The Best American Mystery Stories 2014

August 30, 2004
The eighth in Otto Penzler's popular series offers some fine writing, but mystery fans should be aware that the bulk of the entries amount to crime fiction. Out of the 20 stories from veteran bestsellers such as Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates, as well as promising newcomers, only one—William J. Carroll Jr.'s "Height Advantage"—is a whodunit. The standout is Christopher Coake's "All Through the House," a chilling, multilayered account of a family massacre whose shifting perspectives, flashbacks and flash-forwards create a moving, painful and haunting effect that lingers long after the last page. Sherlockians will be amused and intrigued by Richard Lupoff's clever pastiche of Edgar Allan Poe's C. Auguste Dupin, "The Incident of the Impecunious Chevalier," which features a young Holmes calling on his literary ancestor to track down a certain legendary jeweled black bird. Jeffrey Robert Bowman's "Stonewalls," with its alternative explanation of the cause of Gen. Stonewall Jackson's death from friendly fire, will appeal to Civil War buffs with its gritty and compelling perspective on the barbarities of war. Fans of suspenseful and psychologically rich tales of con men and low-level crooks will enjoy this volume; devotees of Agatha Christie and other authors in the classic mystery tradition should seek satisfaction elsewhere. Agent, Nat Sobel.

September 1, 2014
The 20 entries in series editor Otto Penzler’s 18th annual collection of crime stories impress with their quality, diversity, and almost complete absence of private detectives or policemen as main character. The many gems include “Almost Like Christmas,” a recently discovered, heart-wrenching story by the late Joseph Heller, as well as selections from such well-known mystery writers as James Lee Burke (“Getting Across Jordan”) and Megan Abbott (“My Heart Is Either Broken”). There are also strong offerings from mainstream authors, such as Russell Banks’s “Former Marine,” which is about an elderly bank robber and his sons, and Annie Proulx’s “Rough Deeds,” which reaches back to colonial times. Charlaine Harris displays her sly wit in “Small Kingdoms,” in which a high school principal defends her turf, and Matthew Neill Null’s “Gauley Season” takes readers wild river rafting in West Virginia, where not all dangers come from the water. Guest editor Lippman has chosen wisely. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber.

October 1, 2014
The 20 top picks this year span the globe in setting and cross the spectrum in tone. When you think of criminal malfeasance, you may flash to mean streets and big cities. But crimes sometimes pop up where you least expect them. An overgrown garden outside South Bend, Indiana, hides buried treasure in Jim Allyn's "Princess Anne." A rural river holds a deadly secret in Matthew Neill Null's "Gauley Season." A virgin Maine timber forest becomes the scene of a careless crime with deadly consequences in Annie Proulx's "Rough Deeds." Evil can be all too well-planned, as in Michelle Butler Hallett's "Bush-Hammer Finish," set in Newfoundland. But David H. Ingram's "The Covering Storm" shows that all the planning in the world can't outpace luck in 19th-century Galveston. The suburbs provide fertile ground for mayhem in Patricia Engel's "Aida," Charlaine Harris' "Small Kingdoms" and Ed Kurtz's "A Good Marriage." Crime also thrives in the wide-open spaces, as in James Lee Burke's almost pastoral "Going Across Jordan." It even pokes up in the world's least populated place, as Laura Van Den Berg demonstrates in "Antarctica." And in "My Heart Is Either Broken" and "Festered Wounds," Megan Abbott and Nancy Pauline Simpson show that many crimes take place in the smallest of spaces-the human heart. Lippman and series editor Penzler set a sumptuous and surprisingly varied table for those who like their thrills short, sweet and creepy.

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