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The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories #4
The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories: 4: Fourth Annual Collection
More than 200,000 words of the best mystery and suspense fiction from around the world
The world's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories
Each year, editors Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg cast their net far and wide, across the seas, throughout the world to catch the best-the most suspenseful, most original, intriguing, confounding, downright entertaining stories of crime and mystery. Edgar winners from the U.S., Silver Dagger winners from the U.K., and stories from elsewhere as well come together here in a bountiful crop of great stories by the best in the business.
This book's a killer!
Contents:
The Year in Mystery and Crime Fiction: 2002 Jon L. Breen
A 2002 Yearbook of Crime and Mystery Edward D. Hoch
World Mystery Report: Great Britain Maxim Jakubowski
World Mystery Report: Canada Edo van Belkom
World Mystery Report: Germany Thomas Wörtche
"To Live and Die in Midland, Texas" Clark Howard
"Rules of the Game" Kate Wilhelm
"The Wagon Mound" Val McDermid
"Ghost Writer" Janice Law
"My Cousin Rachel's Uncle Murray" Susan Issacs
"Top of the World" Bill Crider
"Ere I Killed Thee" Anne Perry
"The Panama Hen" Gesine Schulz
"Gracious Silence" Gillian Linscott
"Cold-Blooded" Stephan Rykena
"Lead . . . Follow" Jac. Toes
"Two Sisters" Frauke Schuster
"Barefoot" Chris Rippen
"Those Are Pearls That Were His Eyes" Carole Nelson Douglas
"A Mimicry of Mockingbirds" Lillian Stewart Carl
"The Twin" Brad Reynolds
"The Vampire Theme" Edward D. Hoch
"The Devil That Walks at Noonday" Ralph McInerny
"The Murder Ballads" Doug Allyn
"The Vale of the White Horse" Sharyn McCrumb
"A Girl Named Charlie" Stanley Cohen
"The Adventure of the Mooning Sentry" Jon L. Breen
"Second Story Sunlight" John Lutz
"A Moment of Wrong Thinking" Lawrence Block
"Too Many Cooks" Marcia Talley
"The Path to the Shroud" Robert Barnard
"Closer to the Flame" Jerry Sykes
"Chalele" John Vermeulen
"Wrong Place, Wrong Time" Bill Pronzini
"Fleeting Fashion" Bob Mendes
"Flying Fast" Piet Teigeler
"The Best Time for Planting" Ina Coelen
"The Money to Feed Them" Martin Spiegelberg
"Mexican Gatsby" Raymond Steiber
"Three Killings and a Favor" Joan Waites
"War Can Be Murder" Mike Doogan
"The Adventure of the Agitated Actress" Daniel Stashower
"Two in the Same Boat" Anke Gebert
"Aftermath" Jeremiah Healy
"Whispers of the Dead" Peter Tremayne
"An Empire's Reach" Brendan DuBois
"Surveillance" Jeffery Deaver
The 2002 Edgar Allen Poe Mystery Fiction Short-List
About the Editors
- GenresShort Stories
640 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2003
19 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
About the author
Ed Gorman
468 books122 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Edward Joseph Gorman Jr. was a prolific American author and anthologist, widely recognized for his contributions to crime, mystery, western, and horror fiction. Born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gorman spent much of his life in the Midwest, drawing on that experience to set many of his novels in small towns. After working over two decades in advertising, political speechwriting, and industrial filmmaking, he published his first novel, Rough Cut, in 1984 and soon transitioned to full-time writing. His fiction is often praised for its emotional depth, suspenseful storytelling, and nuanced characters. Gorman wrote under the pseudonyms Daniel Ransom and Robert David Chase, and contributed to publications such as Mystery Scene, Cemetery Dance, and Black Lizard. He co-founded Mystery Scene magazine and served as its editor and publisher until 2002, continuing his “Gormania” column thereafter. His works have been adapted for film and graphic novels, including The Poker Club and Cage of Night. In comics, he wrote for DC and Dark Horse. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2002, he continued writing despite his illness until his passing in 2016. Critics lauded him as one of the most original crime writers of his generation and a “poet of dark suspense.”
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Edward Joseph Gorman Jr. was a prolific American author and anthologist, widely recognized for his contributions to crime, mystery, western, and horror fiction. Born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gorman spent much of his life in the Midwest, drawing on that experience to set many of his novels in small towns. After working over two decades in advertising, political speechwriting, and industrial filmmaking, he published his first novel, Rough Cut, in 1984 and soon transitioned to full-time writing. His fiction is often praised for its emotional depth, suspenseful storytelling, and nuanced characters. Gorman wrote under the pseudonyms Daniel Ransom and Robert David Chase, and contributed to publications such as Mystery Scene, Cemetery Dance, and Black Lizard. He co-founded Mystery Scene magazine and served as its editor and publisher until 2002, continuing his “Gormania” column thereafter. His works have been adapted for film and graphic novels, including The Poker Club and Cage of Night. In comics, he wrote for DC and Dark Horse. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2002, he continued writing despite his illness until his passing in 2016. Critics lauded him as one of the most original crime writers of his generation and a “poet of dark suspense.”
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 15, 2017
I rarely read short stories as I like to get my teeth into a good twisty plot. The stories in this book are too short for much of that. They are mainly about style. As such, it held a mixed bag - some good, some not so good. I read a half dozen of the of the 42 stories, enough to get a feel for the book, but not enough to give a fair review of most of them. My favorite was Cousin Rachel's Uncle Murray because I really like Susan Isaacs's witty and original style. It was handy at times to have something I could pick up and finish after the news and before dinner. The book holds a rich and varied selection for you to choose from, but in the end I can only give it three stars because most of the stories were rather predictable and too short to develop any real feel for the characters.
July 18, 2021
Like any anthology, some stories I skipped over entirely (as soon as I see Sherlock Holmes, I'm out of there...not a fan of that whole subgenre), some I gave up on after getting partway through, and some I enjoyed. I bookmarked two of the featured authors for further reading -- Bill Pronzini and Brendan DuBois. This earns it a solid middling rating of three stars.
With that said, I give it a fourth star for no other reason than the fact that the editors placed the author bios and statements on the page preceding the story, rather than stacking them together in the back of the book. This is so blatantly logical that it really makes one wonder why on earth the other anthology series persist in doing these as "endnotes", which requires excessive page turning. (I'm looking at you, The Best American * series…)
With that said, I give it a fourth star for no other reason than the fact that the editors placed the author bios and statements on the page preceding the story, rather than stacking them together in the back of the book. This is so blatantly logical that it really makes one wonder why on earth the other anthology series persist in doing these as "endnotes", which requires excessive page turning. (I'm looking at you, The Best American * series…)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews