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The Best American Mystery Stories 2008
“A must-read for anyone who cares about crime stories.”—Booklist
The award-winning author and Emmy-nominated television writer George Pelecanos serves as editor of the twelfth installment of this genre-expanding anthology, featuring twenty of the past year’s most enthralling, suspenseful, and slyly illuminating mystery stories.
A cut-and-dried case for a wily crime-scene reconstructionist is turned on its head in Michael Connelly’s “Mulholland Dive.” A terrible secret shared between two childhood friends resurfaces decades later as one of them lies on her deathbed in Alice Munro’s masterful “Child’s Play.” James Lee Burke tells the haunting tale of a Hurricane Katrina evacuee who unexpectedly finds comfort from an unimaginable loss in “Mist.” And in Holly Goddard Jones’s “Proof of God,” a young man’s car is repeatedly vandalized as proof that someone knows about the truths he’d never willingly reveal.
As Pelecanos notes in his introduction, the twenty “original and unique voices” in this collection pay homage to the genre’s forebears by taking crime fiction into a thrilling new direction. “But make no mistake,” he says, “we are all standing on the shoulders of writers who came before us and left an indelible mark on literature through craftsmanship, care, and the desire to leave something of worth behind.”
The award-winning author and Emmy-nominated television writer George Pelecanos serves as editor of the twelfth installment of this genre-expanding anthology, featuring twenty of the past year’s most enthralling, suspenseful, and slyly illuminating mystery stories.
A cut-and-dried case for a wily crime-scene reconstructionist is turned on its head in Michael Connelly’s “Mulholland Dive.” A terrible secret shared between two childhood friends resurfaces decades later as one of them lies on her deathbed in Alice Munro’s masterful “Child’s Play.” James Lee Burke tells the haunting tale of a Hurricane Katrina evacuee who unexpectedly finds comfort from an unimaginable loss in “Mist.” And in Holly Goddard Jones’s “Proof of God,” a young man’s car is repeatedly vandalized as proof that someone knows about the truths he’d never willingly reveal.
As Pelecanos notes in his introduction, the twenty “original and unique voices” in this collection pay homage to the genre’s forebears by taking crime fiction into a thrilling new direction. “But make no mistake,” he says, “we are all standing on the shoulders of writers who came before us and left an indelible mark on literature through craftsmanship, care, and the desire to leave something of worth behind.”
423 pages, Paperback
First published October 8, 2008
11 people are currently reading
437 people want to read
About the author
George P. Pelecanos
57 books1,636 followersGeorge Pelecanos was born in Washington, D.C., in 1957. He worked as a line cook, dishwasher, bartender, and woman's shoe salesman before publishing his first novel in 1992.
Pelecanos is the author of eighteen novels set in and around Washington, D.C.: A Firing Offense, Nick's Trip, Shoedog, Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go, The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever, Shame the Devil, Right as Rain, Hell to Pay, Soul Circus, Hard Revolution, Drama City, The Night Gardener, The Turnaround, The Way Home, The Cut, and What It Was. He has been the recipient of the Raymond Chandler award in Italy, the Falcon award in Japan, and the Grand Prix du Roman Noir in France. Hell to Pay and Soul Circus were awarded the 2003 and 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire, Playboy, and the collections Unusual Suspects, Best American Mystery Stories of 1997, Measures of Poison, Best American Mystery Stories of 2002, Men from Boys, and Murder at the Foul Line. He served as editor on the collections D.C. Noir and D.C. Noir 2: The Classics, as well as The Best Mystery Stories of 2008. He is an award-winning essayist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Sight and Sound, Uncut, Mojo, and numerous other publications. Esquire called him "the poet laureate of the D.C. crime world." In Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King wrote that Pelecanos is "perhaps the greatest living American crime writer." Pelecanos would like to note that Mr. King used the qualifier "perhaps."
Pelecanos served as producer on the feature films Caught (Robert M. Young, 1996), Whatever, (Susan Skoog, 1998) and BlackMale (George and Mike Baluzy, 1999), and was the U.S. distributor of John Woo's cult classic, The Killer and Richard Bugajski's Interrogation. Most recently, he was a producer, writer, and story editor for the acclaimed HBO dramatic series, The Wire, winner of the Peabody Award and the AFI Award. He was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on that show. He was a writer and co-producer on the World War II miniseries The Pacific, and is currently at work as an executive producer and writer on David Simon's HBO dramatic series Treme, shot in New Orleans.
Pelecanos lives with his family in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Pelecanos is the author of eighteen novels set in and around Washington, D.C.: A Firing Offense, Nick's Trip, Shoedog, Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go, The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever, Shame the Devil, Right as Rain, Hell to Pay, Soul Circus, Hard Revolution, Drama City, The Night Gardener, The Turnaround, The Way Home, The Cut, and What It Was. He has been the recipient of the Raymond Chandler award in Italy, the Falcon award in Japan, and the Grand Prix du Roman Noir in France. Hell to Pay and Soul Circus were awarded the 2003 and 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire, Playboy, and the collections Unusual Suspects, Best American Mystery Stories of 1997, Measures of Poison, Best American Mystery Stories of 2002, Men from Boys, and Murder at the Foul Line. He served as editor on the collections D.C. Noir and D.C. Noir 2: The Classics, as well as The Best Mystery Stories of 2008. He is an award-winning essayist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Sight and Sound, Uncut, Mojo, and numerous other publications. Esquire called him "the poet laureate of the D.C. crime world." In Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King wrote that Pelecanos is "perhaps the greatest living American crime writer." Pelecanos would like to note that Mr. King used the qualifier "perhaps."
Pelecanos served as producer on the feature films Caught (Robert M. Young, 1996), Whatever, (Susan Skoog, 1998) and BlackMale (George and Mike Baluzy, 1999), and was the U.S. distributor of John Woo's cult classic, The Killer and Richard Bugajski's Interrogation. Most recently, he was a producer, writer, and story editor for the acclaimed HBO dramatic series, The Wire, winner of the Peabody Award and the AFI Award. He was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on that show. He was a writer and co-producer on the World War II miniseries The Pacific, and is currently at work as an executive producer and writer on David Simon's HBO dramatic series Treme, shot in New Orleans.
Pelecanos lives with his family in Silver Spring, Maryland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
January 12, 2009
The difference between The Best American Mystery Stories and The Best American Short Stories is like the difference between The Real Housewives of Orange County and The Real Housewives of Atlanta; one is only marginally better, but for reasons that, ultimately, have no perceptible affect on the world.
The standout story here is Kyle Minor's "A Day Meant to Do Less." This is one of the best short stories I have read in years, which is saying a lot. It is not a "mystery" story per se, but then again neither are many of the stories included in this anthology. I honestly do not remember many of the other stories except for Rupert Holmes' "The Monks of Abbey Victoria" which was a good idea that was well-executed.
The standout story here is Kyle Minor's "A Day Meant to Do Less." This is one of the best short stories I have read in years, which is saying a lot. It is not a "mystery" story per se, but then again neither are many of the stories included in this anthology. I honestly do not remember many of the other stories except for Rupert Holmes' "The Monks of Abbey Victoria" which was a good idea that was well-executed.
July 23, 2009
I have absolutely no idea why these are considered mystery stories. At most they're crime fiction, but in many cases that's at best a loose tie. These stories strike me more as short stories that didn't get in to the Best American Short Stories 2008 collection. The stories are fine, and some are quite good - my two-star rating primarily reflects my disappointment in the lack of mystery writing.
October 13, 2024
Consigliato per chi vuole approfondire oppure avvicinarsi al genere del giallo
August 10, 2009
Best American Mystery Stories 2008 is the best of the series since the wonderful 2003 and 2004 editions. There is so much to like here I don't even know where to start.
James Lee Burke's "Mist" is a real highlight, one of the few Hurricane Katrina stories I've ever read that evokes what it felt like to be in New Orleans during that tragic time. I give high marks to everything Burke has ever published, and "Mist" holds up against all of it.
Alice Munro's "Child's Play" is a quiet masterpiece.
Holly Goddard Jone's "Proof of God" send chills up my spine with the car vandalism and the horrific rape and murder and I still felt sad for the boy who did it.
The prize of the collection is Kyle Minor's "A Day Meant to Do Less." It is very ambitious, spanning two points of view and an entire lifetime of the main character. In the contributor notes, the author speaks of Katherine Porter's "Pale Horse, Pale Rider," and how Porter enters into the head of an ill person. That is one my favorite stories, but I don't know. Maybe this one does the same thing even better. It is surely scarier. And it also works as a meditation on death and dying. I hope the author makes it into a novel or someone makes it into a movie.
James Lee Burke's "Mist" is a real highlight, one of the few Hurricane Katrina stories I've ever read that evokes what it felt like to be in New Orleans during that tragic time. I give high marks to everything Burke has ever published, and "Mist" holds up against all of it.
Alice Munro's "Child's Play" is a quiet masterpiece.
Holly Goddard Jone's "Proof of God" send chills up my spine with the car vandalism and the horrific rape and murder and I still felt sad for the boy who did it.
The prize of the collection is Kyle Minor's "A Day Meant to Do Less." It is very ambitious, spanning two points of view and an entire lifetime of the main character. In the contributor notes, the author speaks of Katherine Porter's "Pale Horse, Pale Rider," and how Porter enters into the head of an ill person. That is one my favorite stories, but I don't know. Maybe this one does the same thing even better. It is surely scarier. And it also works as a meditation on death and dying. I hope the author makes it into a novel or someone makes it into a movie.
June 4, 2009
The best of the series every year is best american mystery. 2008 is especially a good number. I liked Hugh Sheehy's The Invisibles and also ALice Munro's Child's Play. But the real standout number here is A Day Meant to Do Less by Kyle Minor. This story made my heart hurt. I loved that old lady by time it was done. I loved her son too. Beautiful.
October 20, 2008
This book kicks ass, especially the story, "The Empty House," by Nathan Oates. It's the best in the book and I'm not biased at all.
August 19, 2010
I don't know what a lot of these stories had to do with the mystery genre, but most of them were pretty durned enjoyable.
August 6, 2011
Standouts for me were: The Monks of the Abbey Victoria, Proof of God, A Day Meant to Do Less, At the Top of His Game, The Invisibles, Given Her History.
Read
March 29, 2023A bad and deleterious book. As one gets old, one begins to think, “I can produced a better anthology than these dolts,“ and perhaps one is right. These “literary” writers have replaced the door-to-door salesman as the prime annoyance of the age. And they are equally vacuous, equally insistent. Their stupid metaphors and similes curdle like two day old clam dip. They are so bad, I’m starting to write like them!
I kept reading, waiting for the book to improve, and it did. Alice Munro is a real writer. And Joyce Carol Oates, who’s not a real writer, is expert at defining the slow misery of upstate New York. But then the anthology worsened again.
Opening at random:
And with that established, Khaled Khemir Kimi could be “taken out,” to use the absurd term thrown about so lightly and casually even on the evening news lately, because that’s the way “potentials” and “suspects” and especially anybody who – as Layton figured in this case – maybe had something on Cunningham’s shadowy CIA was dealt with lately, simply imprisoned without a trace or, on occasion, outright gotten rid of.
[From “Tunis and Time” by Peter LaSalle.]
August 15, 2020
I’ve read several The Best American Short Stories collections, but this was my first The Best American Mystery Stories. I expected a series of police procedurals and whodunnits that would start to get tedious before I was through. What a pleasant surprise to find about half of these were very engaging stories, many by authors new to me, and all leaving me thinking: “Wow, what a great story…. but why was that in a mystery collection.” Then I would recall the introduction in which the editor defined a mystery story as one centering around a crime. It seemed the best stories in this book did not focus on the investigation of those crimes, but on their circumstances and long-term ramifications.
The ones I greatly enjoyed were: “The Good One” by Chuck Hogan; “The Monks of the Abbey Victoria” by Rupert Holmes; “Proof of God” by Holly Goddard Jones; “Tunis and Time” by Peter Lasalle; “A Day Meant to Do Less” by Kyle Minor; “Child’s Play” by Alice Munro; “The Invisibles” by Hugh Sheehy; “A Different Road” by Elizabeth Strout; and “Given Her History” by Melissa VanBeck.
The ones I greatly enjoyed were: “The Good One” by Chuck Hogan; “The Monks of the Abbey Victoria” by Rupert Holmes; “Proof of God” by Holly Goddard Jones; “Tunis and Time” by Peter Lasalle; “A Day Meant to Do Less” by Kyle Minor; “Child’s Play” by Alice Munro; “The Invisibles” by Hugh Sheehy; “A Different Road” by Elizabeth Strout; and “Given Her History” by Melissa VanBeck.
March 8, 2018
When I see the words "American mystery" in a title, I expect them to deliver sarcastic and possibly venal detectives, saucy and possibly duplicitous women, and richly surprising conclusions. In this collection, "Mulholland Drive" (Michael Connelly) made me very happy. I would recommend "The Hour When the Ship Comes In" (Robert Ferrigno) and "Hothouse" (S. J. Rozan) as well.
But most of the remaining stories were utterly NOT sarcasticdetectiveduplicitousgalsurpriseending; in fact they were not "mysteries" by anyone's definition. To me they seemed merely dark, mean, and sordid, with the author inflicting nasty events on his/her characters-- even Alice Munro's "Child's Play," and I love Alice Munro. This anthology may include the Best American Darkmeansordidnasty Stories of 2008, but as a mystery collection it left me flat as Fred MacMurray after Barbara Stanwyck got through with him.
But most of the remaining stories were utterly NOT sarcasticdetectiveduplicitousgalsurpriseending; in fact they were not "mysteries" by anyone's definition. To me they seemed merely dark, mean, and sordid, with the author inflicting nasty events on his/her characters-- even Alice Munro's "Child's Play," and I love Alice Munro. This anthology may include the Best American Darkmeansordidnasty Stories of 2008, but as a mystery collection it left me flat as Fred MacMurray after Barbara Stanwyck got through with him.
December 12, 2024
I do love these "Best Mystery" stories by authors that I rarely read, or maybe never even heard of. I go to my favorite authors first and was very pleased about their stories here. Most of these folks write novels but their short stories can be as good as their novels. And the really good part is discovering authors I never heard of or never even throught about. This is a real reading experience for mystery writers - only one did I realize the ending before I got there and that was by one of my very favorite authors. Try these books out - this one is from 2008 - I got it at the thrift store. I have no idea if the library has these composite books. This one is well worth the read. I even went back and re- read one story. It just stayed with me and I wondered if I missed something. I had not but the story was amazing. Give them a try.
January 28, 2022
I usually like short stories. I think that writers that can do it well, do so very well. After all, its like having a small package, yet being able to fit in a whole lot things: finely crafted characters and dialogue, rich descriptive writing and a good story.
This book has all that, even though there were some stories I didn't enjoy reading. But that doesn't detract from wonderful writing and editing and stories that create emotional responses in the readers — empathy, hate, joy, etc. You don't have to like all these stories but indeed it's important to value the craftmanship and attention to nuance, suspense and detail. Indeed these authors are masters and like fine wine, there's an appreciation for what they have created, whether you enjoy them or not.
This book has all that, even though there were some stories I didn't enjoy reading. But that doesn't detract from wonderful writing and editing and stories that create emotional responses in the readers — empathy, hate, joy, etc. You don't have to like all these stories but indeed it's important to value the craftmanship and attention to nuance, suspense and detail. Indeed these authors are masters and like fine wine, there's an appreciation for what they have created, whether you enjoy them or not.
March 29, 2024
A group of "mystery" stories. Some I liked, most were okay. Very few were mysteries based on MY definition of a mystery. At least in 2007 and 2008 they select suitable stories for that year. To qualify, among a few other criteria, it says "the story must be - duh - a mystery, by which I mean any work of fiction in which a crime, or the threat of a crime, is integral to the theme or plot. I read these stories and one of us is operating under a different definition for a mystery!
October 6, 2024
Once again I'm left scratching my head. Why were some of these stories included in a mystery anthology? Most were well written but I didn't think some of them were mysteries. They were short stories. Some had violence and killings but they were not mysteries, they were crime stories. I guess I won't read any more mystery anthologies edited by Pelecanos. Recommended for some of the stories, but not as an anthology of mysteries.
January 25, 2021
Maybe I just don’t like short stories. I greatly enjoyed a few stories in this collection. I found most others difficult to get through, some absolutely horrible to my brain. Happily putting this book into the free neighborhood library.
February 27, 2021
The first three stories were extremely boring, then this really picked up. The highlights are Proof of God, A Day Meant to do Less, The Empty House, Car Trouble, The Invisibles, Given Her History and St. Gabriel.
Read
December 11, 2023I picked this up at the library, looking for new authors to try out. Most stories weren't mysteries. Many featured somewhat graphic sexual assaults or sexual abuse with no mystery or suspense involved. I found a couple of new authors to try out, but overall a very disappointing collection.
December 30, 2017
This was a very good volume. However, most of these stories didn't really fall into the "mystery" catagory, not that I minded.
This was one of the better anthologies that I have read in a while.
This was one of the better anthologies that I have read in a while.
May 5, 2024
well written short stories but they are unremittingly GRIM.
November 21, 2024
Finally, more misses than hits.
March 12, 2017
This collection was just OK, definitely better in the second half than the early stories.
May 4, 2009
I saw this book on the coffee table in the family room sometime in January at my parents' house. My mom likes mysteries. I knew she'd gotten it as a Christmas present. I've never been a big fan of the genre. I looked inside. "Thomas Friedman", was scrawled on the title page. I didn't recognize the handwriting. "Who gave you this book?" I asked.
My mom looked at me quizzically, "You did!"
"No, no I didn't."
"You and Jeff did, for Christmas!"
"No, it must have been Leslie and Dave" (my sister and her husband.)
"Hmm. Maybe. I thought you did."
I was certain that I, that we had not. But I had been very, very sleep deprived (baby who was not sleeping well) for a long time at that point.
"Well, who's Thomas Friedman?" I asked her
"Who?!?"
"Thomas Friedman, his name is written here on the title page, did you write this?"
"No-?...Thomas Friedman. Tom Friedman...I don't know!?"
My sister's husband managed a coffee shop at the time. My brilliant powers of deduction went to work.
"Well, Dave must have found this lying around the store and it was in good shape, brand new even, and they're broke, you and Dad are hard to buy for, so I guess he probably re-gifted it and didn't realize it belonged to Thomas Friedman, who probably was pissed off when he realized he forgot his brand new book in the stupid Coffee Bean..."
"I don't know. Maybe. But I don't think Dave would do that. But I don't know. Could be" She wasn't as interested in this as I was. She also wasn't that interested in the book, preferring mystery novels to just short stories. She was folding laundry and watching 'Nature' on PBS when we had this conversation.
I borrowed the book and brought it home to San Diego. I read a bunch of stories right away then forgot it for awhile. I remember being a little disdainful that one of the stories "Child's Play" also appeared in "The Best American Short Stories of 2008" - It's a very chilling, good story, but still. Couldn't they have found something else?
A week or so later, Jeff asked me if my mom had read it and liked it. I said no, I didn't think so, she hadn't cared that I'd borrowed it. He said "Oh well, I guess I won't get it for her again."
"What?"
"I got that for her for Christmas."
"Oh." I felt a little let down. I guess I wanted Dave to have re-gifted it. That was just funnier.
"Hey", I said, "Who's Thomas Friedman?"
My mom looked at me quizzically, "You did!"
"No, no I didn't."
"You and Jeff did, for Christmas!"
"No, it must have been Leslie and Dave" (my sister and her husband.)
"Hmm. Maybe. I thought you did."
I was certain that I, that we had not. But I had been very, very sleep deprived (baby who was not sleeping well) for a long time at that point.
"Well, who's Thomas Friedman?" I asked her
"Who?!?"
"Thomas Friedman, his name is written here on the title page, did you write this?"
"No-?...Thomas Friedman. Tom Friedman...I don't know!?"
My sister's husband managed a coffee shop at the time. My brilliant powers of deduction went to work.
"Well, Dave must have found this lying around the store and it was in good shape, brand new even, and they're broke, you and Dad are hard to buy for, so I guess he probably re-gifted it and didn't realize it belonged to Thomas Friedman, who probably was pissed off when he realized he forgot his brand new book in the stupid Coffee Bean..."
"I don't know. Maybe. But I don't think Dave would do that. But I don't know. Could be" She wasn't as interested in this as I was. She also wasn't that interested in the book, preferring mystery novels to just short stories. She was folding laundry and watching 'Nature' on PBS when we had this conversation.
I borrowed the book and brought it home to San Diego. I read a bunch of stories right away then forgot it for awhile. I remember being a little disdainful that one of the stories "Child's Play" also appeared in "The Best American Short Stories of 2008" - It's a very chilling, good story, but still. Couldn't they have found something else?
A week or so later, Jeff asked me if my mom had read it and liked it. I said no, I didn't think so, she hadn't cared that I'd borrowed it. He said "Oh well, I guess I won't get it for her again."
"What?"
"I got that for her for Christmas."
"Oh." I felt a little let down. I guess I wanted Dave to have re-gifted it. That was just funnier.
"Hey", I said, "Who's Thomas Friedman?"
September 23, 2009
Mysteries aren't something I normally read. Much more often it's the Best American Short Stories series. But it's good to try new things once in a while, right? I had hoped to gain a better understanding of the mystery genre by reading this book but alas - not so much. The majority of the stories were crime fiction and the mystery element wasn't as strong as I'd hoped. The stand out story, in my opinion, was "The Invisibles" by Hugh Sheehy. It wasn't the mixture of crime and mystery that impressed me so much as the tension that runs from the first sentence to the last. It's a reminder of why the short story form is so appealing in the first place. The world needs more short stories like this one.
If the book's literary density matched its physical heft, it might have been a terrific read. The problem is that some of these stories left me wondering how they made the cut for inclusion into a Best American anything. Most of the stories here were well written. But to call a story the Best, to me, implies something more, something revealing or shocking about human nature, something that makes you question an aspect of life or, ideally, makes you want to go back and read it again just to make sure that you didn't miss anything. The stories here are good but to call them the Best falls just a little short of the mark.
If the book's literary density matched its physical heft, it might have been a terrific read. The problem is that some of these stories left me wondering how they made the cut for inclusion into a Best American anything. Most of the stories here were well written. But to call a story the Best, to me, implies something more, something revealing or shocking about human nature, something that makes you question an aspect of life or, ideally, makes you want to go back and read it again just to make sure that you didn't miss anything. The stories here are good but to call them the Best falls just a little short of the mark.
June 1, 2009
This book might have been better been titled "Best American Crime Fiction" because none of the stories in it were traditional mysteries.
In all honesty, I found it a bit of a slog, but gave it three stars anyway for some stand-out stories.
Robert Ferrigno's "The Hour When the Ship Comes In" from Los Angeles Noir was spot-on with the hard-boiled voice updated for modern times. I quite enjoyed Peter LaSalle's "Tunis and Time" from The Antioch Review right up until the last page when he suddenly felt compelled to summarize his backstory in one giant infodump. Alice Munro's "Child's Play" (Harper's Magazine) was beautiful, if not at all a mystery. Hugh Sheey's "The Invisibles" (Kenyon Review) was vivid, surreal, and mysterious.
Rupert Holmes' "The Monks of Abbey Victoria" )Dead Man's Hand wins the prize for being my surprise favorite--a story with a twist built in such a way that the ending was delightful rather than irritating.
Actually, flipping through this again, there were quite a few really compelling stories. It's just that most of them weren't what I wanted out of a book called Best American Mystery Stories.
In all honesty, I found it a bit of a slog, but gave it three stars anyway for some stand-out stories.
Robert Ferrigno's "The Hour When the Ship Comes In" from Los Angeles Noir was spot-on with the hard-boiled voice updated for modern times. I quite enjoyed Peter LaSalle's "Tunis and Time" from The Antioch Review right up until the last page when he suddenly felt compelled to summarize his backstory in one giant infodump. Alice Munro's "Child's Play" (Harper's Magazine) was beautiful, if not at all a mystery. Hugh Sheey's "The Invisibles" (Kenyon Review) was vivid, surreal, and mysterious.
Rupert Holmes' "The Monks of Abbey Victoria" )Dead Man's Hand wins the prize for being my surprise favorite--a story with a twist built in such a way that the ending was delightful rather than irritating.
Actually, flipping through this again, there were quite a few really compelling stories. It's just that most of them weren't what I wanted out of a book called Best American Mystery Stories.
December 28, 2015
I've found that when it comes to the "Best American" series, your primary gauge for quality lies with the guest editor. If you're a fan of the editor, you'll probably like most of the stories. God help us all if Stephanie Meyer or E.L. James ever get their hands on guest editing duties. Thankfully, George Pelecanos helmed this one. He's a good author, and the pieces in this collection reflected that.
What I love about collections like this is the opportunity they present for discovering new authors. Always a bonus for book nerds like myself who are tapped out on the all the usual names on the best seller lists. After reading this, I'll definitely look for more from Jas. R. Petrin ("Car Trouble" - a darkly funny story with a Nelson DeMille-esque protagonist), Kyle Minor ("A Day Meant To Do Less"), and Rupert Holmes ("The Monks of the Abbey Victoria" - my vote for best story in the collection, and maybe one of the best I've ever read).
Most of the stories in this volume were good. A few were great. Pretty much all were, at minimum, worth reading.
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
What I love about collections like this is the opportunity they present for discovering new authors. Always a bonus for book nerds like myself who are tapped out on the all the usual names on the best seller lists. After reading this, I'll definitely look for more from Jas. R. Petrin ("Car Trouble" - a darkly funny story with a Nelson DeMille-esque protagonist), Kyle Minor ("A Day Meant To Do Less"), and Rupert Holmes ("The Monks of the Abbey Victoria" - my vote for best story in the collection, and maybe one of the best I've ever read).
Most of the stories in this volume were good. A few were great. Pretty much all were, at minimum, worth reading.
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
December 26, 2014
Alternative title: "Hey, Remember How Many Contemporary Mystery Writers Are Incredibly Misogynistic?" That was essentially my experience reading through this collection. I picked it up a while ago...probably around 2009...when I was working for the publisher. I was also in the early stages of discovering that I loved mysteries (thanks Jacqueline Winspear!), so I was excited to pick this up and discover some great new mystery authors. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. The stories I loved were from the usual suspects (Munro, Oates, etc), and there were SO MANY GROSS stories that tried to pay homage to the hardboiled detective by being sexist. I am not kidding at all when I say that there was a story in this collection of a wall streeter and his women. Not even a mystery--gag. There were maybe 2-3 stories by authors who I hadn't heard of that were pretty good. But nothing good enough to make me interested in pursing any new leads.
May 26, 2009
I have read several of these over the years, and they always have a lot of great stories. In this volume, quite a few are not really mysteries in that there is no question who has committed the crime--some are not even crime stories, e.g. Joyce Carol Oates' story (Damn her! Is there anything she can't write?). Usually that would annoy me, because I love real mysteries, but the quality of the writing here is high enough that it doesn't really matter. Only a few misfires. Just started reading my first Pelecanos book--it's also the first book I'm reading on my Kindle, so I feel like I'm cheating somehow.
March 6, 2009
There are a few good stories in the collection, but as usual, I am left wondering if the producers of this series don't somehow have a different definition of the word "best" from the rest of us.
In my opinion, they should call it "Some Good American Mystery Stories".
Oh, well. What are you going to do? It's admittedly difficult to get good short suspense fiction, and this volume is a solution to reading 8 to 10 different monthlies and quarterlies looking for good stories. Who cares if not all of them leave you gobsmacked?
In my opinion, they should call it "Some Good American Mystery Stories".
Oh, well. What are you going to do? It's admittedly difficult to get good short suspense fiction, and this volume is a solution to reading 8 to 10 different monthlies and quarterlies looking for good stories. Who cares if not all of them leave you gobsmacked?
May 30, 2009
Nice to see the definition of a "mystery" expanded. And fun to see that many top tier mags are publishing crime fiction--Tin House, Harper's, The New Yorker, The Southern Review. But now I've sold my soul, went and done something bad like give a nod to all those mags who don't need nods and get them all too often. I will say that I will now subscribe to a few smaller lit-mags based on the quality of their fiction that appeared in this anthology. Check it out. This book, I mean. It's good and fun and surprising in many ways.
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