The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022: A Collection

by Jess Walter, Steph Cha, Brendan Williams-Childs

Don't miss this page-turner for the mystery lover
A collection of the year’s best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by #1 New York Times bestselling author and guest editor Jess Walter and series editor Steph Cha.  New York Times  bestselling author and “superb storyteller” ( Boston Globe ), Jess Walter flexes his genre chops and selects twenty short stories that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.

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

336 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2022

About the author

Jess Walter is the author of eight novels and one nonfiction book. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages and his essays, short fiction, criticism and journalism have been widely published, in Details, Playboy, Newsweek, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe among many others.

Walter also writes screenplays and was the co-author of Christopher Darden’s 1996 bestseller In Contempt. He lives with his wife Anne and children, Brooklyn, Ava and Alec in his childhood home of Spokane, Washington.

Reviews

[Alan (the Lone Librarian rides again) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Mystery & Suspense Shorts 2022
Review of the HarperCollins Mariner Books paperback (November 1, 2022)

There is something that I have difficulty defining, but which I think of as snap. I like stories that, at some point in the writing or in the plot, or maybe even in the conception, shift or pop or crack like a whip. This can take the form of a drastic turn of action, or a surprising revelation of character. It can be a ramping up of stakes or a burst of wonderful writing that makes you wish you'd been the one to compose it. It can be dialogue that crackles, beginnings that cause you to sit up, or endings that make you slap your head. - Editor Jess Walter in his Introduction.

I am curious as to that part of the mind which psychology (which denies the soul) cannot find, or help, or assuage, much less banish - namely the soul. It is this I want to write about next. ... There must be violence, to satisfy me, and therefore drama and suspense. These are my principles. ... How little does plot matter. The joy and the art is how it is handled. ... One cannot write, however well, and leave out the heart. ... The main thing in any book, for me, is the momentum, the enthusiasm, the narrative rush. - excerpts from Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks: 1941-1995 (2021) as quoted by Jess Walter in his Introduction.

[Average 4 rating with nothing under 3, bumped to 5 because of the Introduction and Contributor's Notes.]
The selection here was outstanding and the Introduction by the 2022 guest editor Jess Walter even provides a detailed account of what most captured him in each of the 20 final selections as narrowed down from the 50 initially selected by the series overall editor Steph Cha. An extensive Contributor's Notes section provides short bios on each of the authors and includes their own backgrounds on what inspired each of the stories. A further addendum provides the authors, titles and publication sources of the 30 additional stories which were not included as “Honourable Mentions.”

The following provides story setups only, so shouldn't be considered spoilers.
1. La Chingona **** by Hector Acosta. First published in the themed collection The Eviction of Hope (2021). A woman is facing eviction and is trying to raise money by assuming the identity of a Mexican wrestler on her streaming channel. Trivia La Chingona from Spanish translates as “Bad Ass Woman.”

2. Lucky Thirteen *** by Tracy Clark. First published in the themed collection Midnight Hour: A chilling anthology of crime fiction from 20 acclaimed authors of color (2021). A home invader makes a very bad choice when he selects the house of an apparently frail old man to steal from. Trivia I recently enjoyed Tracy Clark's first book in her new Detective Harriet Foster series Hide (2022).

3. An Ache So Divine **** by S.A. Cosby. First published in the themed collection Jukes & Tonks: Crime Fiction Inspired by Music in the Dark and Suspect Choices. Trouble is stirred up in The Sweet Spot honky-tonk when the singer/guitarist of a visiting band picks the wrong woman from the crowd to mess around with. Trivia I enjoyed S.A. Cosby's last novel Razorblade Tears (2021).

4. Detainment *** by Alex Espinoza. First published in the themed collection Speculative Los Angeles (2021). A child returned to his mother after detainment at the US Border is not the same as he once was.

5. Here’s to New Friends *** by Jacqueline Freimor. First published in the themed collection When a Stranger Comes to Town (2021). An observer notices a predator zeroing in on a woman traveling alone on a train.

6. A Career Spent Disappointing People *** by Tod Goldberg. First published in the themed collection Palm Springs Noir (2021). One partner from a heist duo is on the run and meets up with a shady lawyer and a clown.

7. The Very Last Time **** by Juliet Grames. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. A woman who has lost her husband while they were time traveling is suspected of his murder. I wasn’t sure if this was meant as a science fiction tale or whether the woman was delusional.

8. The Wind ***** by Lauren Goff. First published in The New Yorker magazine. Memoir-like story told as if from a granddaughter’s point of view of her grandmother and her kids (which include the mother of the fictional writer) attempting to escape her abusive husband. This one is available to read online (if you have remaining free reads or are a subscriber) at The New Yorker January 25, 2021.

9. No Man’s Land **** by James D.F. Hannah. First published in the themed collection Only the Good Die Young: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Billy Joel (2021). Historical fiction going back to the Clinton/Gore years. Two real estate agents on Long Island become entangled with a mob family.

10. Return to Sender **** by Gar Anthony Haywood. First published in the themed collection Jukes & Tonks: Crime Fiction Inspired by Music in the Dark and Suspect Choices. A criminal brother duo hijack a jukebox from a bar and hold it for ransom but also decide to get it fixed after accidentally dropping it during the heist. Trivia This story includes the return of repairman Errol 'Handy' White from the author's earlier novel Cemetery Road (2009).

11. Harriet Point **** by Leslie Jones. First published in The Southern Review (Winter 2021). A married couple start a grow-op inside their own house in Alaska (before legalisation), little knowing the structural damage and smell issues that it will create.

12. Stingers **** by LaToya Jovena (author is not yet listed on Goodreads). First published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Nicely done story from a debut author which is told in reverse chronological order. A woman takes revenge for an assault.

13. God Bless America **** by Elaine Kagan. First published in the themed collection Collectibles. The crime element isn’t clear until very late in this story which is more of an observance about the knick-knacks collected by families over the years. It also had a little subplot about jazz musicians.

14. A Bostonian (in Cambridge) ***** by Dennis Lehane. First published in the themed collection Collectibles. A rare book & letters dealer is offered a letter from his own past for a hefty price. Trivia The title of the story refers to the protagonist being rumoured to own one of the few surviving copies of Edgar Allan Poe’s first book Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827) originally published in an edition of only 50 copies under the alias “A Bostonian”.

The cover of the rare first edition of Tamerlane and Other Poems. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

15. Remediation **** by Kristen Lepionka. First published in the themed collection This Time For Sure: Bouchercon Anthology 2021 (2021). A recovering addict gets a job delivering advertising flyers door to door and ends up in the middle of a murder for hire scheme.

16. Long Live the Girl Detective *** by Megan Pillow. First published in Electric Literature. A comedic tribute to Nancy Drew with a cameo by the Hardy Boys, all of them under aliases though. This one is available to read online at Electric Literature.

17. Mata Hambre *** by Raquel V. Reyes. First published in the themed collection Midnight Hour: A chilling anthology of crime fiction from 20 acclaimed authors of color (2021). Two cousins attend a food contest with local celebrities as contestants, one of whom is an ex and a still sometime love interest. A fight ensues with a woman who is also “dating” the same contestant.

18. Turning Heart *** by David Heska Wanbli Weiden. First published in the themed collection This Time For Sure: Bouchercon Anthology 2021. Virgil Wounded Horse, a vigilante enforcer who is trying to make a career change, sets out to repossess a minivan taken by the ex of the sister of an old friend. Trivia Virgil is also the lead character in Weiden’s novel Winter Counts (2020).

19. Lycia *** by Brendan Williams-Childs. First published in the journal The Colorado Review Fall/Winter 2021. (The story is not among the free selections but I did link to the online journal issue.) A daughter travels back to Turkey when her brother has died in a war only to discover that her ex-diplomat father has stolen the body from the morgue and has disappeared with it. Trivia This story was inspired by a photograph of the Lycian Cave Tombs in Turkey.

Photograph of the Lycian Cave Tombs. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

20. Thank You for Your Service **** by Matthew Wilson. First published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. An Iraq War veteran needs a scheme to raise money and decides to start a YouTube channel to track down fraudulent veterans in order to expose them on camera.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the twenty-sixth entry in what is now titled The Best American Mystery and Suspense. The current editor of the series is Steph Cha. In her "Foreward" to this year's volume, Cha states that defining a mystery or suspense story is an "unanswerable question." "I have found," she says, "...that enforcing strict genre boundaries would bring me little satisfaction." She continues, "One of the best parts of this job is seeing the many brilliant ways in which writers incorporate crime into a broad range of stories. Some are whodunits, some are thrillers, some are just about people in bad circumstances trying to get through their day. They all bring mystery or suspense in one form or another."

To qualify for consideration to be chosen for this book, "stories must be originally written in English (or translated by the original authors) by writers born or permanently residing in the United States. They need to be independent stories (not excerpts) published in [the particular calendar year] in an American publication, either print or online."

Cha narrowed the possible choices for this book to around fifty stories. She handed those on to the editor of this particular volume, Jess Walter, who then selected the twenty stories that appear in the book. A list of another thirty outstanding stories appears at the back of the book, designated as "Other Distinguished Mystery and Suspense" of the year.

I have only read one book by the much-lauded Jess Walter; that was the Edgar Award winning novel Citizen Vince, which I think is excellent. Walter's "Introduction" to this volume is also very fine. I can not recall every such Introduction to all of the earlier entries in this series, but few of them can have been as good as this one. Walter writes that he looked for stories that snapped, tales "that, at some point in the writing, or in the plot, or maybe even in the conception, shift or pop or crack like a whip." He then briefly mentions a snap factor in each of the stories chosen for inclusion.

As always, these stories come from a wide variety of sources. There is only one from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine; two are from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Many of them are from anthologies of mystery stories, others from various periodicals, and some from still other sources.

The "Contributors' Notes" in the back of the book are always fascinating. They include information about each author and comments by the authors about their stories.

Cha had said in the previous volume in this series that readers "might see more stories by women and writers of color." Half of the stories in this volume are by women. Some of the stories are clearly from authors who are Hispanic and at least one is by a Native American.

One of the stories here was nominated for an Edgar Award. That is "Lucky Thirteen" by Tracy Clark. The central character in this story is a sixty-two year old man, who has an unpleasant encounter with a home-invading thug. I would consider this story to be primarily in a genre other than mystery or suspense. I think that it is quite effective in that field; I suspect that many people (including the folks who chose the Edgar Award nominees, obviously) will appreciate this somewhat more than I do. I must add that I have long since ceased to think of sixty-two as elderly; Clark clearly does, referring to that character as "an old man" in her back of the book note.

The most unusual item in this anthology is "Long Live the Girl Detective" by Megan Pillow, a piece of meta-fiction about "The Girl Detective," never named in the story but obviously intended to be a sort of incarnation of the famed young sleuth, Nancy Drew. I believe that I read one book from the Drew series when I was a child, but I have no memory of it. The Girl Detective is dead, murdered; she is also, in some way, alive, and investigating her own death. Pillow fills this tale with references to the Drew character (which I only knew about from information on the internet). Bess and George, repeatedly mentioned, are friends of Drew. Other references abound: Marty McFly and the "Flux Capacitor" are from the "Back to the Future" films; "the Gilman story" is "The Yellow Wallpaper"; the "Boy Detectives" are the Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe; "Los Arrieros Restaurant" in Jackson Heights is a real place; the authors "Carmen, Kelly, Octavia, Ursula" are, I am guessing, Carmen Maria Machado, Kelly Link, Octavia Butler, and Ursula Le Guin (but I am far from sure of these, especially Machado), and there are other similar references - plus I am sure that there are others that I didn't even realize are references. Here again, I am far from the ideal reader for this story.

Another story has what I believe may be an intentionally obscure reference, although it might simply be a coincidence. "An Ache So Divine" by S. A. Cosby tells of one evening at The Sweet Spot, a Virginia bar that has live music and dancing, catering to an almost exclusively African-American clientele. "The Sweet Spot was the only place in Red Hill where black folks could go without worrying about ending the night with a white man's boot on their neck because they had the temerity to exist."

The central character is Hattie Mae, the daughter of the owner of the bar. Hattie Mae has, or would like to have, a romantic relationship with another person in the story. A white girl, Betty Anderson, comes into The Sweet Spot and flirts with one of the Black musicians, and that might cause some problems. Anderson is "different from anybody who walked the dusty, dreary roads of Red Hill County." Flirting - and more than just flirting - is a part of her life. Betty Anderson is also the name of another fictional, flirtatious young woman in a small town in the novel Peyton Place. As I said, this might be purely coincidental.

Two of the stories have titles and some of the dialogue in Spanish. In "La Chingona" by Hector Acosta, Veronica is an almost-broke woman being forced to find a new place to live. Her only source of income is from donations from people who follow her on her website, in which she is "La Chingona," a mysterious woman who wears a wrestler's mask in the colors of the Mexican flag. She is contacted by someone who says that he can help her. She goes to his apartment, but things go in unexpected ways. I don't think that the title is ever translated into English in the story, although I might have just missed it. "La Chingona," I see from the internet, is "a Spanish slang term meaning 'bad ass woman.' Although the word 'chingona' is a Spanish term, it is not limited to Latinas. A chingona is any woman who chooses to live life on her own terms."

"Mata Hambre" evidently literally means "hunger killer" and refers to a particular cut of meat. In this story by Raquel V. Reyes, there is a contest in Miami where people compete in making certain kinds of sandwiches. The sandwiches must have specific ingredients, and they must be prepared in a specific manner. "If a contestant touched the food with his fingers or any meats fell out of the sandwich, they'd be eliminated." The young woman narrator attends the contest with her cousin, "the most chonga of the chongas and still chonga-ing at the old age of twenty-five." (Turning once again to the internet, "Chonga is a Spanish-derived term used especially in South Florida, often to indicate a working-class, sexually liberated, very sassy, and emotionally expressive young woman.") The narrator's cousin is attracted to one of the men making sandwiches; she is not the only woman there so attracted.

Alex Espinosa has another story with Hispanic characters, "Detainment." This is not a traditional mystery story; it has elements of science fiction or fantasy. The narrator is a woman who had been separated from her five year old son when they had come to the United States border seeking asylum. Months went by before they were reunited. So this is a happy occasion - or it would be, if the son she got back were not so different from the child taken from her.

Juliet Grames's tale "The Very Last Time" also has a science fictional aspect. The husband of the female narrator is missing, and the police are reluctant to accept her explanation. She tells them that she and her now-missing husband were able to travel through time, but he never made it back from their last trip. She says that she believes that he is stuck in a root cellar back in the Seventeenth Century in the place where their house now stands.

Two of the stories in this book are from an anthology titled Collectibles and these both deal with the very different things people collect. In Dennis Lehane's story "A Bostonian (in Cambridge)," a man who owns a bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts has one extremely valuable book, but books are not primarily what he collects. He has a collection of "rejection letters, in the truest sense. Goodbye letters, stay-away letters, I-don't-love-you-anymore letters." His collection was inspired by something in his own life. He was a twin, given up at birth by his mother, who kept his sister. The absence of his family has haunted his life. On a cold winter night, a woman comes to him., saying that she is his sister, and that his mother had left a letter for him explaining her decision. He naturally wants that letter - but, not surprisingly, there are difficulties.

The family in "God Bless America" by Elaine Kagan do not really collect anything; they accumulate, all of the thousand things that mean the world to them and almost nothing to anyone else. Then on the Fourth of July, a crime is committed. This is, uncharacteristically for a mystery tale, sweet and touching, just about perfect on its small scale.

"A Career Spent Disappointing People" by Tod Goldberg is far from sweet. On a hot July day in the American West, a man with a bullet hole in his foot finds himself in a broken-down car with a corpse in the trunk. Well, that's not quite accurate...pieces of a corpse in the trunk. He wants to perform at a karaoke bar. In the bar, he meets a friendly lawyer and a taciturn clown. This is as close as any story in this book comes to being comic.

"Lycia" by Brendan Williams-Childs is a mystery story but it does not feel like one to me. The son of the former Turkish ambassador to the Russian Federation has been killed in an odd accident. The former ambassador, seventy-six years old, had gone to the morgue, picked up his son's corpse, taken the body to his new Mercedes, and driven away. No one knows why he did this or where he headed. The narrator, a sister of the dead man, follows some tenuous clues to seek her father and the body of her brother.

"Turning Heart" by David Heska Wanbli Weiden was originally published in an anthology titled This Time for Sure. I can not think of those four words without hearing them in the voice of Bullwinkle J. Moose, replying to his friend Rocky's plaintive cry, "But that trick never works!" Disappointingly (to me, at least), "Turning Heart" has nothing to do with that stalwart pair.

However, Virgil Wounded Horse, the narrator of this tale, is himself unquestionably stalwart. He is a Native American, who once had served as "the reservation's enforcer, the guy you hired when the police wouldn't take action." He has put this part of his life behind him, until he receives a call from the younger sister of a now-deceased friend. She says that someone has taken her minivan; she is convinced that the thief was her former boyfriend, father of her six month old son. I believe that this is the only story in this book that is part of a series.

Women in other stories in this anthology have even more serious problems. Two women are at the center of "Remediation" by Kristin Lepionka. (This is also from This Time for Sure.) A poor woman, a recovering heroin addict, takes a job delivering flyers about the dangers of radon door-to-door. She recognizes a house in which her grandmother once lived and is drawn to look it over. She meets one of the current occupants, a woman with a husband who is contemplating a crime. "Funny the way things worked out sometimes."

"Stingers" are cocktails traditionally mixing cognac and crème de menthe. The female narrator of this story by LaToya Jovena is mixing these for the four trailer-dwelling brothers for whom she is making dinner. She may need to make substitutions for some of the ingredients. The brothers consume twenty Stingers among the four of them and all fall asleep. The narrator takes some other actions and then goes home to her younger sister. The rest of the story is presented in reverse order, each subsequent section occurring earlier in time. A bitter tale by a beginning but already quite good author.

The narrator of Lauren Groff's "The Wind" is not a participant in the story; she is the daughter of the oldest of the three children who did live through these incidents. The girl in the story is twelve; her two brothers are six and nine. They and their mother are fleeing from their brutal police officer father, hoping to get away before he realizes they have gone. But that is not what happens. And then, the narrator says, "always inside my mother there would blow a silent wind, a wind that died and gusted again, raging throughout her life, touching every moment she lived after this one." A sad and very powerful tale. Ms. Groff is "the author of six books...all of which were finalists for the National Book Award."

"Harriet Point" by Leslie Jones is presented less as a story than as a faux-memoir. The female narrator begins her tale some ten years earlier, in 2010. She, her husband, and their three year old daughter are living in a large house in Alaska. They are doing well financially, but not as well as they would like. They begin a new career together, growing and selling the then still illegal crop, marijuana. This proves to be not as simple as they had imagined, but it also is more lucrative than they had expected. The things that go wrong pile up, though, and the narrator turns to her wealthy father for help, which her husband resents. Things change, some in ways that are disappointing, others that are more positive. At the end of the tale, the daughter is thirteen and financial matters are going very well for the narrator. This is not, in my opinion, an exciting narrative but it is a convincing one.

The narrator of "Here's to New Friends" by Jacqueline Freimor is not the young woman in the story. This narrator begins as an observer, watching a predatory man on a train trying to convince the young woman to let him drive her from the station to her destination. The narrator manages to warn the woman that trusting that fellow passenger would put her in danger. She is grateful, and perfectly willing to accept a ride from her new friend, the narrator.

The remaining three stories are all primarily about men. "No Man's Land" by James D. F. Hannah is a tough, violent story about two real estate men, a mob boss, and that boss's wife and daughter. The older of the two real estate guys was once the 'Real Estate King of Long Island"; the other guy was looking to usurp the throne. But smart guys stay away from the women in a mobster's life. A moral decision must be made.

A bar in Minnesota is robbed in Gar Anthony Haywood's story "Return to Sender." Thousands of dollars worth of alcoholic beverages are taken; so is the jukebox that the bar owner had inherited from his father. The bar owner doesn't know who robbed him, but he suspects that the person behind the theft was his vengeful former wife. He is correct. But the men who actually carried out the robbery dropped the jukebox, seriously damaging it, and decide to get it repaired before trying to sell it - or hold it for ransom. Another tough story, with a little traditional detection thrown in.

The final story in the book is "Thank You for Your Service" by Matthew Wilson. The issue dealt with is not so much a crime as a definite impropriety. This is the concept of "stolen valor," people falsely claiming to have served in the military or exaggerating their heroism while they did serve. Kyle, the central character, really did serve and now is "not right in the head." Kyle sees videos exposing folks who had claimed to have seen action when they really had not; he thinks that he can make similar videos, and somehow profit from them. This is a fine, moving story.

Every story in a "best of the year" anthology should be superb, but it rarely seems to work out that way. Of course, everybody has different opinions and it is impossible to state positively that a story is or is not wonderful. I think that most of these stories are quite good, some even better than that; others, in my opinion, are nothing like "wonderful." But that is, after all, just my opinion, which is most certainly not "better" than the opinions of Steph Cha and Jess Walter.

As I mentioned last year, there are now two annual best of the year mystery anthologies, very similar in format, this one and the series The Mysterious Press Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year. What amazed me last year and again this year is that not a single story was chosen for both anthologies. Two of the stories in this "Best American" anthology this year did appear on the Honor Roll in the Mysterious Press anthology, "An Ache So Divine" by S. A. Cosby and "Remediation" by Kristin Lepionka. Is this non-duplication something agreed to in advance or are the opinions really that different? (I also note that only one of the six stories nominated for an Edgar Award in 2022 appeared in either book.)

I consider this a very good anthology even if not a truly outstanding one.

[Suz Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steph Cha’s forward and Jess Walter’s introduction nicely set the tone for the anthology. Walter shares the story of seeing a dead body as a rookie reporter, as well as his admiration for Patricia Highsmith and footnotes. He also specified how each of the chosen stories snapped his interest. The contributors’s notes provide a cool insight into each tale. I am super excited for the direction of this series with Steph Cha as Series Editor.

My favorites are as follows:

“La Chingona” by Hector Acosta: A woman dons a persona to solicit “donations” from online admirers to help save up for a new place to live, but a better money making opportunity arises. The vastly different power dynamics between Veronica and Trevor ramp up the tension and make her course of action both inevitable and understandable.

“An Ache So Divine” by S. A. Cosby: Hattie Mae toils in her dad’s bar and dreams of the future. On one fateful night, her desire to protect the one she loves causes her to forsake “the gentle angels of her better nature.” This story provides a master class on setting, managing backstory, pacing, character development, incorporating a cool twist, managing a large cast, and creating a supremely satisfying ending.

“Here’s to New Friends” by Jacqueline Freimor: A young woman on a train is targeted by a predator. This perfectly paced story provides a primer on gaining a potential victim’s trust.

“A Career Spent Disappointing People” by Tod Goldberg: Shane’s having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Even though he’s broke, injured, and jilted, and his car just died, he’s certain the solution to all his problems starts with karaoke. The story of Shane’s troubles slowly unravels with a healthy dose of dark humor.

“No Man’s Land” by James D. F. Hannah: On the verge of being dethroned, the Real Estate King of Long Island lands a new client with mob connections. The image of bleeding mashed potatoes and the comparison of bruised and bloodied flesh to a Pollack painting lingered long after reading. Hannah’s phenomenal pacing and punchy prose make this story a stunner.

“Stingers” by LaToya Jovena: A sister seeks vengeance against a quartet of brothers. Artemis lives up to her namesake, the goddess of the hunt, as she baits her prey with a sexy ensemble and humongous amounts of Hennessy. The story, which promises and delivers a chemical reaction, is told via a reverse chronology.

“A Bostonian (in Cambridge)” by Dennis Lehane: Nathaniel, quirky book seller and collector of rejection letters, is offered the chance to purchase a letter that will provide closure of a most personal nature. Lehane expertly builds Nathaniel’s character and world. I can’t stop thinking about the painting of Walden Pond.

“Remediation” by Kristen Lepionka: Carson, an addict who finds work handing out flyers for the Radon King, makes a fascinating new friend in Deidra, a perspective radon remediation client. Lepionka paints a realistic portrayal of a character dealing with addiction who measures her work in the number of pills she can earn. Seeing Deidra through the eyes of two different characters was a treat.

“Long Live the Girl Detective” by Megan Pillow: A story (with embedded hermit crab-style micro fiction) that illustrates the challenges of being a daughter, wife, mother, friend, heroine, victim, ghost, sleuth who constantly needs to resurrect herself. I am beyond thrilled that this story was chosen for inclusion. Last year, I shared the link for it multiple times on social media, because I adored the story. “Long Live the Girl Detective” triggered nostalgia for the Nancy Drew novels I devoured as a child while showing the character through a modern, empowering lens.

“Turning Heart” by David Heska Wanbli Weiden: Virgil Wounded Horse, the protagonist of WINTER COUNTS, agrees to reclaim the lost property of the little sister of his deceased friend. I liked how the story deals with grief, obligation, and family, and how Virgil struggles with giving up his job as an enforcer. The story also tackles the problem of abandoned dogs on the reservation and dog fighting.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to HarperCollins Publishers LLC for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022.

I'm happy to say this was a surprise (and delight) to read!

I usually only like a story or two in these collections, but what a shock to discover most of these stories were fun and enjoyable..

They were suspenseful, mysterious, filled with diverse characters with ulterior motives, some good, some bad, and some in-between.

There's murder, mayhem, blood, double crosses, revenge, and friendships, some all in the same story.

Mystery and suspense fans will really enjoy this!

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a tight collection of Mystery and Suspense stories that's guaranteed to have a little something for everyone. They definitely did a good job of picking stories with great tension and some genuine twists and turns I didn't see coming. There were a few I didn't understand/didn't love but I attribute that more to me being a dumb dumb than any problem with the story.

The story on the train is probably my favorite of the bunch.

High recommend.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than I expected, as I often don’t like short stories.

[Mrs. Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually like the annual The Best American Mystery and Suspense collection, but the 2022 entry, edited by Jess Walter, was just so-so. With the exception of Lauran Groff’s “The Wind,” there’s not a story in it which I would want to reread, although the Goldberg and Smith pieces were both interesting. The book will no doubt appeal to mystery readers whose tastes didn’t calcify some time in the previous millennium.

One bit of advice for those who regard dogs as more valuable than tumbleweeds or pliers or food stamps: you may be familiar with an adage that goes like “if someone tells you what he is believe him the first time.” The first paragraph of David Heska Wanbi Weiden’s “Turning Heart” should have told me what it was … but the story immediately veered off in a different direction. It wasn’t until a few pages before the end that I recognized my mistake in not having paid closer attention to that first signpost.

[Glenn Hopp · Rating 3 out of 5]

May or may not be the twenty best stories, but they certainly seem to be the most off-beat and unconventional. More than half I greatly enjoyed. The stories by Dennis Lahane and Lauren Groff stood out (to me) the most for their high quality.

[Cindy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

20 stories, almost 23 hrs of suspense and mystery. Good narrations. My favorite is “God Bless America” starts slow but is most charming. Some have profanity others not. All are interesting, some more n others. Worthwhile reading.

[Cookie M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection never disappoints. You get some murders, some swindles and thefts, one or two slices of noir life; a bit of something for any taste. Some of the stories leave you feeling sick and sad, and some of them make you laugh out loud. The best of 2022 is really in this collection. Enjoy.

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, I find it amazing that mystery magazines and short story collections still exist in this day and age. “The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022”, edited by Jess Walter and Steph Cha, collects a sampling of stories written in the past year in various publications. As usual with these types of collections, some of the stories are better than others, but this collection seems to have more hits than misses:

“La Chingona” by Hector Acosta: an internet celebrity meets one of her fans who is very interested in the wrestling mask she wears, with twisted results.

“Lucky Thirteen” by Tracy Clark: A robber finds an easy target in an old man who lives alone, with even more twisted results.

“An Ache So Devine” by S. A. Cosby: A white girl in a segregated bar leads to trouble and revenge.

“Detainment” by Alex Espinoza: Separation of children from their mothers at the border leads to questions about what happens at these reunions.

“Here’s to New Friends” by Jacqueline Fremor: One that I’ve read in a previous collection, a very scary look at a predator and victim together on a train.

“A Career Spent Disappointing People” by Tod Goldberg: A small-time criminal has to figure a way out of some serious trouble, maybe with the help of a small-time lawyer (and a silent clown)? But it’s never that easy.

“The Very Last Time” by Juliet Grames: A woman loses her husband while time traveling, but why are the police so interested in her story?

“The Wind” by Lauren Groff: How does one escape an abusive husband who also happens to be a policeman?

“No Man’s Land” by James D. F. Hannah: A real estate hustler past his prime gets more than he bargained for with a local gangster. Sometimes you’ve gotta get your hands dirty.

“Return to Sender” by Gar Anthony Haywood: Some small-town hoods steal a jukebox for ransom but break it before returning it, causing a little bit of a problem.

“Harriet Point” by Leslie Jones: A married couple decide to grow illegal pot in Alaska, with unintended consequences. Not as easy as one would think.

“Stingers” by LaToya Jovena: A woman gets revenge for her little sister, told in reverse.

“God Bless America” by Elaine Kagan: Not really a mystery, just a story about what’s valuable to people.

“A Bostonian (in Cambridge)” by Dennis Lehane: An owner of a used bookshop collects good-bye letters while trying to track down his own lost family.

“Remediation” by Kristen Lepionka: A junkie trying to go straight by distributing radon abatement fliers meets a rich wife with her own problems.

“Long Live the Girl Detective” by Megan Pillow: a weird meta-story take on Nancy Drew.

“Mata Hambre” by Raquel V. Reyes: A late night love triangle (quadrangle?) set against a Hispanic sandwich making competition in Miami. Not really a mystery, but there is a murder!

“Thank You for Your Service” by Matthew Wilson: an Army vet thinks he can make some money and turn his life around by exposing fake Vets on YouTube, with some unexpected consequences.

“Turning Heart” by David Heska Wanbli Weiden: A man who used to dispense rough justice on the Native American reservation gets dragged into one more favor.

“Lycia” by Brenda Williams-Childs: The daughter of a Turkish ambassador confronts some hard truths about her father when her brother is killed. Also not really a mystery.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Mariner Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

[Kevintipple · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022 anthology edited by Jess Walter, is not an easy book to review. While all the tales in the book are good ones, some of the short stories are very dark and grim. For this reader, some of the tales were very intense and disturbing as they connected to things in my childhood. If I was not reading for review, I would have quickly skipped those tales and moved on.

After a foreword by series editor Steph Cha that includes the procedure to be considered for the 2033 anthology (deadline 12/3/2022), and an intro by Jess Walter, it is on to the stories. The stories are presented in alphabetical order by author name. Each tale has a listing of where it originally appeared. Unfortunately, when a magazine is listed, it does not include the month.

Hector Acosta leads off with “La Chingona.” Developers have been buying up blocks of Spokane and they have gotten their hands on Hope Apartments. Eviction is coming. Veronica’s only hope is to raise funds via a web cam deal she is doing. Who would have thought wearing a certain mask of a Mexican wrestler would make things so complicated?

62-year-old Henry Pearse is doing okay for a man of his age in “Lucky Thirteen” by Tracy Clark. It is New Year’s Eve, the streets and sidewalks are icy, and he is about to have a guest. A guest that will be very interested in attending Henry’s celebration of the new year.

Hattie Mae wants out of her Daddy’s bar. She wants a certain musician. She wants something else, something she can’t actually quantify, in the powerful tale, An Ache So Divine by S. A. Cosby.

Mercedes Larza is sure that the boy given her by border patrol is not her son. He looks and talks like him. He has the same birthmark and mole cluster. But, she is sure he isn’t her son in “Detainment” by Alex Espinoza.

As predicted, the man made his move once the train rolled out of the station. How long will the voyeur wait to intercede in “Here’s to New Friends” by Jacqueline Freimor is the question.

Todd Goldberg’s “A Career Spent Disappointing People” comes next where it is July and Shane has a problem. Actually, more than one. Not only is it too damn hot as he has to get gone from California, the Honda he was driving has broken down. His swollen foot is a mess thanks to the damage by the bullet. Nothing has been going right lately and things are getting worse now by the minute.

Francis had been gone five days when the police first arrive at the house in “The Very Last Time” by Juliet Grames. Mrs. Hatcher knows what happened. If she explains, they will never believe her. That is the first of several problems she has in this tale.

“The Wind” by Lauren Groff comes next in a very hard to read story. A mother is determined to do everything she can to save her children and get out of a horrible situation.

Barry is asleep when the guys get him in “No Man’s Land” by James D. F. Hannah. Being the “Real Estate King of Long Island” has had its perks, but winding up on a living room floor and getting kicked everywhere including where no man ever wants to be kicked, is not one of them. The real estate agent is in a world of trouble and not for what you might think considering his occupation.

Lewis Binny’s classic juke box has been stolen as “Return to Sender” by Gar Anthony Haywood begins. Obviously, Binny wants it back. He also has an idea who might have stolen the classic machine, but he is not going to tell that to the St. Louis County Sheriff’s deputy who is taking the report.

Audrie McFadden and Abe had a plan to supplement their income. Things are changing in Alaska. They have to move fast to cash in on the future in “Harriet Point” by Leslie Jones.

Making a good mixed drink is a chemical process. If you know what you are doing, you can make good ones. She likes to make “Stingers” in this tale of the same name by LaToya Jovena.

Joe is enraged and justifiably so in “God Bless America” by Elaine Kagan. Somebody keyed their cars. The cars were outside on the street instead of in the full garage. Connie is too busy cooking food for the holiday and thinking about the past which is stored in the garage.

Nathaniel buys letters in “A Bostonian (in Cambridge)” by Dennis Lehane. He buys letters of rejection as the proprietor of the Larchmont Antique Bookshop near Harvard. The reason he does is tied to his childhood and gradually explained in this complicated story.

Carter got a job handing out flyers in “Remediation” by Kristen Lepionka. In so doing, she saw a few things. She met new people. One of whom changed her life forever.

The Girl Detective is dead. At least that is what is posted on twitter. She does not feel dead. She has a lot to do. But, as she looks, she notices that she can see right through her hand. She needs to know in “Long Live the Girl Detective” by Megan Pillow.

Pugi likes to go on the hunt for men in “Mata Hambre” by Raquel V. Reyes. She likes to go hunting with the narrator. Her target this night is an old flame who is a famous tv guy now in the local area. He is a competitor in a cooking contest that is about to get very interesting for entrants and spectators alike.

Stolen valor is a subject that occasionally pops up in the media. It is the central theme of “Thank You for Your Service” by Mathew Wilson. Kyle came home from serving the country and is having a hard time of it. He comes up with a plan to document the fake vets he sees everywhere and make some money by exposing them via social media.

Janeen Turning Heart needs Virgil’s help. He is the reservation’s enforcer and she has a job for him in “Turning Heart” by David Heska Wanbli Weiden. It is a job he does not want, but it is a job he needs to do for a number of reasons.

For the longest time, father has been the Turkish ambassador to the Russian Federation. His duty to country over family had consequences. As he is apparently having some cognitive issues based on his behavior, secrets and disharmony in the family come to the forefront in “Lycia” by Brendan Williams-Childs.

“Contributors’ Notes” comes next with author bios and an explanation regarding each story from each of the authors. Those explanations cover the author’s intent in the tale, the writing process, and more in an explanation that is often longer than the bio. Those explanations are very interesting and also reflect the obvious diversity in the read.

The book concludes with “Other Distinguished Mystery and Suspense Stories of 2021.” There are thirty authors and their tales are listed along with the markets that published them.

Diversity is prevalent in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022 and not just in terms of race and gender, though those two are most obvious at a quick glance. Also at work here is diversity in terms of storytelling styles, themes, imagery, and more. The book is a complicated read full of solidly good tales.

It is also a very hard read at times. If you are a certain age and come from a time when nobody intervened when things happened behind closed doors and you carried those signs in public the next day, some of the tales here will land far too close to home.

The tales are about those situations, the choices that are made by and for folks, and as one of the authors eloquently put it how “hurt people hurt people.” That idea pretty much applies to every tale in the book, one way or another. These are tales that make the reader think and not always in a happy way. The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022 is a complicated anthology and one well worth your time.


My reading copy came from the publisher as a NetGalley ARC.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2022

[Curtis Ippolito · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic selection of short stories in this volume; truly the best. I found something to enjoy about every story. Highly recommend, and will follow up on several authors to read more of their work.

My favorite stories were:
“La Chingona” by Hector Acosta
“An Ache So Divine” by S.A. Cosby
“A Career Spent Disappointing People” by Tod Goldberg
“No Man’s Land” by James D.F. Hannah
“Return to Sender” by Gar Anthony Haywood
“Stingers” by LaToya Jovena
“Mata Hambre” by Raquel V. Reyes

[Gabriela Galescu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too bad

Consistently decent writing style throughout the collection. However, some stories were mind numbingly boring (e.g. the last story with all its army acronyms and no plot to speak of).

Misleading title too: surely this collection is *not* the best of anything. Otherwise I would very worried for the health of US mystery and suspense shorts.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @marinerbooks @williammorrowbooks for a review copy of The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022.

What genre do you turn to when life gets stressful? It varies for me, but lately it has been mystery, suspense, and/or romance. II loved this explanation in the Foreword to this collection, “Whatever the mechanism, and whether or not we ask, fiction helps us make sense of life, the universe, everything.”

The Best American Mystery and Suspense is a fantastic collection of the top twenty mystery and suspense stories published in 2021. I was intrigued by the Foreword by Steph Cha where she explained her process of combing through various publications and anthologies published in 2021 and selecting the top fifty stories. These stories were then forwarded on to Jess Walter, the author of Beautiful Ruins. I enjoyed Beautiful Ruins, but now realize I need to find Walter’s works of suspense and mystery. Walter’s Introduction explained his process of further narrowing down the stories to the top twenty stories in a humorous way. I loved his introduction and in fact think it’s one of the most entertaining introductions that I’ve ever read. The foreword and introduction were a great set-up for the stories themselves.

The collection included a lot of unique and intriguing stories. I have to admit though that my favorite story was “Long Live the Girl Detective” by Megan Pillow. The Girl Detective is not named, but it is Nancy Drew. She is referred to as “The Girl Detective Who Is Dead but Not” as she investigates her own murder and decides to take back the narrative of her own story in the modern day. Bess and George even make an appearance. I’ve loved Nancy Drew since I was a child and this story surprised and delighted me. I did enjoy so many of the other stories and they definitely have kept me thinking about them. It’s also introduced me to a lot of new to me authors that I will definitely need to keep my eye out for. I enjoy short stories.

This book was published on November 1, 2022 and is now available.

This review was first posted on my blog at: https://lauragerold.blogspot.com/2022...

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022 is the annual anthology (the 26th!) of well curated mystery and suspense short fiction of the year chosen by guest editor Jess Walter and with an insightful and interesting foreword by series editor Steph Cha. Released 1st Nov 2022 by Harper Collins on their Mariner imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

There are 20 stories by my count and they're from authors both familiar and new to me. The stories are varied, there were (as always) some which didn't grab me personally, but all were well written and competently plotted. One reason I like collections and anthologies is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters or the plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. I also love collections because if one story doesn't really grab me, there's another story just a few pages away. 

A special aside about the book's introduction, engagingly written by Jess Walter. I -love- reading author notes, journals, thought processes, heck, even the "music I listened to whilst writing this book" lists authors occasionally include in their notes. Mr. Walter writes charmingly and geekily with humor and wit about all of the above and even ties it in to Patricia Highsmith's reprinted journals (which I must now chase down and read immediately, thanks for increasing my TBR pile).

Four stars on average. It's a quality read, and highly recommended. It's also a good resource for finding new authors to follow, and being reminded of ones you haven't read for a few years.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Luanne Ollivier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always meant to pick up one of the annual mystery and suspense year end compilations. This year I finally did! (And now I know what I've been missing.) This is actually the 26th entry in the Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022 yearly collections.

Jess Walter is the guest editor, who, with series editor Steph Cha were charged with choosing 'the twenty short stories that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.' The process to try and narrow the field down to just twenty entries is detailed in the editor notes. I wouldn't want to be the one making those decisions.

There were entries from authors than I'm familiar with, such as Dennis Lehane and S.A. Paris. I know their style and knew I would enjoy their entries. (I did) There were many 'new to me' authors and I was excited to experience new voices. This format lends itself to new discoveries. Where was such a wide variety of styles, locales, length, protagonists and more!

I'm always fascinated by this style of story telling. How to fit in characters, a protagonist, a beginning and an end into a limited time or space. It's nice to pick the story you have time for at lunch - and escape into a book for a short period of time, but with a sense of satisfaction.

I chose to listen to this book. A number of narrators were used for this compilation - Desean Terry, Lindsey Dorcus, Max Meyers, Frankie Corzo, Christopher Salazar and Chanté McCormick, Each and every one was excellent. The readers change their tone, cadence, accent, etc. to suit the stories being told. The speed of speaking was good and all spoke clearly.

[Lizabeth Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 out of 5.

A collection of twenty short stories first published in America during 2021. This is a Netgalley ARC, courtesy of HarperCollins. The anticipated release date of November 1, 2022.

A wonderful, engrossing, and intriguing collection of stories, many of which could've been easily been adapted for the old television series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" with the lack of definitive endings. I would definitely recommend putting this on your TBR (To Be Read) list if you are a fan of short story collections and/or a mystery aficionado. I truly enjoyed myself.

My favorite story was probably "Lucky Thirteen", earning a 5 star review. The twists were unexpected and, although I probably shouldn't say this, somewhat satisfying. I can't say more without spoiling your experience.

Contents:

"La Chingana" by Hector Acosta
"Lucky Thirteen" by Tracy Clark
"An ache So Divine" by S. A. Cosby
"Detainment" by Alex Espinoza
"Here's to New Friends" by Jacqueline Freimor
"A Career Spent Disappointing People" by Tod Goldberg
"The Very Last Time" by Juliet Grames
"The Wind" by Lauren Groff
"No Man's Land" by James D. F. Hannah
"Return to Sender" by Gar Anthony Haywood
"Harriot Point" by Leslie Jones
"Stingers" by LaToya Jovena
"God Bless America" by Elaine Kagan
"A Bostonian (in Cambridge)" by Dennis Lehane
"Remediation" by Kristen Lepionka
"Long Live the Girl Detective" by Megan Pillow
"Mata Hambre" by Raquel V. Reyes
"Thank You for Your Service" by Matthew Wilson
"Turning Heart" by David Heska Wanbli Werden
"Lycia" by Brendan Williams Child

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022, edited by Jess Walter, gives the reader a nice cross-section of stories, all of which are well-written.

Like any collection of stories, whether single or multiple authors, there will be some that appeal to the reader more than others. That variance is minimized here in two ways. First is that these have been chosen as (among) the best of the year, so there is a certain quality standard that is met. What I think helps a lot in this anthology is Walter's Introduction. He preps the reader for each story by offering a look at what "snapped" for him in each one, without spoiling any of the stories.

If mystery and suspense are your favorite, or at least well-liked, genres then you will enjoy this collection. I won't bother giving my favorites, that is entirely subjective and does nothing to let you know whether you will like them. I will say that while I had my favorites, I enjoyed each of the stories. I use books like this to fill in those moments when I want to read but don't have the time or the desire to dive back into one of the longer reads I might be into, whether fiction or nonfiction. This volume served that function beautifully.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[joyce w. laudon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every year I look forward to the new edition of this excellent anthology series that offers its audience the opportunity to read some of the best mystery stories written in the past year. There are authors that I know in these pages, as for example, S.A. Cosby, Lauren Groff, Gar Anthony Haywood, Leslie James and Kristin Lepionka among others. However, joyfully, there were lots of new writers (to me) to get to know as well.

Steph Cha introduces this collection with some tough reality; at the time of her writing we were still struggling with Covid and what, to many, has been a bleak political landscape. She notes that one way that people cope is to look to fiction, and readers will do exactly that as they pick stories to read from the choices in these pages.

The introduction is excellent and detailed. The information on individual authors and their stories will help readers know where to begin, if one does not want to read in order. Walter also urges fans of the genre to also look to the honorable mentions for more good reads.

This title is one that lovers of mysteries will want to view. They will leave with an appreciation of those who write stories for us.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

[Marilyn Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the variety of these strange short stories. Many of them dealt with the theme of taking a risk to change the entire trajectory of one's life, which worked out, or didn't, in amazing ways. "Harriet Point" was a story like this, as was "Thank You for Your Service," both so different and yet the basic yearning to somehow take control and change one's life was the same. Many of these short stories played up the fact that we tend to judge a person by what they present to the world and we make stereotypical judgments about them that can end up being very wrong. "Here's to New Friends" was such a story and hit me hard. I wasn't expecting the ending. In "A Bostonian (in Cambridge)," the main character took advantage of the way others considered him old and therefore vulnerable. "Lucky 13" was also completely shocking as I made the mistake as a reader of believing at face value what the author was revealing of himself. Each of these stories just pulled me in and I had to stop after each and just sit there and say to myself, "Whoa." The art of the short story is alive and well.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is something new, but I liked it! I liked that each of these authors in the book had a different story and that, in the end, you get a little bit of information about each author! I loved that there is a different author in each story, and while not all of them were known to me, I enjoyed reading all the different styles of the authors. However, there was an issue in some of the stories. The plot was too quickly followed and too predictable. That was my main complaint is that when I read a mystery, I love getting to see the mystery as it unfolds in the story by the bread crumbs, but when those bread crumbs are left where you cannot see who the guilty party is going to be then.....it was not as enjoyable as I would have liked. I did like that if you love mystery and suspense, then this book has something for you; you will at least find one story that you think is enjoyable. I really enjoyed that! This is a very diverse and good collection of short stories! Thank you, Netgalley and Mariner Books, for the fantastic opportunity to read and review this one! It was a treat!

[Rusty Burlingame · Rating 3 out of 5]

They switched editors a few years ago, and the new series editor writes in her intro about it being more diverse. I was surprised at how on the nose that was by the very first story, which featured a caricature white slobby guy who plays video games, and how the protagonist deals with him. I know these are ordered alphabetically, but still.
I would say the 2020 edition with the old series editor was better - I bought and read that because I like CJ Box, the guest editor for 2020. This edition had many stories that just didn't do much.
5 star stories: A Career Spent Disappointing People (my favorite), Lucky Thirteen, Return to Sender, A Bostonian (In Cambridge), Remediation.
4 star stories: An Ache So Divine, The Very Last Time, No Man's Land.
1 star stories: La Chingona, Detainment. Almost pure axe-grinding propaganda.
The others were just not as impressive as I'd hoped. I've found a few others from this series at the local Half Price Books, and we'll see how they go.

[Cary Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every year I purchase this collection, which usually comes out in December. And every year it takes me a while to wade through the collection, though I am never disappointed. Rather, not all the stories are ones to which I'd return, but all the writing is first-rate. And I find gems from authors I didn't know. Authors on whom I will definitely follow up.

Now there are two collections; this one, which features, for me, more unknown writers - and a more diverse group, compared with the other collection - Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022 - at least in years past. I will also pickup that volume. I must say, I recognize some of the prominent authors in the Otto Penzler edited collection, moreso than this one. But both are worth the price of admission.

[Randal White · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of 20 short mystery/suspense stories. What I like about anthologies is that it helps me identify new authors that I might want to follow. I found a couple here that I will be exploring further. I liked the majority of the stories here, some more than others. There were a few that I could not get into, and did not finish reading. But that's the best part of short stories, you don't have a lot of time invested in any one of them, and so do not have to feel guilty about abandoning them!

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s no easy way to score an anthology, but I didn’t especially enjoy many of these. Note-to-future-self: liked the short stories by James Hannah, Gar Haywood, Latoya Jovena, Dennis Lehane, Kristen Lepionka, Matthew Wilson.

Some of these were poor choices for an anthology in particular: several authors in their notes said they were excited to write short fiction looking at the back story of a character from one of their novels or where that character ended up, but without having read the novel or known the author’s work I was missing context.

[Denice Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthologies fill a necessary space in my reading history. I find short stories that feed into my favorite series and excellent stories by authors who quickly become favorites on my TBR lists. I always have at least one anthology with me wherever I go, just in case I have time to read and finish a short story. This annual contribution to my library is one I would recommend to any and everyone looking for something different.

[Blaine Strickland · Rating 3 out of 5]

By reading this collection each year for the past three years, I've become a fan of short stories. The authors have to set up the story line quickly and bring quick dimension to their characters. The added element of being a mystery adds to the intensity of the stories. However, this edition was not as good as the past "annual" collections. Some of the stories were not suspenseful and some were just meh. Check out the 2020 and 2021 collections. Read on Kindle over three weeks.

[Mimi Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories deserves 4 stars, but I listened to the audiobook and felt that I would have enjoyed the writing more if I had read the collection instead of listening to it. It felt like there were too many different voices, and some that didn’t sound right to my ears for the story they were reading.

[Lewis Carnelian · Rating 3 out of 5]

While at times some of the selections here beggar the question: how is this mystery or suspense?— in general these stories are solid. The best ones offer a slice of life that can feel utterly foreign rather than truly create a mystery, and others can create enough of a familiarity that it encourages rapport. Also, one of them features a clown hitman. ♥︎