Best American Mystery Stories (2006)

by Otto Penzler, Scott Turow, Edited By Joyce Carol Oates

Book Overview

[Most of] these stories are portraits, in styles ranging from sly to harrowing, of how crimes occurred ... If you like all your characters living at the end of a story, this may not be the book for you. -- from the introduction by Scott Turow

Best-selling author Scott Turow takes the helm for the tenth edition of this annual, featuring twenty-one of the past year's most distinguished tales of mystery, crime, and suspense.

Elmore Leonard...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618517472
• ISBN13: 9780618517473
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

round up the usual suspects

C.J. Box, Jeffery Deaver, Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain, Walter Mosley, Joyce Carol Oates, R.T. Smith, and Scott Wolven. Scott Turow doesn't write much short fiction, but man can he pick them. This might be the best volume yet. It took me a while to start buying them, but they've turned out to be the premiere of the Best American Series, many years it is better than BASS or BAE or BANRR. Definitely a good buy.

A truly excellent collection

Twenty-one mysteries, almost all of them perfectly pitched. Perfect for one a night bedtime reading. Most of the stories are from familiar names like Ed McBain, Joyce Carol Oates, Elmore Leonard. A few names I wasn't familiar with, but will look for in the future. Describing the merits of each of the stories or even a sampling would be both unfair and a waste. Each story has a different style and each is rewarding. There are a couple that move more slowly than the others, but that's a matter of style and nothing more. Each of the mystery stories in this delightful volume is a keeper. Jerry

FIVE STARS * * * * *

This is the tenth book in this series and I have loved every one of them. Unlike many anthologies, where some stories are good and others are weak, this hefty book is a treat because every story is first-rate. It is clear that the series editor, Otto Penzler, and the guest editor, Scott Turow, like literary fiction, much of which is somewhat noir. Good examples are "Karma" by Walter Mosley, "So Help Me God" by Joyce Carol Oates" and "Improvisation" by Ed McBain, which begins with a great opening line: "`Why don't we kill somebody?'" she suggested." I'd never heard of some of these authors before, like Karen Bender, Wendy Hornsby and R.T. Smith, but their stories are just as beautifully written as those by such famous writers as James Lee Burke, Jeffrey Deaver, Elmore Leonard and Laura Lippman. I wanted to stretch out the book and make it last a while, but I found the stories so enjoyable that I finished it in three nights. If you like great writing in your mystery stories, you'll love this book. *****FIVE STARS

Another Winning Collection

Another great collection this year guest edited by Scott Turow along with the always great series editor Otto Penzler. Highlights include Joyce Carol Oates' "So Help Me God" and R.T. Smith's "Ina Grove" but all the stories are consistantly great. Easily the best mystery anthology of the year.