The Best American Mystery Stories 2017
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
The New York Times–bestselling author presents a thrilling anthology of devious crimes with stories by C. J. Box, Peter Straub, Joyce Carol Oates and more.
“Some people might tell you that crime short stories, unlike the more precious kind, are a kind of fictional ghetto, full of cardboard characters and clichéd situations. Not true. These stories are remarkably free of bullshit—although there’s always a little, just to grease the wheels,” writes guest editor John Sandford in his introduction to this action-packed volume of mystery fiction.
From an isolated Wyoming ranch to the Detroit boxing underworld, and from kidnapping and adultery in the Hollywood Hills to a serial killer loose in a nursing home, The Best American Mystery Stories 2017 hosts an entertaining abundance of crime, psychological suspense, and bad intentions.
The Best American Mystery Stories 2017 includes entries by C.J. Box, Gerri Brightwell, Jeffery Deaver, Brendan DuBois, Trina Corey, Craig Johnson, Joyce Carol Oates, Peter Straub, and others.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 21st annual best-of volume in general editor Otto Penzler's series demonstrates the care that went into selecting its 20 entries. Doug Allyn's "Puncher's Chance," in which a man hopes to save his family from a thug, is a perfect illustration of how a gifted writer can bring readers into an unfamiliar world here professional boxing and combine that with deft characterizations and an intelligent plot within the confines of a short story. Geri Brightwell's "Williamsville" deviates wickedly from its opening narrative pathway, in which a gun for hire in the Old West seeks the man his cuckolded client has paid him to kill. Charles John Harper's hard-boiled yarn, "Lovers and Thieves," will make fans of the subgenre hope that its PI lead, Darrow Nash, will walk the mean streets of L.A. again. In Brendan Dubois's "The Man from Away," another high point, a man whose wife is killed in an accident seeks his own form of justice, despite her harsh treatment of him. Fans of such notables as C.J. Box, Peter Straub, and Joyce Carol Oates chiefly known for their novels will be pleased to see how well they write at shorter length.
