

TW: GRAPHIC AND HORRIFIC CHILD ABUSE in the story Mick and Minn.

DNF @ 85%. The above story made me feel sick and I couldn’t continue this book any longer.

Some of the short stories weren’t bad and I found them engaging. Unfortunately most of them ended abruptly without any sort of conclusion. I would have loved some of them to be longer and more developed.


*****Spoilers Below*****






















The story Mick and Minn is very graphic. A pair of foster parents horribly abuses their foster kids and ends up killing one of them. The abuse is physical, sexual, and emotional. The abuse is described in graphic gory detail. **A child dies due to the abuse.**
There is also a lot of fat shaming in this story.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Short stories not my favorite genre

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

Dark and disjointed.

I sort of enjoyed the first story, but I didn't think the characters lived up to the description in the jacket copy. The woman didn't seem insecure to me, and the man was an obvious psychopath. Stories like this are perversely close to reality in a way that make them hard to read for entertainment.

Many people said Mick & Minn was the best story. I read about two pages of it and had to stop. I'm sure an argument can be made for using crass language as a literary technique, but I wasn't in the mood to read that kind of story.

This just wasn't for me.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if I enjoyed this so much as I appreciated the writing. I like a scary story, but every one in this collection is full of doom and dread. It's amazing how Oates creates atmosphere and feelings.

[Bie Peeters · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm so sorry Joyce Carol Oates, because I absolutely loved all your books, but this one I have closed after the second story... The writing is good, after all it's Joyce Carol Oates! But I just can't get in to the flow of these short stories.

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still Great

The latest collection does not disappoint. One of my favorite writers with a brilliant new collection of stories. Highly recommended.

[Hamlet ViCodei · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not every one lands, and the ones that do take your breath away.