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The Best American Mystery Stories 2009
Best-selling novelist Jeffery Deaver edits this latest collection of the genre's finest from the past year. Featuring "gritty tales told with panache," this is a "must-read for anybody who cares about crime stories" (Booklist).
381 pages, Paperback
Published October 8, 2009
11 people are currently reading
311 people want to read
About the author
Jeffery Deaver
509 books11.7k followers#1 international bestselling author of over thirty novels and three collections of short stories. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into 25 languages. His first novel featuring Lincoln Rhyme, The Bone Collector, was made into a major motion picture starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. He's received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 17, 2010
I don't care much for the short story. A master's program in writing will do that to you. Every group has at least five earnest twits trying to be the next Raymond Carver and get their dreary present-tense tale of post-modern angst published in The Atlantic Monthly.
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who hate Atlantic Monthly fiction, and liars.
None of the stories in this year's Best American Mystery Stories would get the time of day from the Atlantic Monthly. Nifty little slices of gore and mayhem, violence and deceit, and human frailty are on tap. And there isn't a clunker among them, except maybe the Joyce Carol Oates entry.
I charged straight through this volume. Check it out.
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who hate Atlantic Monthly fiction, and liars.
None of the stories in this year's Best American Mystery Stories would get the time of day from the Atlantic Monthly. Nifty little slices of gore and mayhem, violence and deceit, and human frailty are on tap. And there isn't a clunker among them, except maybe the Joyce Carol Oates entry.
I charged straight through this volume. Check it out.
January 11, 2010
Every year I buy these anthologies and every year I love them. However, this compliation really tops by "Love" list.
July 4, 2010
I'm only four stories into and I'm loving it. So far, better than last year's collection. I've found some authors new to me that I'm really looking forward to reading more of. Big Midnight Special by James Lee Burke is definitely in my top 10 short stories of all time.
January 4, 2010
Very good spectrum of crime fiction.
February 14, 2014
Alice Munro: don't underestimate the crabby old lady. Ever.
Joyce Carol Oates: one very loooooong and compelling paragraph.
Michael Connelly: Happy Father's Day
Joyce Carol Oates: one very loooooong and compelling paragraph.
Michael Connelly: Happy Father's Day
March 18, 2024
This is a collection of 21 mystery stories the editor deemed to be the best of 2009. I don’t know whether they’re the best, but some of them are excellent, and one or two are meh.
“Rust” by N. J. Ayres is a gripping story about the murder of a policewoman and the obsessed man who did it.
Tom Bissell’s “My Interview with the Avenger” is one of the very few stories in this collection that didn’t do much for me. Surely a Doug Allyn entry would have worked better in that slot.
“Winning” by Alafair Burke is a gripping story of rape and revenge. Yes, you should read it.
James Lee Burke’s “Big Midnight Special” is particularly atmospheric and captures the oppressive horror of an American southern prison. It’s the story of broken guitars and broken spirits. It’s one you should read if you don’t read everything in the collection.
“Beanball” by Ron Carlson looks at the darker nastier side of baseball. I’m not a fan of the game, so it didn’t do much for me, but if you enjoy the game, you may well enjoy the story.
Michael Connelly’s “Father’s Day” is the best story in the anthology. A disabled baby can sure be inconvenient.
“Pretty Little Parasite” by David Corbet looks at the lengths a mother will strive for to save a child.
“Meantime, Quentin Ghlee” by M. m. m. Hayes looks at the age-old tensions between those who want peace and seclusion and those who want progress. This is a closeup of one old hermit who, tired of dealing with the congestion and horror of life in Salt Lake City, determines that noisy visitors to his rural Nevada mine can’t stay no matter what. Read this to see what lengths he goes to in preservation of peace.
Chuck Hogan’s “Two Thousand Volts” gives you a sobering look at the death penalty in a unique way.
If the Michael Connelly story is the best in this anthology, then Clark Howard’s “Manila Burning” has to be the third best. The Philippine government releases an American expatriate from a prison in the mountainous region of the country. He makes his impoverished way to Manila and to the girl he hopes is still waiting for him there. But it’s been a long year, and she has a short attention span. She and a friend of hers ask Danny, the recently imprisoned American, to help them with a shady project. He does, and the end result left me frustrated.
Rob Kantner’s “Down Home Blues” is the second-best story in the anthology. A private investigator a bit down on his luck and between jobs drops by the home of a distant cousin whose husband is never at home and never pays the bills when he is. She operates a bed and breakfast place in rural Georgia, and the between-jobs private investigator discovers things about one of her tenants you’d rather not know.
“My Son” by Robert McClure was meh. It features a repeat criminal and his dirty cop son. Left me largely cold and uninterested.
“Free Radicals” by Alice Munro is a great story about a widow who is herself dying of cancer. She gets one last slap at someone who wants to do her dirty. It’s an excellent story.
Joyce Carol Oates’s “Dear Husband” is what you would expect from her. If you like her writing, that’s good news. If you’re like me, who assiduously avoids her stories however possible, that’s not good news.
“The Wanted Men” by Nick Pizzolatto is a haunting story of a highly dysfunctional red neck family, examples of which dot the landscapes of every state in the union today. It’s a sad story about an alcoholic, his failure son, and his morally dissolute daughter.
“Kamala and the King of Kandy” by Gary Craig Powell takes place in the UAE, and I forgot its plotline mere minutes after I finished it. My critics will blame that on my propensity to speed up a book. Not fair. This was just a forgettable story.
Randy Rohn’s “The Man Who Fell in Love with the Stump of a tree” is another strange piece set in a small town. It focuses on the friendship of a couple of misfits.
I’ve been an unabashed, unapologetic, full-on fan of Kristine Cathryn Rusch for years. She seems incapable of cranking out bad or unreadable stuff. Whether it’s her mysteries or her science fiction, Rusch always enriches my life. This story, G-Men,” is an alternate history that includes the death of J. Edgar Hoover and his partner at a gay bar in New York City in 1964. It’s a great story that forces the vulgar Lundon Johnson and the more urbane but equally steely Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. If you read it, you’ll enjoy it. She hits another one out of the park for me with this.
Jonathan Tel’s “Bola de la Fortuna” is the story of one innocent man’s constant brush with law-enforcement officials who insist he committed a rape and murder. The accusation and interrogations dog the poor man for years.
“This of Any Desert” by Vu Tran is the final story in the anthology. It looks at the impact of persistent love and the differences among cultures. It’s a good albeit disturbing story that takes place in Las Vegas.
“Rust” by N. J. Ayres is a gripping story about the murder of a policewoman and the obsessed man who did it.
Tom Bissell’s “My Interview with the Avenger” is one of the very few stories in this collection that didn’t do much for me. Surely a Doug Allyn entry would have worked better in that slot.
“Winning” by Alafair Burke is a gripping story of rape and revenge. Yes, you should read it.
James Lee Burke’s “Big Midnight Special” is particularly atmospheric and captures the oppressive horror of an American southern prison. It’s the story of broken guitars and broken spirits. It’s one you should read if you don’t read everything in the collection.
“Beanball” by Ron Carlson looks at the darker nastier side of baseball. I’m not a fan of the game, so it didn’t do much for me, but if you enjoy the game, you may well enjoy the story.
Michael Connelly’s “Father’s Day” is the best story in the anthology. A disabled baby can sure be inconvenient.
“Pretty Little Parasite” by David Corbet looks at the lengths a mother will strive for to save a child.
“Meantime, Quentin Ghlee” by M. m. m. Hayes looks at the age-old tensions between those who want peace and seclusion and those who want progress. This is a closeup of one old hermit who, tired of dealing with the congestion and horror of life in Salt Lake City, determines that noisy visitors to his rural Nevada mine can’t stay no matter what. Read this to see what lengths he goes to in preservation of peace.
Chuck Hogan’s “Two Thousand Volts” gives you a sobering look at the death penalty in a unique way.
If the Michael Connelly story is the best in this anthology, then Clark Howard’s “Manila Burning” has to be the third best. The Philippine government releases an American expatriate from a prison in the mountainous region of the country. He makes his impoverished way to Manila and to the girl he hopes is still waiting for him there. But it’s been a long year, and she has a short attention span. She and a friend of hers ask Danny, the recently imprisoned American, to help them with a shady project. He does, and the end result left me frustrated.
Rob Kantner’s “Down Home Blues” is the second-best story in the anthology. A private investigator a bit down on his luck and between jobs drops by the home of a distant cousin whose husband is never at home and never pays the bills when he is. She operates a bed and breakfast place in rural Georgia, and the between-jobs private investigator discovers things about one of her tenants you’d rather not know.
“My Son” by Robert McClure was meh. It features a repeat criminal and his dirty cop son. Left me largely cold and uninterested.
“Free Radicals” by Alice Munro is a great story about a widow who is herself dying of cancer. She gets one last slap at someone who wants to do her dirty. It’s an excellent story.
Joyce Carol Oates’s “Dear Husband” is what you would expect from her. If you like her writing, that’s good news. If you’re like me, who assiduously avoids her stories however possible, that’s not good news.
“The Wanted Men” by Nick Pizzolatto is a haunting story of a highly dysfunctional red neck family, examples of which dot the landscapes of every state in the union today. It’s a sad story about an alcoholic, his failure son, and his morally dissolute daughter.
“Kamala and the King of Kandy” by Gary Craig Powell takes place in the UAE, and I forgot its plotline mere minutes after I finished it. My critics will blame that on my propensity to speed up a book. Not fair. This was just a forgettable story.
Randy Rohn’s “The Man Who Fell in Love with the Stump of a tree” is another strange piece set in a small town. It focuses on the friendship of a couple of misfits.
I’ve been an unabashed, unapologetic, full-on fan of Kristine Cathryn Rusch for years. She seems incapable of cranking out bad or unreadable stuff. Whether it’s her mysteries or her science fiction, Rusch always enriches my life. This story, G-Men,” is an alternate history that includes the death of J. Edgar Hoover and his partner at a gay bar in New York City in 1964. It’s a great story that forces the vulgar Lundon Johnson and the more urbane but equally steely Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. If you read it, you’ll enjoy it. She hits another one out of the park for me with this.
Jonathan Tel’s “Bola de la Fortuna” is the story of one innocent man’s constant brush with law-enforcement officials who insist he committed a rape and murder. The accusation and interrogations dog the poor man for years.
“This of Any Desert” by Vu Tran is the final story in the anthology. It looks at the impact of persistent love and the differences among cultures. It’s a good albeit disturbing story that takes place in Las Vegas.
December 15, 2017
Ogni storia raccontata in questo libro ti lascia un brivido lunga la schiena un amarezza che solo pochi riescono a trasmetterti.
July 7, 2021
Some good ones, some great, some not so good, some not so great.
December 9, 2021
Kinda so, so
September 12, 2023
Like any anthology, some better than others. A few superb even. Just don't expect too much from it.
February 19, 2010
I had high hopes for this book. Hopes of smoking guns, lovable detectives, hidden clues and endings with a twist. My hopes weren't answered, but there were some curious stories that I'm still thinking about. A drug dealer single mom with a difficult decision to make, a murderer who wasn't sure about his guilt and an awkward attempt at a kiss that turns into an accidental murder. Interesting, but not what I would call the best mysteries that I've ever read. Maybe 2009 was just a bad year for mystery writers.
February 10, 2010
First, I have never felt that the short story format could truly appreciate a good mystery. But this is a compilation of accomplished authors, and I decided to take a chance. Having said that, these stories are, in fact, very well-written. But WOW. They were dull. Unsuspenseful. And without any backbone.
February 18, 2010
So, some of the stories were good, some were OK. A fair amount of unfun topics (i.e., rape or death). I'm still not sure why a bunch were classified as mysteries - their definition seemed pretty loose to me.
May 21, 2010
Boy, these were disappointing. As with all short story collections, some of the stories were better than others, but not one of them was actually a 4 or 5 star story. None of them was who-done-it enough for me. I say skip this volume. Sad, because I really wanted to like it.
October 11, 2013
In realtà questo non è un vero libro, è un libro in cui si raccolgono stralci di altri libri. Se si è alla ricerca di nuovi autori da leggere o si vuole provare per la prima volta a leggere questo genere questo è un ottimo punto di partenza per scegliere chi leggere.
November 23, 2014
I like short stories. This book was a confirmation of that fact. Many of the authors were new to me, as well as a few familiar ones. The stories were compact, covered a variety of situations, various settings, as well as time periods. Lots of variety.
June 13, 2015
Editor Jeffery Dever notes that most of the stories explore the psychology of the murderer. Good selection. Enjoyed the introduction for its overview of the selection process and its review of the scope of mystery tales. All very dark stories.
February 5, 2010
some poor writing & half aren't even mysteries! (says the old book curmudgeony me)
April 24, 2010
I certainly don't share this editor's taste in literature. These stories read like episodes of bad television dramas.
Read
July 10, 2010would not suggest this book
August 1, 2010
Really a worth reading, staring from the intro by Jeffrey Deaver.
November 10, 2011
About a third of these are well-written, genre-less. About a third are a good thriller read. About a third are dull. Not bad!
February 7, 2016
Some stories were not the greatest. It was like every other story was good!!
April 16, 2013
There are a few good reads, but I couldn't get through them all.
January 20, 2016
All of these annual collections are great reading. The standout among standouts here is James Lee Burke's "The Midnight Special."
November 18, 2010
Great little stories to read on my bus commute.
November 19, 2015
This was a strong collection of memorable stories, enjoyed it!
January 26, 2016
Deaver, who's a prime author himself, edited this wonderful collection of truly choice stories.
April 18, 2017
Antologia di racconti brevi "curata" da j.d.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews