| Title | : | The Best American Mystery Stories 2011 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 054755396X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780547553962 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 412 |
| Publication | : | First published December 1, 2011 |
First, Best, and Best-Selling
The Best American Mystery Stories 2011 Reviews
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I am a fan of both short stories and mysteries, so The Best American Mystery Stories 2011 was bound to pique my curiosity. This year’s collection was edited by Harlan Coben, so I knew this would be a good set of stories.
Surprisingly, I think my favorite story was The End of the String by Charles McCarry. This story involves an American in Ndala who becomes involved with a military man wishing to overthrow the president. This is not a topic I would normally seek out, but what a storyteller! I was completely drawn into the plot.
I also enjoyed Destiny City by James Grady, which centers around a terrorist plot. I am not one to seek out terroristic or political crime stories, but I found that I enjoyed all of them in this collection.
My second favorite story in this collection was The Hitter by Chris F. Holm. The Hitter is about a hit man who kills other hit men. This hit man contracts with potential victims to profit off the fact that he can save their lives by killing their would be assassins. Eventually, his chosen profession catches up to him.
Flying Solo by Ed Gorman is about two elderly men who befriend one another while receiving chemo treatment, and together they become vigilantes, fighting injustices.
Honorable mentions include Who Stole My Monkey? by David Corbett and Luis Alberto Urrea, A Crime of Opportunity by Ernest J. Finney and The Stars Are Falling by Joe R. Lansdale. I discovered many new authors through this collection, as well as an interest in subject matter that I would not normally seek out in my reading.
Many thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing me with a copy to review, via NetGalley. -
To be honest I was disappointed by this book. There were very few stories which I felt merited the description "Best" or "Mystery". For Harlan Coben to have associated himself with the collection disturbs me as I have read quite a few of his books and been delighted to have read them. I did not complete the book because I was that disappointed with it.
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The Best American Mystery Stories are an annual anthology that publishes a selection of tales published in magazines an anthologies during the year. Each year a guest editor is chosen who determines from a list of about 50 submissions, their favourite 20 stories to be included. Harlan Coben is this years editor and as a fan of his books I was interested to read his choices.
The Best American Mystery Stories 2011 has great variety and I was more than impressed with the overall quality. Of the twenty short stories there were only two I didn't much care for. For me the stand out's included Clean Slate by Lawrence Block is the story of a woman damaged by her childhood who has found a way to take revenge, Flying Solo by Ed Gorman involves two elderly men dying of cancer leaving a better world behind them and Chin Yong Yun Takes a Case by SJ Rozan is a case of amateur detection in Chinatown by a minor character in Rozan's Lydia Chin series.
Many of the stories are quite dark and violent as to be expected when the story centers around crime. Some mysteries are solved, others are open ended leaving you to wonder. In others just who is the victim isn't clear. My interest in several authors work was piqued by this collection, others I was already a fan of.
I really enjoyed reading the Contributors Notes where the author provides some background to the development of their story. It's an inside look into inspiration that is rarely seen.
The Best American Mystery Series 2011 is a terrific read and I hope to get my hands on a few of the previous years issues. If you are a crime/mystery fan then you will surely appreciate this outstanding anthology, it's a must read. -
I have to agree. These ARE the best mystery stories. Some are not mysteries as much as curious. All but one sucked me in.
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Harlan Coben is an auto-read author for me, so I was curious to see if his taste in reading material came anywhere close to mine. This is definitely one of the better compilations of mystery-themed stories that I've read, so I guess our tastes are rather similiar :)
There were a couple of stories that stretched credulity as mysteries (including the first one - sorry to say I'm with the author's writing group in that I'd have panned this if it was presented as a mystery), some that were way more graphic than I anticipated (like Lawrence Block's contribution, ugh), and one was populated by complete assholes (all passive-aggressive nicey-nice sorts who kill solely to hurt others - not a good look, IMO). I DNFed one of the stories, not being in the mood to read about terrorism in this locked down world of ours.
The best thing about reading short stories, and the reason why I've subscribed to both AHMM & EQMM, is that its a great way to discover new authors. My favorite stories from this collection - as in, I'll definitely be purusing more of the author's work - include the following:
[+] "Flying Solo" - Ed Gorman: Two dying men take it on themselves to become avenging angels for their chemo nurses. They're already dying, the last of both of their families, so why not go out with a bang?
[+] "The Hitter" - Chris F. Holm: A Quarry-like main character (that is, a hitman of hitmen) comes up against his worst fear when his family is put in the line of fire thanks to a double-crossing victim. I'm a sucker for hitman stories anyway, but man oh man, this one just pushes you right up to the line. Mr. Holm is the only author who doesn't have compiled works, but he appears to be a regular contributor to the aforementioned magazines, so maybe I'll get lucky and come across his work again.
[+] "Baby Killer" - Richard Lange: In spite of that title, this is ultimately a sweet story about a much put-upon woman trying to make the best of her life, living under the thumb of the local thugs and gangs, who finally decides she's had enough and does something about it when one of the fore-mentioned thugs shoots and kills an innocent baby.
[+] "Heart Like a Balloon" - Andrew Riconda: A rather amusing tale of a reluctant hitman who helps his latest "victim" commit suicide, because the man is totally hopeless. The end is a little gross, but I'm intrigued enough by the main character to seek out more stories about him.
[+] "Chin Yong-Yun Takes a Case" - S.J. Rozen: A very traditional Chinese grandmother steps in for her PI daughter when the son of a 'friend' comes begging for help because his son has been kidnapped. Though the tale unfolds in a very obvious way, I very much enjoyed reading about Chin Yong-Yun, who is the mother of a character that Ms. Rozen writes a series of books about. I'll definitely be checking those out.
[+] "A Long Time Dead" - Max Allen Collins & Mickey Spillane: A Mike Hammer short, originated by Spillane and continued by Collins. Neither of these names are new to me, but I might take a crack at the Mike Hammer novels at some point. Collins is the author of the aforementioned Max Quarry novels, and I've enjoyed those.
As always, a HUGE thanks for the author's notes in the back, which are the most fun for me, because I like knowing the origin of stories from the author's point of view :) -
A good batch this year - I read these every year to find stories for Thrilling Tales, so I'm reading with a focus on more inherently clear and satisfying stories - and Coben has a fair number of these. I've been wanting to do a Brendan DuBois story in the storytime for some years now, and I think "Ridealong" is finally one that will work w/ the format, as there are some very good twists. Less certain about risking a story co-written by Tom Franklin ("What His Hands had been Waiting For") about two ruthless lawmen patrolling the wastes of a big delta flood who wind up with a dead looter's baby on their hands - it is kind of McCarthy-esque in its funkiness and even some alluded baby cannibalism and people freak out about a babe in jeopardy, BUT it still might work. One great uncanny piece - "Last Cottage," told in the plural first person voice of villagers who are trying to oust a happy family - very odd but I still might try it for TT. And finally one of the Max Alan Collins / Mickey Spillane 'collabos' that is classic Mike Hammer, and that I think I will do, even though it has a perfectly stomach churning sadistic climax. A good bet every year, but this is a pretty strong year.
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This collection was much better than the 2007 Best Short Stories anthology. I had high hopes after reading this line in Harlan Coben's introduction: "[these authors} have taken Elmore Leonard's credo and fed it steroids and raised it to the tenth power and then driven it out to a dive bar by the airport and given it an unlimited tab." Oh yeah.
One of the editors, Otto Penzler, makes a point to explain that these stories are not typical mysteries. As long as a story has elements of a crime, it qualifies for inclusion in this collection, so don't expect a series of whodunits.
Of course, there were a few stories that were meh, but there were several shining stars including Flying Solo, Chin Yong-Yun Takes a Case, Something Pretty, Something Beautiful, A Long Time Dead, Last Cottage (which might be my favorite), and The Hitter (which might be my other favorite). This is a collection worth checking out! -
The Best American Mystery Stories of 2011 edited by Harlan Coben and Otto Penzler is the 15th edition of this very popular anthology. I look forward to it every year, so I gave a little fist pump when I was able to snag an advance reader’s copy from the publisher. As usual, this is an excellent collection of stories by new-to-me authors and some old favorites. Read the rest of my review at
http://popcornreads.com/?p=2125 -
There were a couple of five-star stories in this collection, about half of them did not engage me and those I thumbed past. It's difficult to write a short mystery story, and there are few in here (they're mostly crime stories, really--you'd shelve them in "thriller" rather than "mystery.")
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Shockingly few women authors are included in this compilation
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I just really like mystery stories. This is a good collection, some strange, some classic in style. Some accomplished writers among the authors.
Favorites
Audacious— 74 year old widower kindly takes in a pickpocketing 21 year old girl who turns out to be a 16 yr old runaway. She runs off when he tries to take her home.
Flying solo — two old widowers meet in chemo and begin helping out nurses who are in trouble with bad men in their lives
The Hitter — hitman who targets other hitmen has last job go awry, putting his former wife (who thinks he died in Afghanistan, and has since remarried) in danger. He determines to die confronting the mob hitmen who are coming for her to get to him.
Ride Along — woman poses as journalist to ride along with police patrol in order to be on scene of crime she had previously planned, knock out the policeman, and kill partners (who had double crossed them) and steal the loot. -
It's pretty much impossible to review a collection like this. There are many stories, of varying quality and mood, all selected by the editor from a fairly long list. No one reader will be satisfied by all of them. And I have to point out that there is a great deal of violation of a central premise of authorship, that the main characters should change or learn something essential along the way. (I've seen a lot of violations of this in short-story format over the past couple years, suggesting that perhaps it's a new literary trend.)
I can only assert that this collection is worth a look. If you're a fan of Coben's writing, you can probably trust his instincts as to what constitutes good fiction. -
Nie jestem zwolenniczką antologii, zbiorów drobnych literackich dzieł. Wolę pełnowymiarowe powieści, w których można się zżyć z bohaterami, wyrobić o nich opinię, opartą na dłuższej znajomości. Ale stwierdziłam, że co mi szkodzi spróbować i sięgnęłam po "Najlepsze amerykańskie opowiadania kryminalne 2011". Nie żałuję, choć mogło być lepiej. Niektóre opowiadania bardzo mi się podobały ("Zadziorna", "Czyste konto"), niektóre mniej, a inne wcale, jedynie mnie nużyły i nudziły ("Czasem hiena", "Na co czekały jego dłonie", "Na końcu sznurka"), ale te kilkadziesiąt stron każdego z nich dało się przetrwać. Mimo wszystko, wydaje mi się, że każdy fan kryminałów znajdzie w tej antologii coś dla siebie.
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It’s my opinion that the quality of the annual Best American Mystery Stories depends heavily on who’s doing the editing, and although I don’t care for Harlan Cohan’s writing, I very much enjoyed his editing. Best American Mystery Stories 2011 is exactly the kind of anthology I like: it contains good stories by new (to me) authors. In this case the authors were Grady, Holm and McCarry, and I recommend their stories in particular. This entry in the series is among the best. Recommended.
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Although the forward did address this issue, the majority of stories would not really be considered mysteries. Not sure how they ended up in this anthology. That being said, many of the stories were page turners, my favorites being “Flying Solo”, “Clean Slate”, “Chin Yong-Yun Takes a Case” and “A Long Time Dead”. I paid a dollar for this anthology at a used book store. I definitely would have felt cheated if I paid full price for this one.
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Great Fun
I chose this rating to Express my thorough satisfaction with reading these short stories.
Would not change a thing, liking all the good and bad of it all.
I would recommend this group of stories to anyone who enjoys the short story form. -
First story about a man in his 70’s who “falls in love with” a 16 year old runaway.
Third story glamorizing incest and child molestation, framing the victim as a femme fatale with a hit list.
It’s a no for me! -
Bought for $5.98 from Amazon in December 2013.
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Fantastic collection of crime stories, running the gamut from hard-boiled to cozy, from urban to rural, and from the humorous to the downright chilling.
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Meh. 2 1/2 stars.
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An excellent selection. Enjoyed it a lot.
