The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2021

by Lee Child (Editor, Introduction), Otto Penzler (Editor)

Lee Child selects the twenty best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Stephen King, Sara Paretsky, and many more.

Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international bestseller Lee Child has selected the twenty most suspenseful, most confounding, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Fiction, Crime, Anthologies, Audiobook, Mystery Thriller

476 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 14, 2021

About the author

Lee Child was born October 29th, 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. By coincidence he won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation director during British TV's "golden age." During his tenure his company made Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, and Cracker. But he was fired in 1995 at the age of 40 as a result of corporate restructuring. Always a voracious reader, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis and bought six dollars' worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series.

Killing Floor was an immediate success and launched the series which has grown in sales and impact with every new installment. The first Jack Reacher movie, based on the novel One Shot and starring Tom Cruise and Rosamund Pike, was released in December 2012.

Lee has three homes—an apartment in Manhattan, a country house in the south of France, and whatever airplane cabin he happens to be in while traveling between the two. In the US he drives a supercharged Jaguar, which was built in Jaguar's Browns Lane plant, thirty yards from the hospital in which he was born.

Lee spends his spare time reading, listening to music, and watching the Yankees, Aston Villa, or Marseilles soccer. He is married with a grown-up daughter. He is tall and slim, despite an appalling diet and a refusal to exercise.

Reviews

[Sandysbookaday (taking a step back for a while) · Rating 3 out of 5]

EXCERPT: taken from 30 and Out by Doug Allyn

The sign on the door read Sgt. Charles Marx, Major Crimes. I raised my fist to knock, then realised the guy at the desk wasn't just resting his eyes. He was totally out, slouched in his chair, his grubby Nikes up on his desk, baseball cap tipped down over his eyes, snoring softly. Looked like a Class C wrestling coach after a losing season. Edging in quietly, I eased down into the chair facing his desk. When I glanced up, his eyes were locked on mine like lasers.

'Can I help you?'

'I'm Jax LaDart, Sergeant Marx. Your FNG.'

He frowned at that, then nodded. 'The f*****g new guy,' he said, massaging his eyelids with his fingertips. 'Ah, right. You're the home boy the chief hired, straight out of the army. I was reading your record. It put me to sleep.' He spun the Dell laptop on his desk to show me the screen. 'According to the Military Police, you've closed a lot of felony cases overseas, but the details are mostly redacted, blacked out.'

'The army'd classify Three Blind Mice if they could. You don't remember me, do you?'

ABOUT 'THE MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP PRESENTS THE BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR: 2021: Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international bestseller Lee Child has selected the twenty most suspenseful, most confounding, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

Includes stories by:

Alison Gaylin
David Morrell
James Lee Burke
Joyce Carol Oates
Martin Edwards
Sara Paretsky
Stephen King
Sue Grafton (with a new, posthumously-published work!)

And many more!

MY THOUGHTS: There are a couple of absolutely brilliant stories in here - Sue Grafton's 'If You Want Something Done Right . . .' and Stephen King's 'The Fifth Step' are the two that stood out for me. Others that I enjoyed were: 'The Locked Cabin' by Martin Edwards, Janice Law's 'The Client', and David Morrell's 'Requiem For A Homecoming.' There was one story I absolutely detested - Parole Hearing by Joyce Carol Oates, and I didn't much care for David Marcum's 'The Home Office Baby' either, or the first two stories which were 'tough guy' fiction and almost completely put me off reading any more of the collection. The rest fell somewhere in the middle and were mostly quite mediocre.

This is by no means anywhere near my favourite collection. Quite a few, I zoned out of as I was listening, and had to return to. They just didn't hold my interest; absolutely no reflection on the narrators who, on the whole did an excellent job.

I know 2020 was a difficult year for all, but I am sure that there were far better mystery stories out there that could have been included in this collection.

⭐⭐⭐

#TheBestMysteryStoriesoftheYear2021 #NetGalley

#audiobook #contemporaryfiction #crime #detectivefiction #murdermystery #mystery #shortstories

Edited by Lee Child and Otto Penzler

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Highbridge Audio via Netgalley for providing an audio ARC of The Best Mystery Stories of the Year:2021 edited by Lee Child and Otto Penzler for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

[Andrew Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of twenty short stories all positioned to be ‘mysteries’. It has the mixed bag feel of virtually every compendium I’ve read: some I really loved others I skipped pretty early on having failed to be engaged. But for me, too many fell between these two extremes – they were just middle-of-the-road, well enough written but just not really grabbing me.

Although I’ve read plenty of mysteries, I have to say that most of the authors were new to me. Perhaps because I’m already drawn to these writers, my favourites were penned by James Lee Burke (atmospheric and superbly written) and Stephen King (short but the most surprising). There were others that I enjoyed, too, a story by Joseph S Walker springs to mind.

I listened to an audio version, and this worked well as the stories were tag teamed by competent male and female narrators. Overall, I think that for listeners/readers who are attracted to the idea of the book, then it’ll probably work well. My problem, I feel, is that I just found myself wanting more of the stories I liked and less of the others; I think I just prefer longer, more immersive tales - a decent pint of beer rather than a jolting shot of something stronger.

My thanks to Highbridge Audio and NetGalley for providing a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

[Shannon M (Canada) · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is difficult to read an anthology of short stories within a limited time period. They are meant to be savoured one at a time, with stops between. They take place in different settings, with different character types, and the individual authors use strikingly diverse writing styles. But when it is a library book, the reader has to squeeze in several at a time. I tried to take breaks over a five-day period, interpolating other reading materials while I tried to digest the individual offerings in this set. Nonetheless, I found that there were many that just didn’t engage my interests. Only two were so irritating that I just skimmed over them — Joyce Carol Oates’ “Parole Hearings” and Dennis McFadden’s “The Truth About Lucy”. But there were several that I just couldn’t relate to — they didn’t match my background, my interests, or they didn’t provide a surprise ending (at least one of these is crucial for me to enjoy a short story).

These are the ones I liked best:

Jacqueline Freimor, That Which Is True. Different and unpredictable. I may have related to it, as well, because I was one of those girls picked on from Grades 7 to 9 (although not as badly as the perpetrator of the story). It had a good ending also — the reader is left uncertain about the identity of the other woman. Was she simply a look-alike stranger (as she claimed) or that awful schoolmate who now regrets her long ago actions?

Sue Grafton, If You Want Something Done Right. Several twists, leaving the reader hanging right to the end. Well-drawn characters.

Stephen King, The Fifth Step. One of the shortest stories in the anthology, and the best. No extra words. King absolutely landed the ending.

Janice Law, The Client. I liked this one and I can’t pinpoint the reason I liked it, except that it read smoothly and I enjoyed the interplay between the two main characters.

Sara Paretski, Love & Other Crimes. Fast-moving and humorous. Although it stars V. I. Warshawski, the P.I. from Paretski’s long running series, a reader doesn’t have to have read any other stories from that series to grasp the important elements.

Andrew Welsh-Huggins, The Path I Took. I loved the writing style that sounded (to my ear) like a soft Irish lilt (although the author is American). The story moved quickly but initially seemed like an ordinary adventure tale. I had to read the ending three times to catch the subtle hint in the title — the double meaning for “path I took”.

So, overall, 3.5 stars, moved up to 4 on the basis of the King and Welsh-Huggins entries.

[Dee (in the Desert) · Rating 3 out of 5]

like most story collections there were some good and others... well, not the "best" IMHO. Of course, Oates, King & Grafton brought it, so that added to my enjoyment.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

22 Short mystery stories that I mostly enjoyed. My favorites were The Gift by Alison Gaylin, The Fifth Step by Stephen King, Thirty and Out by Doug Allen and Edda at the End of the World by Joseph S. Walker.
I chose to listen to this book on audio and the narrators were very good. Don’t just take my word for it, listen to a sample.
Thanks HighBridge Audio via Netgalley.
1. Doug Allyn- Thirty and out. 5⭐️
2. Jim Allan - Things that follow. 4⭐️
3. Michael Bracken - Blest be the Tie that Binds. 3⭐️
4. James Lee Burke - Harbor Lights. 4.5⭐️
5. Martin Edwards - The locked Cabin. 3⭐️
6. John M. Floyd- Luxy Bound. 3.5⭐️
7. Jaclyn (I can’t remember)- That Which is True. 3.5⭐️
8. Allison Gaylee - The Gift 5⭐️⭐️
9. Sue Grafton - If You Want Something Right. 4.5⭐️
10. Paul Kemprecos - The Sixth Decay. 3⭐️
11. Stephen King- The Fifth Step. 5⭐️
12. Janice Law- The Client 4⭐️
13. Dennis McFadden- The Truth about Lucy. 3.5⭐️
14. David Marcum- The Adventure of the Home Office Baby. 3⭐️
15. Tom Mead- Heat Wave. 3⭐️
16. David Morell- Requiem. 3⭐️
17. Joyce Carol Oats- Parole Hearing 5⭐️
18. Sara Paretsky- Love and Other Crimes. 4.5⭐️
19. Joseph S. Walker- Edda at the End of the World. 5⭐️
20. Andrew Welsh-Huggins- The Path I Took. 4⭐️
21. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce- My Favorite Murder.2⭐️

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meet the new series,
Same as the old series

This book, says the "Foreward" by Otto Penzler, is planned to be the first in a new series of such anthologies. Penzler is identified as the "Series Editor." Stories that might be included are first looked through by Michele Slung; there are about three thousand such stories per year, Penzler states. Slung passes those that she thinks may be appropriate on to Penzler. He reads these and then "passes on the best to the guest editor, who completes the selection process to arrive at the twenty that comprise the book." One might wonder if such a complex procedure would be workable - if one did not know that Penzler, Slung, and assorted guest editors have already been doing this for years in the Best American Mystery Stories series, which reached twenty-four volumes before this almost identical series began to be published. The primary difference between the two series, other than the change in publisher and the addition of "The Mysterious Bookshop presents..." to the title, is that the entries are no longer limited to those originally published in the United States or Canada, although "they must have been published in the English language for the first time in the [appropriate] calendar year." I do not know if stories originally published in a language other than English are eligible for inclusion.

Another difference between the two series is that it was always stated in the earlier series that Penzler would winnow the stories he received from Slung down to exactly fifty, which were passed on to the guest editor, who in turn would choose the twenty that would appear in the annual volume. The other thirty stories would be listed at the back of the book as "Other Distinguished Mystery Stories" of that year. The foreward in this book states that in addition to the twenty tales included in the book, "ten additional stories are listed on an Honor Roll."

Two other significant differences between the two series: A twenty-first story is now included, "a bonus story from the past." Also, the information about each author and notes by the authors accompanying each story have always appeared grouped together at the back of the book; now the information about the authors precedes each story and notes about the stories immediately follow the story to which they refer, which I think is a more sensible format.

Much of Penzler's foreward is the same as those in the previous series, including his definition of a mystery story as being "any work of fiction in which a crime, or the threat of a crime, is central to the theme or plot."

One final note about the foreward is that Penzler refers to a story here by Joyce Carol Oates as a "long story." It is actually the shortest story in the book, only nine pages. Oates had been something of a tutelary spirit of the former series, appearing in many volumes. I wonder if Penzler might have planned to include another, longer story by Oates in this book before choosing the one that does appear here.

The guest editor for this volume is Lee Child. Child writes:

I don't know much about short stories, or about their true origins, mechanisms, or appeal. My only consolation is I'm not sure anyone else does either.

What is a short story?

Eleven years ago, when Child wrote the "Introduction" to The Best American Mystery Stories 2010, he wrote:

Everyone seems to know what a short story is, but there is very little in the way of theoretical discussion of the form.

Penzler and Child pretending that this really is a new series and that Child has not written a similar introduction before is just silly. This disingenuous pretense taints the whole concept of the revised series for me.

The story "from the past" included here is "My Favorite Murder," an 1888 tale by Ambrose Bierce. The narrator is on trial for the murder of his mother. His (successful) defense is that his earlier murder of his uncle was much more heinous and he received no punishment for that. This is intended to be amusing, and parts of it are. Unfortunately, the narrator uses a very mannered style which I quickly found more annoying than funny:

To say that [a bad-tempered ram] would butt anything accessible is but faintly to express the nature and scope of its military activity: the universe was its antagonist; its methods that of a projectile. It fought like the angels and devils, in mid-air, cleaving the atmosphere like a bird, describing a parabolic curve and descending upon its victim at just the exact angle of incidence to make the most of its velocity and weight. Its momentum, calculated in foot-tons, was something incredible.

The new story that I liked least is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, "The Adventure of the Home Office Baby" by David Marcum. I can't think of a Holmes imitation that I have ever really liked*, and this spy story is not an exception. At about the same time as Holmes was detecting, his countryman, W. S. Gilbert, noted:

Things are seldom what they seem;
Skim milk masquerades as cream.

And Holmes quickly sees through a plot that includes a masquerade.

I must note that the "Home Office Baby" of the title is a dead baby mailed to a government office. I find that this is based on a real incident; nonetheless, if someone were trying to find a premise that I would definitely find distasteful, a dead baby in the mail would fill the bill nicely - or, rather, nastily.

I have been impressed by most of the stories that I have read by Dennis McFadden. That does not apply to "The Truth About Lucy," which I found disappointing. This is set in the rural community of Hartsgrove, where scandals and crimes evidently make up most of the life of the town. This is a sequel to other stories set in the same locale, and there appear to be references to a number of such stories, most of which I have not read.

Sara Paretsky has the longest story in this anthology, "Love & Other Crimes," an entry in Paretsky's generally excellent series about Chicago private investigator V. I. Warshawski. Warshawski is hired by someone she knew growing up whose brother has been arrested for "second-degree homicide along with criminal destruction of property" - "about twenty-five million dollars worth of wine and booze" in a warehouse. This is fast-moving, entertaining, and mindless. I expect Paretsky's work to be fast-moving and entertaining; I definitely don't expect it to be mindless. This is not a bad story but it is not one of Paretsky's best.

A man and woman strike up a shipboard acquaintanceship in Martin Edwards' "The Locked Cabin." They have two principal subjects of conversation: another couple who have met on the ship and seem to be developing a relationship; and a young woman who had previously occupied the same cabin that now is assigned to the woman from the couple under scrutiny. That earlier occupant of the cabin had been found shot to death in that cabin; the cabin was locked, but there are reasons to believe that she did not commit suicide. This is a good, tricky tale, but, as with the Paretsky story, not the author's best work.

Penzler describes Joyce Carol Oates as "the greatest living writer who has not yet won the Nobel Prize for Literature." In her brief story (with a long title) "Parole Hearing, California Institution for Women, Chino, CA," Oates delivers an imaginary monologue - or series of monologues - in the thoughts of one of the female murderers once part of the Manson Family. They are what that woman might say, or might have said, or might have contemplated saying, to a Parole Board. In her notes after the story, Oates says that the speaker is "partly fictitious and partly based upon Leslie Van Houton who, denied her twenty-second request for parole recently by the intervention of the governor of California, was revealed to be the oldest female inmate in the California prison system." This is powerful and, I think, somewhat unfair to Van Houton - who, admittedly, committed horrible crimes, just not the specific crimes attributed to that character in the story.

Sue Grafton has a posthumously published story, "If You Want Something Done Right...." An unhappy wife, thinking about ways to cause her husband's death, meets a man who offers to kill him, with no monetary compensation. The wife, who believes this, is, obviously, a dope - until the story decides that she is actually amazingly sly and capable of thinking quickly. Funny, and not remotely realistic.

In "Blest Be the Tie That Binds" by Michael Bracken, a newly married young minister is told that he must help criminals launder money disguised as donations to his church. If he does not, his wife will be at risk. Fortunately the minister has secrets from his past that may help him. The one main flaw I find in this story is how unsupportive his new wife is.

"The Sixth Decoy" is an entry in Paul Kamprecos' series about private investigator Aristotle Socarides, usually just called "Soc." Soc is hired to track down an extremely valuable carved duck. The person hiring him is a deranged but extraordinarily wealthy arms dealer, a man who needs that duck to complete a collection...and is determined to get it. The collector is also a man with many severe allergies and can not go outside without a hazmat suit. Finding the carving is not the most difficult thing that Soc needs to do. The wealthy collector would be a perfect comic book villain - smart, rich, and totally evil.

The narrator of Jacqueline Freimor's "That Which Is True" is a woman chosen to serve on a jury, much against her will. She thinks that another member of the jury is someone who used to bully her in school. This becomes less of an issue when another juror holds the entire jury hostage at gunpoint. This is not realistic but it is obviously not intended to be; "That Which Is True" is basically a comic story.

Ray Wilde is a New England private investigator and the narrator of "The Client" by Janice Law. The client of the title is an aging woman who repeatedly has Wilde find information on people. Eventually Wilde realizes that all these people are criminals, and, oddly, some die violently after Wilde gives the woman his reports. Vigilante justice often seems more acceptable in fiction than it would be in real life.

In "Things That Follow" by Jim Allyn, many of the officers in an urban police department are former Marines. The partner of one of those officers dies, and the surviving officer is assigned to work with a man who has been a police officer for some time but has always worked in an office. The older police officer is convinced that his new partner would not do well in a dangerous situation. He soon gets a chance to see if he is correct. Jim Allyn's postscript about the writing of this story is almost as good as the story itself.

John Floyd's "Biloxi Bound" is one of my favorite stories in the book. Two brothers run a restaurant that has become increasingly less successful. Moreover, crimes, including some murders, have escalated in their area; a police officer has told one of them that a Chicago mobster has moved to the neighborhood. Perhaps they should relocate; Biloxi sounds like a good place to move. One of the brothers has a reason not to move though - his increasing friendliness with a local librarian. Then the restaurant is held up. The ending of the story is somewhat telegraphed, but this is the only story in the anthology which one might describe as "sweet."

"Heatwave" by Tom Mead is quite definitely not sweet. Max Ehrlich is yet another private investigator, working in Los Angeles in 1954. In the middle of a terrible heatwave, Ehrlich is hired to find a woman's missing son. Ehrlich does a fine job, but the son is being sought by others as well, one of whom is a blind hitman.

In "The Fifth Step" by Stephen King, one man approaches another in a park. The man seeking the other's company wants to tell him a personal story. He is an alcoholic, trying hard to quit drinking. He has become hung up on the fifth step of the Alcoholics Anonymous famous twelve-step program. That step is "Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs." He wants to tell of his wrongs to the other man in the park. That certainly sounds harmless...doesn't it? As one might expect from King, this is quite good.

Two old friends get together in the college they attended in David Morrell's "Requiem for a Homecoming." One of them now teaches there; the other is a renowned screenwriter. They discuss another former student who had been at the college at the same time, a young woman, who had been murdered in a school library. It seems that they both knew her better than they had ever acknowledged. Could one of them have been involved in the killing?

In my reviews of the last two volumes in the Best American Mystery Stories series, I praised James Lee Burke's stories highly. Burke writes lovely prose, often about topics of importance, usually within the format of a mystery story of some type. In "Harbor Lights," the male narrator reminisces about an incident which involved him and his father during World War II. They were in a boat on the Gulf of Mexico when they came across a number of bodies floating there. The father notified the authorities, even though he knew that he should avoid any involvement in whatever had occurred. This action changed lives, both those of the father and son, and of other folks as well. Burke's notes after the story say that Burke believes that this is his best short story. It is unquestionably very good. This is the first paragraph:

It was in late fall of '42, out on the Gulf of Mexico, just off the Louisiana coast, the water green and cold and sliding across sandbars in the sunset, when we saw the bodies bobbing in a wave, each in life vests and floating belly-down, their arms outstretched, their fingers touching, like a group of swimmers studying something on the floor of the Gulf.

Doug Allyn is one of my favorite authors of mystery short stories. I have a problem, however, with his story "30 and Out." A new police officer, coming to the force after a military career spent largely in combat, recognizes his new supervisor as an officer who had once done him a huge favor, that had helped shape his life for the better. That supervisor is due to retire soon after thirty years on the force. Although the supervisor could easily have avoided the assignment, he takes part in a dangerous raid on a rural meth lab. Something takes place that proves to have no relation to the raid. The new police officer must take action in response.

This is a fine story, one of the best in the anthology. The problem that I mentioned above has to do with Allyn using the same material in two otherwise unrelated stories. Because there is not enough space allotted on Goodreads for me to include information about this here, I am going to add it in the "Comments" section below.

"Etta at the End of the World" by Joseph S. Walker was nominated for an Edgar Award as one of the four best mystery short stories of 2020. Etta is driving from Iowa to Florida, fleeing from a situation that is not immediately made clear, going to "the end of the world," Key West, "where the road ends. Where all the roads end." She meets a young woman, Grace, in an abusive relationship with a man that she stays with because "Daddy gave me to him." But Etta now knows exactly how to get out of such a relationship, and she is willing to help. This is a fine story that develops in ways that I did not expect. However, it has an ending that I understand but do not condone.

"The Path I Took" by Andrew Welsh-Huggins tells of an American academic recalling his experiences as a young man living in Ireland in 1983 as he learned Gaelic from the people he encountered. The man, who narrates the tale, was staying in a village in the Republic of Ireland, far from the North where The Troubles raged - but not far enough. He comes across the body of a man murdered as being an informant, but the killers believe that he might have seen them and could be able to identify them. He is warned and tries to flee, and events occur that change the entire course of his life. From the clever title on, this is an excellent story.

I think that "The Gift" by Alison Gaylin is my favorite story in this anthology. The plot sounds ridiculous- and I suppose many people would find it preposterous. A famous couple, both movie stars, have a nine year old daughter who disappears from her school. The mother knows about disappearances; as a teenage actress, she had fled, going into hiding, returning months later with the child who is now missing, whom she said was the daughter of the actor whom she later married. The couple visit a psychic who seems to know secrets from the wife's past. He assures them that their daughter is alive. The wife suspects that the psychic may be involved in her child's disappearance. The wife takes unexpected steps. I think that this is a truly fine, appropriately spooky tale.

This is a good anthology, not up to the standard set by the 2020 volume of Best American Mystery Stories, but still recommended. I will probably read any new books in the current series - and almost certainly enjoy them.



*11/30/21

On second thought...

I do like Neil Gaiman's very clever fantasy/horror/mystery story "A Study in Emerald."

[Jim Thomsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s hard to critically assess the stories in THE MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP PRESENTS THE BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR: 2021 without putting the collection as a whole in context.

This is the first edition in the series, which came into being when Otto Penzler, the owner of Mysterious Bookshop and publisher of Mysterious Press, was removed from the editor’s post of THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES series that he had held for more than twenty years. (The series was rebranded THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE under a new editor, author Steph Cha, with a stated mandate to reflect more diversity in the crime-fiction community by ethnicity, age, gender, form and source material than had been seen in Penzler’s latest editions of the anthology. I think that’s fair to say.)

Penzler responded by creating this rival anthology, and doubling down on many of the traditional iterations of the short mystery story that he appears to favor. Or so it would seem from his story selections, which include a Sherlock Holmes pastiche; a tough-guy private eye from 1950s Los Angeles; a Golden Age gasser; a locked-room mystery; and a story from 1888.

The same defiant doubling-down seems apparebt from the author selections as well. There’s an objective basis as well as a subjective one for this assessment. The anthology skews elderly and white to a degree that, I think it’s safe to say even though I don’t have the numbers, is not reflected in the diversity of crime fiction published in 2021. All twenty of the authors whose work is published here are white; and nearly three-quarters of them are male. I couldn’t find ages for all the authors, but more than half are in their seventies or eighties. It also seems fair to say that this is by design, and what that says about the intent of Penzler and his guest editor Lee Child (author of a nearly incoherent and barely relevant introductory essay here) is best decided by you.

To me, it comes across as more than a little hostile toward the world we live in.

It’s also worth noting that Penzler & Co. appear to have called in favors and markers far and wide to assemble the highest-profile lineup possible, in the reasonable hope that star power would drive strong sales of this anthology. Many of the stars in this lineup were bigger stars thirty or forty years ago, but it can’t be denied that any lineup with Stephen King, James Lee Burke, David Morrell, Sara Paretsky and Joyce Carol Oates is one with a lot of attractive neon wattage. And, it must be said, the stars mostly shine here.

What’s harder for me to accept is that anyone could have read THE MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP PRESENTS THE BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR and concluded that its contents constitute a good-faith effort to find and fairly assess the actual best short mystery fiction published in 2021.

Opinions will vary, of course, and of course I probably read only a fraction of the tales and anthologies published over that year. (I’d conservatively say I read about fifteen anthologies and maybe four hundred total stories, including flash fiction, published in 2021.) But I can say that I read a lot of stories from 2021 that made me sit up and say “HOLY SH*T!” and that only one of them appeared in this anthology. Whether that’s a lapse on the submissions end or complacency on the curation end, I cannot say.

In my opinion, this collection consists mostly of merely competent stories, with some tickling me more than others, alongside a handful of flighty tossoffs and final-page fizzles. No outright clunkers in the bunch, I’ll hasten to add.

The best of the bunch, as I see it are:

“Parole Hearing,” by Joyce Carol Oates. (This is my “HOLY SH*T!” story.) As masterful in form as well as function, the story is written from the voice of one of the Manson Girls (Leslie Van Houten) as she asks to be paroled for her 1969 crimes. It’s incredibly chilling to see her slowly drift from humble penitent to … well, I won’t spoil it. It’s one of those “Damn, I wish I’d thought out that!” stories, which is a thought I often have when reading Oates’ work.

“Requiem for a Homecoming,” by David Morrell. A nice sneaky buildup as two old college friends reconnect on campus after twenty years apart, and reminisce about a campus murder. The more they chat, the more it becomes clear that one of the two has, at the very least, guilty knowledge of the crime. I had no idea how this one would end, and when it came, I found it satisfying.

“Harbor Lights,” by James Lee Burke. Plot matters in Burke’s work, but what readers love most is his unique voice and the spicy seasoning of his settings. This father-and-son tale of manliness and murder is set in 1942 Louisiana, amid much prejudice and paranoia, and is endlessly quotable. A favorite: “The rain had quit and the electric lights on the bridge had gone on, and a tugboat was working its way up the bayou. Through a break in the clouds I could see a trail of stars that was like crushed ice winding into eternity. I wanted to believe I was looking at Heaven and that no force on earth could harm my father and me.”

“If You Want Something Done Right….” By Sue Grafton. The creator of Kinsey Millhone, the iconic ‘80s private eye of twenty-five novels, Grafton was not known to produce much short fiction. It might have been supposed that after Grafton’s 2017 death, the world might not see anything new from her. But this one turned up, and it’s an on-the-money honey and a hoot to boot. A woman decides to bump off her husband, and everything goes comically awry along the way, including her choice of hitman. How confident would you feel entrusting a job to someone who says: “So what I hear you saying is that you and him are engaged in a parcenary relationship of which you’d like to see his participation shifted to the terminus.” And the ending is a happily nasty surprise.

As far as the other A-listers go, I give them both a B-minus. Stephen King’s “The Fifth Step” has a great setup — a stranger approaches a man on a bench in New York’s Washington Square Park to fulfill one of his Alcoholics Anonymous steps. King does a great job of making wonder where it could possibly be going, but the destination is Groansville.

Sara Paretsky’s “Love And Other Crimes” is a V.I. Warshawski tale that, like the Warshawski novels, is best enjoyed for its South Chicago settings and not its overcomplicated plot. Love or hate one another, Southsiders are united in a defiant tribalism against all outsiders, and the flavor of the old neighborhood is pungent here: “Don’t try spinning me a line, Donny. I’ve been watching you cheat at marbles since we were six.”

My favorite from among the non-stars was Joseph S. Walker’s “Etta at the End of the World,” in which one seen-it-all woman tries to help a girl who’s essentially her younger self out of a jam at a Florida beachfront motel.

The others had flat stretches, bland characters bent to blah plots, overly schematic structures, punchless finales, and obnoxiously toxic masculinity, among other defects. (Could anything be less 2021 than a “man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do” story?) None is an outright dud, but I can honestly say that if I were trying to pick the very best short crime fiction of 2021, none of these would make my second cut. Even for an audience of Caucasian Ye Oldes.

[Bookreporter.com Mystery & Thriller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since I left New York, I’ve missed my visits to The Mysterious Bookshop. Whether it was their current location on Warren Street or the previous one in midtown, this is a place created for readers and lovers of literature like me. I have nothing but fond memories of going there for holiday parties, author talks and signings, or just the random opportunity to speak with owner Otto Penzler about their Sherlock Holmes collection.

Therefore, it was a total pleasure for me to read and review this book brought to us by Otto Penzler and The Mysterious Bookshop, and edited by bestselling author Lee Child, as we take a look at some of the best mystery stories of 2021. Each is written by either very well-known authors or less popular ones, but all are award nominees or winners in their field. I will be highlighting six of them that stood out to me.

“Blest Be the Ties That Bind” by Michael Bracken
Imagine if a wealthy gangster attempted to use a local church to “clean” his illegally gotten cash by including it in the Sunday tithing collection. When Robert Connelly, the pastor of the Union Revival Baptist Church, marries Heather, they hold both the ceremony and the wedding party on church grounds. It is here that a mysterious man approaches Pastor Connelly and whispers in his ear something about his wife. He never gets a chance to track down this person but does recall the same unknown man also having words with the church treasurer.

When the gangster does reach out to the pastor directly, it happens after Heather has been mugged while shopping. The man offers $100,000 to the church as their cut in the business of “cleaning” upwards of a million dollars. Pastor Connelly reaches out to a law enforcement friend of his, and together they devise a plan to safely and smoothly rid the church of their slight problem.

“Harbor Lights” by James Lee Burke
The great James Lee Burke takes a break from his Dave Robicheaux stories to bring us this tale set in 1942 on the Gulf of Mexico just off the Louisiana coast. It is here where Aaron’s father points out the bodies he sees floating face down in the water. An ex-military man who shares his wit and wisdom with his son, he is also the only one shrewd enough to put two and two together and conclude that an enemy submarine may have been to blame. During the brief afterword, Burke proclaims that “Harbor Lights” is his best short story as he put his entire life into it.

“The Gift” by Alison Gaylin
Oscar winner Lyla McCord is appearing at the London premiere of her latest film, Desire of Annabeth. She gets the message every mother dreads: Inspector Harrison of Scotland Yard regrets to inform her that her daughter, Fidelity, has gone missing from their home in upstate New York. Lyla catches the next flight back to the States so she can join her husband, Nolan, at their place in Shady, New York --- within the heart of the Catskill Mountains --- to assist the police in whatever they need to find Fidelity. Once readers discover what “The Gift” actually means (yes, there is a psychic involved), everything will make sense in this well-written tale.

“If You Want Something Done Right...” by Sue Grafton
Sue Grafton left us far too soon, and ironically after the letter “Y” in her alphabet-titled mystery series. Her contribution is a tale involving a wife stuck in a childless and now possibly loveless relationship with her husband. She is trying everything she can think of to prove his infidelity but has not turned up anything as of yet. So she seeks out the assistance of someone who can “take care” of her issue, and they decide on poisoning --- a favorite method of murder made famous by Dame Agatha Christie. Of course, as you can gather from the title, some things are better done by yourself.

“The Fifth Step” by Stephen King
At one time, readers might have been surprised to find Stephen King’s work in anything but a horror collection. However, he has proven to the world that he is a top-notch writer who is not constrained by genre tabs. Harold Jamieson is recently retired from his role with New York City’s Sanitation Department and enjoying retirement at his home in Queens, where he can work on his garden. He is met one morning by a complete stranger who finds himself on Harold’s doorstep seeking help. Jack claims to have been a former salesperson and wants to know if Harold is familiar with The Steps. The two proceed to swap stories, and once the Fifth Step is revealed, the discussion will really get interesting and possibly deadly. This is an unsettling story that only a master like King could have created.

A surprise entry in this above-average collection was not written in 2021 but way back in 1888 by the great Ambrose Bierce. Even if you have never read Bierce, you probably are familiar with his story used for an Oscar-winning short film, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. It’s a classic, and it inspired me to read more by him. The story included here is called “My Favorite Murder,” and all you need is the opening line to get you hooked: “Having murdered my mother under circumstances of singular atrocity, I was arrested and put upon my trial, which lasted seven years.” To quote Stan Lee, “’Nuff said!”

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. In the foreword, Otto Penzler states, “Long ago I came to agree with the brilliant John Dickson Carr, who wisely averred that the natural form of the traditional mystery is not the novel but the short story.” Lee Child adds his own observation: “Therefore, you’ll also agree the items included here should be called simply stories, and those other things their authors produce from time to time should be called long stories.”

Reviewed by Ray Palen

[Kevidently · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finally got to visit the Mysterious Bookshop on one of my pre-pandemic trips to New York City. It’s such an unassuming place for some thing that has loomed very large my mind. They used to be a couple of great mystery bookstores in Boston, but that no longer seems to be a thing. Even the best things are ephemeral.

When Otto Penzler, proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop and the press associated with it, announced the annual anthology of best mystery stories (this time compiled and edited by superstar Lee Child), I was excited. Then I found out that Stephen King had a story in there, and I could not have smashed that order button fast enough.

As it turned out, I had read the Stephen King story - “The Fifth Step“ - before, and had forgotten I’d read it. That didn’t really matter of course, because the thing about the fifth step is that King is not appearing in this volume because his name is Stephen King. It’s because his story is really one of the best of the year.

Of course, none of these stories was in here because of name recognition. Sometimes with anthologies, some second-rate story by a famous person will make it in just so you’ll buy the book. That did not happen here. Not even with the presence of Sara Paretsky, whose VI Warshawski gets to strut her stuff. Not even with a lost story by Sue Grafton, who never got to write the last book in her alphabet series. Lee Child would have been forgiven for including her story in here even if it wasn’t all that great. Rest assured: it’s all that great.

All the stories in here are great. You’ve got private detectives, police procedural rules, crimes of passion and crimes of circumstance. Sometimes you hate the killers. Sometimes you cheer them on. There is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche in here by David Marcum that I was sure was going to feel a little arch, and then I was completely sucked in by it.

This year, I’m giving anthologies a shot in the way that I really haven’t in the past. I have long bought volumes with a single Stephen King story in them, because I have a great interest, and failed to read many of the other stories in them. I don’t really know why. Maybe it was my unfamiliarity with the short story medium. Stephen King was cool, but it was a bridge too far for other authors for me. I think I’m curing myself at this time. This is the second volume of a fantastic short fiction I read this year, and I kind of want to read more. I’m very happy I read this.

[Zade · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly consistent anthology. Some stories were better than others, of course, but I didn't find a single clunker. That may be a first!

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up
Nice collection of stories, some I really enjoyed, others not too much

[Kylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a bit boring

30 and Out by Doug Allyn ⭐⭐⭐

Things That Follow by Jim Allyn ⭐⭐⭐

Blest Be The Tie That Binds by Michael Bracken ⭐⭐⭐

Harbor Lights By James Lee Burke ⭐⭐⭐

The Locked Cabin by Martin Edwards ⭐⭐⭐

Biloxi Bound by John Floyd ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Gift by Alison Gaylin ⭐⭐⭐

If You Want Something Done Right by Sue Grafton ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Sixth Decoy by Paul Kemprecos ⭐⭐

The Fifth Step by Stephen King ⭐⭐⭐

The Client by Janice Law ⭐⭐

The Truth About Lucy by Dennis McFadden
⭐⭐

The Adventures of The Home Office Baby by David Marcum ⭐⭐

Heatwave by Tom Mead ⭐⭐

Requiem For A Homecoming by David Morrell ⭐⭐

Parole Hearing by Joyce Carol Oates ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Love And Other Crimes by Sara Paretsky
⭐⭐

Etta At The End Of The World by Joseph Walker ⭐⭐⭐

The Path I Took by Andrew Welsh-Huggins
⭐⭐⭐

My Favourite Murder by Ambrose Bierrce
⭐⭐⭐

[Ray Palen · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the things I miss most about moving out of New York are my visits to The Mysterious Bookshop. Whether it was their current location on Warren Street, or the previous one in midtown, this was a place created for readers and lovers of literature like me. I have nothing but fond memories of going there for holiday parties, author talks and signings, or just the random chance to speak with owner Otto Penzler about their Sherlock Holmes collection.

It therefore was a total pleasure for me to read and review this collection brought to us by Otto Penzler and The Mysterious Bookshop and was edited by best-selling author Lee Child as we take a look at some of the best Mystery Short Stories of 2021. All of the stories are solid, and each written by either very well-known authors or less-popular ones, but all of them award nominees or winners in their field. I will be highlighting a handful of short stories that stood out for me.

• Blest Be the Ties That Bind – Michael Bracken – this story I selected purely do to the fact that the subject matter was something I had not seen before. Imagine if a wealthy gangster attempted to use a local Church to ‘clean’ his illegally gotten cash by including it in the Sunday tithing collection? When Robert Connelly, Pastor of the Union Revival Baptist Church marries his fiancée, Heather, they hold both the ceremony and the wedding party on Church grounds. It is here where a mysterious man approaches Pastor Connelly and whispers in his ear something about his wife. He never gets a chance to track this person down but does recall the same unknown man also having words with the Church treasurer. When the gangster does reach out to the Pastor directly it is following his new wife, Heather, being mugged while shopping. The man offers 100K to the Church as their cut in the business of ‘cleaning’ upwards of 1M dollars. Paster Connelly reaches out to a law enforcement friend of his and together they kick off a plan to safely and smoothly rid the Church of their slight problem. A great short story!
• Harbor Lights – James Lee Burke – the great James Lee Burke takes a break from his Dave Robicheaux stories to bring us this tale set in 1942, out on the Gulf of Mexico just off the Louisiana coast. It is there where Aaron’s father points out the bodies, he sees floating face down in the water. Aaron’s father is ex-military and very shrewd taking much of this story sharing his wit and wisdom with his son. He is also the only one shrewd enough to put one and one together and conclude that an enemy sub may have been to blame. Burke claims during the brief afterward that “Harbor Lights” was his best short story and that he put his entire life into this story.
• The Gift – Allison Gaylin – Oscar-winning American actor Lyla McCord is appearing at the London Premiere of her latest film, Desire Of Annabeth. It is while she is in London that she gets the message every mother dreads --- Inspector Harrison of Scotland Yard regrets to inform her that her daughter, Fidelity, has gone missing from their home in Upstate New York. Lyla catches the next flight back to the States so she can join her husband, Nolan, at their place in Shady, New York --- within the heart of the Catskill Mountains --- to assist the police in whatever they need to find Fidelity. Once readers discover what ‘the Gift’ actually means --- yes, there is a psychic involved in this story --- everything will make sense in this well-written tale.
• If You Want Something Done Right… - Sue Grafton – author Sue Grafton left us far too soon, and ironically after the letter ‘Y’ in her alphabet-titled mystery series. Her contribution to this short story collection is a tale involving a wife stuck in a childless and now, possibly, loveless relationship with her husband. She is trying everything she can think of to prove his infidelity but has not turned anything up as of yet. She seeks out the assistance of someone who can ‘take care’ of her husband issue and they decide on poisoning --- the favorite method of murder made famous by Dame Agatha Christie. Of course, as you can gather from the title, some things are better just done by yourself.
• The Fifth Step – Stephen King – at one time, readers might have been surprised to find work from Stephen King in anything but a Horror collection. However, King has proven to the world that he is just a damn good writer and one not to be constrained by genre tabs. Harold Jamieson is recently retired from his role with NYC’s Sanitation Department and enjoying retirement at his home in Queens where he can work on his garden. He is met one morning by a complete stranger who finds himself on Harold’s doorstep seeking help. The stranger, Jack, claims to have been a former salesperson and wants to know if Harold was familiar with The Steps. The two proceed to swap stories and once the Fifth Step is revealed, the discussion will really get interesting and possibly deadly. An unsettling story that only a Master like King could have created. s
• A surprise entry in this above-average collection was not written in 2021 but way back in 1888 by the great Ambrose Bierce. If you have never read Bierce, you probably are familiar with his story used for an Oscar-winning short film entitled “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge.” It’s a classic and one that drove me to read more by him. The story included in this collection is called My Favorite Murder and all you need is the opening line to get you hooked: ‘Having murdered my mother under circumstances of singular atrocity, I was arrested and put upon my trial, which lasted seven years.’ To quote Stan Lee, “’Nuff said!”

This was an enjoyable collection to sit down with. In the Foreword, Otto Penzler states: “Long ago I came to agree with the brilliant John Dickson Carr, who wisely averred that the natural form of the traditional mystery is not the novel but the short story.” Lee Child adds his own observation: “Therefore, you’ll also agree the items included here should be simply called stories, and those other things their authors produce from time to time should be called long stories.”

Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter

[Елена · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for providing me with this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book consists of 21 short stories (including the bonus story at the end). I'm going to provide a rating and a comment for each of these stories.

This short story collection begins with "Thirty and Out" by Doug Allyn. It has ultra realistic, well-rounded characters. It's gritty and it's overall vibes are "redneck military". The mystery element, however, is not that strong. Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The second short story featured in this book is called "Things to Follow" and it's written by Jim Allan. His military past comes to life in this short story. It is quite evident that he has inside knowledge of SWAT teams. The characters were realistic, as well as the narrative. I didn't find anything relatable. And the story is not for my taste. Recommended for anyone who loves military related stuff. Rating: 2.5/5 stars

The next story is "Blest be the tie that binds" by Michael Bracken. The characters in it are morally gray and complex. The story is easy to follow and I especially loved the ending. Rating: 4/5 stars

The fourth story is written by James Lee Burke and it's titled "Harbor Lights". It is a strange narrative shrouded in mystery. Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The fifth story is called "The Locked Cabin" and it's written by Martin Edwards. It's a fascinating story about adultery and blackmail. Rating: 4.5/5 stars

"Luxy Bound" (spelling?) by John M. Floyd is the sixth story in this collection. In my honest opinion, it wasn't very memorable. Rating: 2/5 stars

The seventh story is called "That Which is True". It is fun, dynamic and tense. Rating: 4/5 stars

Alison Gaylin's story "the Gift" is story number eight in this collection. And it is my favorite one. It's about a missing girl and her distressed parents. The narrator is the missing girls' mother, who is also a famous actress. When a psychic contacts her with an information about her missing daughter, she must chose - reveal her secret or do what she does best, act. Rating: 5/5 stars

Sue Grafton's story titled "If you want something done right" is intense and intoxicating. It's a raving story of a woman planning on how she is going to kill her husband. Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The tenth story is this collection is called "The 6th Decay" and it is written by Paul Kemprecos. It features Aristotle Socrates who's a private detective and a fisherman. The storytelling is amazing and the characters are life-like and well-rounded. The author knows what he's doing. Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The next story is written by Stephen King and it's called "the Fifth Step". It's ending was oh so horrible. The story centers around addiction and meeting strangers in the park. Those two don't mix well. Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Janice Law's "The Client" is the next short story in this collection. It's about an old lady who may or may not be suspicious. Rating: 4/5 stars

The thirteenth short story is "The Truth about Lucy". It's all about small town weirdness...and murder! Rating: 4/5 stars

David Marcum's "The Adventures of the home office Baby" is a story about Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. They have yet another case that they have to solve. Rating: 4/5 stars

"Heatwave" is the next story in this collection. It's about a missing 17 year old boy and a private detective who investigates his case. Things start to develop for the worse in this fun, dynamic story. Rating: 4/5 stars

David Morrell's "Requiem for a Homecoming" is about an old murder of a student stabbed to death. The story starts naively enough and turns into something unexpected! Rating: 4/5 stars

The seventeenth story is called "Parole Hearing" and it's written by Joyce Carol Oates. It's told by an unreliable character who has been brainwashed by Charlie Manson. Rating: 4/5 stars

Sara Paretsky's "Love and Other Crimes " comes next. It's all about murder. But it wasn't memorable for me.

"Edda at the End of the World " by Joseph S. Walker tells the story of two women bonding over murder. The story is unpredictable and dynamic. Rating: 5/5 stars

Andrew Welsh-Huggins' "The Path I Took" is a fascinating tale of an American student learning Irish in Ireland. But things aren't as simple as that. Things start getting deadly. Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The bonus story is written by Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce and it is titled: "My Favorite Murder". We get inside the head of a murderer who has killed his mother and uncle. Rating: 3.5/5 stars

All in all, this is a great collection of mystery short stories. The narrators did an excellent job as well!

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read many short stories but when I saw that this book of 2021 had some of my favorite authors, I decided to give it a try. It was a fantastic group of mystery stories with many more hits than misses. Not only was I able to read stories by some of my favorites but I found a few new authors to follow. My favorite stories in this anthology were by Sue Grafton, Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates.

Sue Grafton is the author that brought us Kinsey Millhone in the alphabet series. She died before she could write the last story in the series. Her short story is called If You Want to do Something Right. Lucy and Bert have been married for years. Bert is a lawyer, an alcoholic and consistently unfaithful to her. She kept a secret notebook on how to kill him and when she got angry she added to it. It was her own little stress reliever but when her purse was returned after being stolen and the notebook was missing, she realized that she may end up in trouble. She was contacted by an unscrupulous man who threatened to take the notebook to the police. After he threatened her, her life began to change but she still wanted her husband dead and to enjoy the rest of her life.

Stephen King needs no introduction. His books have been popular since he started writing over four decades ago. In The Fifth Step we get a fantastic story based on the fifth step of AA - to admit their wrongs to another person. Harold, a retired engineer is sitting on a park bench in Central Park when he is joined by Jack. He didn't know Jack and was reluctant to share his space but when Jack started talking he reluctantly listened to Jack's story about the mistakes that he'd made in his life due to alcohol. What happens after that is a real roller coaster.

Joyce Carol Oates is an award winning novelist and her short story in this book is called Parole hearing, California Hearing for Women, Chino, CA. It's told by a women who has been a prisoner for 51 years and is the oldest woman in the prison. She has been turned down for parole fifteen times and explains why she should be paroled this time. It is quickly evident that her reasoning is very skewed.

Find the time to pick up this book to read these three stories along with short stories from 17 other authors.
It's an enjoyable collection and you might find new authors to enjoy when you read their short stories.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

[Judy Sheluk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook version. There were some great stories in this collection. The standouts were Biloxi Blues by John Floyd, Etta at the End of the World by Joseph Walker, and the haunting Parole Hearing California by Joyce Carol Oates, with a nod to the late Sue Grafton’s If You Want Something Done Right. That said, there were a couple I skipped over after trying to stay connected and a couple that I felt were ok but far from what I’d consider the best of the year. Honestly I think some were chosen because Penzler likes the authors vs the strength of the story. Both male and female narration were good. Intro by Lee Child made no sense, a rambling retrospective that did nothing to make me want to read on.

[Bibliophileverse · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Best Mystery Stories Of The Year 2021 by Lee Child & Otto Penzler is a classic collection of 20 Anthology Stories. Written by some award winning authors, the stories are some of the best mystery stories of this year. Although, all the stories are not of same level entertainer. My favorites are Requiem For A Homecoming by David Morrell, The Fifth Step by Stephen King, If You Want Something Done Right by Sue Grafton and The Locked Cabin by Martin Edwards. Also, there is a bonus story by Ambrose Bierce.

I would give 4 stars to the book. Thanks to Netgalley for giving me an opportunity to read and review the book.
Read more on bibliophileverse.blogspot.com

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love short stories, and the best are just superb captures of moods and moments, while the worst are, well, often pretty bad.

This volume contains several stories that I found very good, some more that were interesting I’d not outstanding, and only a couple of duds. Admittedly, much of this comes down to personal taste.

If you like both mystery yarns AND short stories, I recommend this volume to you.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with every short story collection, I preferred some stories over others, but overall I was never bored. 30 and Out by Doug Allyn, If You Want Something Done Right by Sue Grafton, and Etta at the End of the World by Joseph S. Walker were particularly good. I really didn't like Parole Hearing by Joyce Carol Oates or Harbor Lights by James Lee Burke. The rest fell somewhere in the middle. If you enjoy mysteries, definitely give this collection a try!

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Many short stories, but barely a few are memorable. 2 of 10 stars

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible story by James Lee Burke, one of the best I have ever read, is the star of this anthology.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially liked this book because John Floyd of Mississippi has a short story in it! Hooray for John!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed bag as all story collections are, but there are some really great pieces in here. Well worth a read.

[Alyx Kruger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The following is my ranking of the stories from least to most liked (by me). I am not a writer and am easily swayed by thick description of the ocean.

20. The Adventure of the Home Office Baby - David Marcum
Nods to Arthur Conan Doyle’s style were nice, but many missed the mark. Also, if you’re going to write a Sherlock story, why write a boring one?

19. That Which Is True - Jaqueline Freimor
The only story I completely blank on when I see the title. Nothing about this one stuck.

18. The Locked Cabin - The Locked Cabin
This would be way better as a stage play- I nearly choked on the camp.

17. Things that Follow - Jim Allyn
I appreciated the (somewhat) happy ending, but felt like the characters lost me at points. Was rooting for the delinquent son tbh.

16. 30 and Out - Doug Allyn
I liked this one the more I thought about it, the exploration of masculinity and warfare and grief was interesting. But…I couldn’t relate to the characters.

15. You Want Something Done Right - Sue Grafton
I wanted to like this one more. The twist was good but predictable. I wanted to feel more for the main character.

14. Biloxi Bound - John Floyd
The twist had flashing neon bulbs all over it. That said, I really liked all the main players.

13. The Client - Janice Law
Somewhat forgettable but didn’t have a whole lot that bothered me. Thick descriptions were good.

12. Blest Be the Tie that Binds - Michael Bracken
Interesting premise that kept me hooked. Love parish council intrigue *chef kiss*

11. The Truth About Lucy - Dennis McFadden
LOTS of stuff to unpack here. When I read that this was the final story in a collection of interlinked episodes it made much more sense. I would have liked to see the episodes described in brief fleshed out (especially the meatloaf episode hehe).

10. The Gift - Alison Gaylin
Really interesting ideas and the ending felt like it was thematically justified. We love a good psychic.

9. Parole Hearing, California Institution for Women, Chino, CA - Joyce Carol Oates
This one is more of a stream of consciousness/poetic piece. Really dark and really visceral. This is hard to compare to the others as it’s more static rumination than plot driven.

8. Heatwave - Tom Mead
Really excellent exploration of mood. The claustrophobia is palpable in descriptions, dialogue, and plotting.

7. Harbor Lights - James Lee Burke
Really well written and really hard to read. The injustice and brutality of the establishment comes through. Gotta be in the right mood, but it’s definitely a doozy.

6. Etta at the End of the World - Joseph S. Walker
I just really liked Etta. She’s a can-do kinda gal. The whole story felt cinematic to me. Female rage ftw.

5. Love & Other Crimes - Sara Paretsky
I love this fucked up family. The sibling dynamic is clear and over the course of the story more and more of their upbringing is teased out. The callback at the end makes the story feel complete. This one surprised me.

4. Requiem for a Homecoming - David Morrell
In the form of a Haiku:
It’s short and snappy. That last twist made me happy. Library murder.

3. The Sixth Decoy - Paul Kemprecos
I SO didn’t want to rank this one as high because let’s face it, it’s not literary. But it rules. I love a cozy New England mystery. I love a quirky detective. I love artifact capers. It’s like Tintin meets Murder She Wrote. Brilliant.

2. The Fifth Step - Stephen King
This one had me going. Reads like an Edward Albee play (Zoo Story, anyone?) and the build is on point. One of the first ones I read and it still slaps.

1. The Path I Took - Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Totally Gorgeous. Interesting subject, beautiful description, well-drawn characters. This completely immersed me. I could feel the mud squelching beneath my wellies. Stunning.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part, the earlier stories were better than those in the second half. Individual reviews below.

30 and out: a military man is brought in by a local police unit, headed by a man soon to retire with his 30 years, to lead a troop of law enforcement into the woods to a meth lab. The head of the local police is shot and killed by a sniper, not a drug dealer. We’re the law men set up? Yes, by the grandfather of a boy who died from cancer in retaliation for killing his son a decade ago. I especially liked learning about the Belgian dogs trained for military service. 3 stars

Things that follow: a veteran cop is working with a rookie that he does not trust. They are on a stakeout, waiting for a wanted criminal to show up at his mother’s house, when the rookie wants to go in to check on what appears to be a dead car in the window. The veteran reluctantly agrees and inside they find the woman’s boyfriend shot dead with her holding the gun. The rookie tackles her instead of shooting her and covers for the vet who froze. The vet decides to make the rookie his new partner. 3 stars

Blest be the tie that binds: a newly married pastor is threatened by mobsters to allow them to launder money through his church or watch his wife die. Unbeknownst to the mobsters, the pastor has a sketchy past so when he calls his old neighbor friend, the mobsters end up dead and no one is the wiser. 2.5 stars

Harbor lights: a man and his young son see some suspicious activity in the harbor in 1942 and call it in to the police anonymously. Thugs show up the next day with the father’s female friend/former lover and put her in an internment camp for suspected communists. The woman ends up killing herself a week later and the father dies in a car crash. I have to admit that I didn’t really understand this one. 1 star

The locked cabin: a man and a woman are on a cruise and, separately, cozy up to an Italian woman and an American man respectively. The man chats with the Italian about another woman who died mysteriously a few months ago in tue same cabin, after an apparent suicide. When the woman coaxes the American into her cabin for the night, the Italian crashes in and takes pictures and together they blackmail her or else they will share the photos with her fiancé. But the man and woman already know the game that the Italian and American are playing because they used the same scam on their sister and friend who killed herself in the same cabin months ago and, with the tables turned, the Italian and American are the ones to die. 4 stars

Biloxi bound: two brothers run a diner and are thinking of selling and moving south, especially now that they hear that a former monster has moved to town. When they are held up one night, they assume that this guy is the mobster. But after they give him the money, he is hit on the head and knocked on it by customer, also new to the area, who is a middle aged part time librarian who walks with a limp and Carrie’s a cane. Turns out that the former mobster was the woman, not the man. 3 stars

That which is true: a woman is selected for jury duty where she encounters her bully from middle school. Although she denies knowing her, the two team up to trick a fellow juror who smuggled in a gun and is holding them all hostage. 3 stars

The Gift: an actress’ daughter goes missing and the psychic that he husband brings them to sees a train with big eyes and hears the name Lisa. The actress is sure that he is a scam so they leave but secretly she knows that he is telling the truth. The fact is that the child isn’t hers, she is really the daughter of a drug addict and when the actress rescued the baby she was wearing a Thomas the train shirt. The little girl is found safe after getting lost in the woods. 3 stars

If you want something done right: a woman is fed up with her cheating, lying husband. The problem is that he is a divorce lawyer so he’ll take everything, so she keeps a list of ways to kill him in her journal. When she finds out that he is going to change his will, she knows that she has to act but her purse is stolen with the journal in it. When the thief contacts her, he says that he knows what she’s up to and offers to put an intractable poison in his food or a product so that he dies when she is away on a trip but he is still alive when she gets home and he tells her that the man was actually hired by him to flesh out what she was up to. She said that she had anticipated that so she had a backup plan. She put poison that she bought on vacation into his allergy inhaler and that they have to get to the hospital right away or else he will die. She drives him there and he gets himself so worked up that he dies of a heart attack before they arrive. There was never any poison. 4 stars

The sixth decoy: a former marine takes on a job from a recluse millionaire to find a rare duck decoy. But when the millionaire tries to double cross him, he gets even by smearing a fake decoy with peanut butter, killing the allergic millionaire. 2.5 stars

The fifth step: an alcoholic confesses to a stranger his sins, including the biggest one of all, that he is addicted to killing people, right before he stabs him with an ice pick. 2.5 stars

The client: an old woman hires a private investigator to find out why a shady guy is hanging around town. He does and says that nothing seems to be strange about it and then he ends up dead. He knows that the old lady did killed him. 2 stars

The truth about Lucy: I didn’t quite follow this story about a dead woman named Lucy and who actually killed her. I blame the audiobook medium for not being able to keep track of all the different characters. 1 star

The adventure of the home office baby: a Sherlock Holmes short story featuring the trusty Watson. A woman claims that she is the mother of the dead baby that was sent to the home office without her knowledge. Holmes instantly sees her for the fake that she is and identifies her as a spy. Using fake papers from his brother, Mycroft, they trap her and she is arrested. 3 stars

Heatwave: a strange story about a mother hiring a PI to find her son who left the house the day before but hasn’t come back. She found a gun in his room and was afraid to call the police. The PI finds the kid that he was running with dead in his house, killed by a mobster in retaliation for the boys holding up a drug store, stealing the cash and killing the clerk. They want the PI to lead him to the other boy. When the PI finds him, he knocks him around a bit and takes him home, letting the mobsters follow the whole way. They he collects his fee and leaves the mother to decide what to do with the mobsters. 2 stars

Requiem for a homecoming: another bizarre story about a screenwriter back at college for his homecoming 20 years after graduation. He asks his best friend about the girl murdered on campus back then and they both admit that they dated her but his it at the time so they weren’t implicated. A professor was thought to be guilty since he died in a car crash not long after, which could have been suicide, leaving a wife an young daughter behind. The friend married the woman and the screenwriter speculates that maybe it wasn’t the professor who killed the girl but the wife. 2 stars

Parole hearing, California: an incomprehensible babbling story of a woman from Charlie Manson’s gang who is up for parole. 1 star

Love and other crimes: Greg, the baby of a family who was mostly raised by his oldest sister since their mom was a drunk and their dad an abuser, is arrested for murder and his sister hires her old friend from high school, V I Warshawski, to investigate. Greg was recently fired by the liquor store where the dead body of the store’s treasurer was found. But the store was also vandalized that night and it is unclear if the death happened before or after the shelves fell on him. With the help of Greg’s brothers, she is able to break into the store and find the video tape of the attack and sees that the body was there before the vandalism. She also finds financial records showing that the owner was defrauding the pension system and the treasurer found out so the owner killed him and framed Greg. 4 stars

Etta at the end of the world: Etta kills her husband and makes her getaway toward Key West when she stops at a motel and meets another abused woman. Together, they kill her boyfriend and head to Key West together. 2.5 stars

The path I took: a man retells his time as a student studying in Ireland and his narrow escape from the IRA after he found a dead body. 2.5 stars

My favorite Murder: a very short story about a boy killing his uncle by putting him in a sack, stringing him up in a tree and letting an angry ram beat him to death. 1 star

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first edition of this collection since the split between Otto Penzler and the Best American series publishers. I am also reading the new Best American Mystery and Suspense edition and I have to say this one is much better. I certainly don’t care what gender, color or nationality the authors of the best mystery stories are, I just want the best stories. This collection is better than the “competition.”

[Kristi Clemow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good short story collection - though I wouldn't necessarily call them "mysteries" - but what do I know. I love books like this - find new authors - enjoy short stories from favorite authors, etc. Personal summary/spoilers in comments

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of these were great and I enjoyed finding several of my favorite authors had written stories as well as books---even a recently discovered Sue Grafton!

[JYBoardwalk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, most of the stories are not "mysteries" as I think of them. And, as in most compilations, some short stories are good, and some just okay.

[Shan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The kind of anthology that seems to be infused with the tastes and personality of the person who chooses the stories. It has introductions from both Otto Penzler (series editor) and Lee Child, who edited this volume. Each story also gets a little intro with the author's awards and such and a little afterword where the author tells a bit about the context of the story. It's a mixed bag, see individual story comments below.

Oct 2021:
So far I've read 4 stories and had to set it aside to dig myself out of the pit of despair James Lee Burke's story dropped me into.

As I write this, I'm noticing that the order is simply alphabetical, so I guess it's just coincidence that it's front-loaded with tough guy stuff.

Doug Allyn, 30 and Out: A pretty good place to start. An Afghanistan war veteran returns home, where he's sent out with a bunch of FBI newbies to roust some backwoods meth cookers. The 30 refers to his supervisor, who's about to retire. Atmospheric.

Jim Allyn, Things that Follow: Another war veteran cop story. This one partners him with a seemingly soft guy who just transferred to patrol from the PR department. Tough guy police procedurals aren't my mystery jam, but it's a good story where things don't go as you might expect.

Michael Bracken, Blest be the Tie that Binds: A preacher with a past, his beautiful new wife, and someone who's mysteriously dropping lots of money in the offering box while whispering threats. Tough guy mafiosi stories are also not my mystery jam but I enjoyed this one.

James Lee Burke, Harbor Lights: I've seen Burke's name in every airport bookstore and supermarket book display for years, but have never read anything he's written before. I was surprised at how much this reads like literary fiction. It's well written but I hated the story--it's Louisiana in 1942, our main character's a kid, and he learns some bad things about his father while also getting to see some truly awful things, like what happens at Angola prison. So we get to see the awful things too. There's a lot packed into the story and the author's note says he put everything in his life into it.

Taking a break to read something that's more up my alley before I return to this collection. (Oct 2021)

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Martin Edwards, The Locked Cabin: Well, this was more fun that that Burke story. Murder in a luxury cabin on the Queen Mary. I'm not sure when it's supposed to be set, but it feels like a Golden Age mystery to me.

John Floyd, Biloxi Bound: A pair of brothers in some northern city who are thinking about closing their declining diner and moving to Biloxi and have an encounter with a robber and a retired gangster. It's actually pretty cheerful.

Jacqueline Freimer, That Which is True: A juror brings a 3D-printed gun into the locked jury room, in which our protagonist is more interested in running into her middle school bully who claims not to recognize her. Satisfying.

Alison Gaylin, The Gift: Twisty story about a child kidnapping.

Sue Grafton, If You Want Something Done Right ... : Fun story about a woman who amuses herself by analyzing ways to murder her louse of a husband, until her purse is stolen - and the notebook's in it.

Paul Kemprecos, The Sixth Decoy: Back to the war veteran ex-cops. This one's interesting, and I learned about a real artist named Elmer Crowell who carved beautiful wooden birds. The story involves one of his birds, a wealthy collector, and what happens to things that were in progress when a Madoff type character goes to prison.

Stephen King, The Fifth Step: Short and sweet (and dark and twisted). It refers to AA's fifth step, and it all takes place on a park bench where a man is reading the paper till he's interrupted by a recovering alcoholic whose sponsor told him to tell a stranger about his past misdeeds. (I wonder how Kemprecos feels about his story coming between two superstar writers.)

Janice Law, The Client: A detective and his eccentric client, an elderly lady who serves him tea and cookies while asking him to look up "school friends" who all turn out to be something more sinister. I really enjoy stories centered around old people who aren't just wallpaper or scolds.

All right. That was 8 more stories, and this time I'm going to set the collection aside to give my brain a break. I'll read a novel so I can get to know a setting and characters and coast for a while. There are 9 more stories in this anthology, and I'm feeling more positive about it after these 8 than I was after the first 4, although based on other GR reviews I'm dreading the Joyce Carol Oates story that's ahead of me. Who knows, maybe I'll love it! (Updated Sep 2022)

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Dennis McFadden, The Truth About Lucy: Another one from Louisiana, and has a bit of that literary fiction feel southern authors seem to go in for. An old, brutal murder haunts the family of the man who was executed for the crime. From the start, you suspect he wasn't really guilty, but the town shuns his whole family for decades after. It's a twisty story and felt long to me, because at every twist reveal I thought it was over, but then it kept going. The author note says it's the wrap-up story at then end of his novel-in-stories anthology, which helped me understand why it had to be so long.

David Marcum, The Adventure of the Home Office Baby: Sherlock Holmes story involving a literal dead infant mailed to the government to make a point. I've read all the original Holmes stories and a handful of other pastiches; this one is better than most of the ones I've read in keeping to the style of the Conan Doyle originals.

Tom Mead, Heatwave: Old-style noir story about a couple of teenagers--the kind you saw in black and white movies like Blackboard Jungle--and a couple of gangsters in the middle of an LA heatwave. Dark and violent. The author's note says he wrote it during the 2020 pandemic isolation, which influenced the suffocating claustrophobic feel of the story. It's well done.

David Morrell, Requiem for a Homecoming. Twisty story that nods to the movie Rashomon. I haven't seen the movie but it's kind of a blind men describing an elephant thing. Here, a couple of college friends recall a murder that happened in the library at homecoming years ago.

Joyce Carol Oates, Parole Hearing. I was nervous about getting to this one after reading some other GR reviews, but I liked it pretty well. It's creepy; it's told in a series of statements by one of the Manson girls at her parole hearing 50 years later, a mix of the nice things parole boards probably always hear and some things much less nice. The story makes its point but I thought the impact was diminished a bit by the author's note afterwards, which says the same thing more explicitly. It made me think, which is a good thing for a story, I guess. Redemption, forgiveness, retribution, evil, all that stuff. It definitely has a point of view. I don't share the viewpoint but I can appreciate the expert writing.

Sara Paretsky, Love & Other Crimes: Nice tight story about a liquor distributor in Chicago, the corrupt people who run it, the poor schmo who spent years working in the warehouse but was fired just before his pension vested, and the schmo's criminally inclined family. Fun and satisfying, especially near the end of an anthology dominated by dark stories.

Joseph S Walker, Etta at the End of the World: Another hard boiled story, this one about a woman on the road to Key West to see the sunset. I had some ideas about what would happen but I enjoyed the ride.

Andrew Welsh-Huggins, The Path I Took: Story of a college professor looking back on the time he spent learning Irish in a Gaeltacht on the Dingle Peninsula. Enjoyed the setting and travelogue more than the plot that centers on the northern Ireland troubles.

Bonus story: Ambrose Bierce, My Favorite Murder: Dark and weird and cynical. It's Ambrose Bierce, so it has his trademark twisted humor. It's from 1888, before genre categories ossified, making it hard to classify. A little bit horror, a little bit courtroom drama, a little bit satire. (Finished Oct 2022)