The Best American Mystery Stories 2000 - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395939178 ISBN 13: 9780395939178

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000

Synopsis

The acclaimed author of The Hook serves as guest editor for this new collection of the finest mystery tales of 1999, in an anthology that incorporates fifty pieces of short fiction by Jeffery Deaver, Shel Silverstein, Dennis Lehane, Tom Franklin, and other notable authors.

About this title

About the Author

An Edgar Award winner, Otto Penzler is the founder of the Mysterious Bookshops and the Mysterious Press. He lives in New York City. Donald E. Westlake, a Mystery Writers of America grand master, has written dozens of novels during his prolific thirty-year career, including his latest thriller, THE HOOK. His many honors include several Edgar Awards and an Oscar nomination. He lives in upstate New York.

Reviews

Guest editor Westlake has done an outstanding job selecting 20 stories published in 1999 for this stellar anthology, now in its fourth year, which should continue to garner big sales. In his introduction he wonders at the form's durability. The financial rewards are small, and these days short stories won't make a literary reputation. Why then do its practitioners persist? As with jazz, that other great American contribution to world art, they engage in it "primarily for the love of doing it," asserts Westlake. In contrast to the novel, where digressions and red herrings are the norm, unity of effect is all, as exemplified by the inventor of the detective story, Edgar Allan PoeAand by the contemporary writers represented in this volume. The names here range from the late Shel Silverstein, bestselling children's book author, whose rollicking tale, "The Guilty Party," stands as a fitting swan song for this versatile talent, to Thomas H. McNeely, whose quietly chilling psychological study, "Sheep," is his first published work of fiction. Robert Girardi's novella, "The Defenestration of Aba Sid," works both as a tale of comic absurdity and as an anti-Grisham lawyer story. In a foreword, series editor Otto Penzler comments on how mysteries have evolved in both style and content. Over the life of the genre, stories have become more complex, more textured. When Penzler says "be prepared for the unexpected, and be ready for some of the best prose being written today," he's not overstating the case. This title will enjoy brisk library sales but is also poised to benefit from the continued general-reader interest in matters mysterious. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Twenty stories by American and Canadian mystery writers, culled from more than 1,100 entries, make up the fourth entry in this series. Except for the late Shel Silverstein, who submitted the wickedly clever "The Guilty Party" for this edition, many of the writers are little or moderately well known, probably giving more credibility to the selection process. Series editor Penzler provides a foreword that traces the evolution of the mystery story from puzzles to private eye stories to the current emphasis on stories of character. Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Donald Westlake's introduction does more fine riffs on the similarities between jazz and the mystery short story. A worthwhile assemblage of contemporary crime fiction. "Contributor's Notes" at the end give bios and authors' takes on writing mysteries. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395939178
• ISBN 13: 9780395939178
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352
• Editor: Penzler Otto, Westlake Donald E.