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Title: The Best American Mystery Stories 2001 by Otto Penzler, Lawrence Block, Paula Parker, Beth McDonald ISBN: 0-618-15565-1 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 10 October, 2001 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 4 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.88 (8 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Odd Selections
Comment: I should note from the start that I only listened to the nine stories on the CD audio edition, so my comments only reflect roughly half of the book's contents. I have to say that they were a bit of a disappointment overall. One would expect a collection of mystery stories to have some, well, mystery... Instead, the stories are heavy on atmosphere, emphasizing it over plot, and sometimes there is only the slimmest connection to crime at all. Roxana Robinson's "Face Lift" for example, is a curious inclusion by any measure. I'm not any kind of genre purist, nor am I big fan of whodunits, or traditional mysteries-but it seems like the editors were going more for stories with cachet (either a name literary author such as Russell Banks or Joyce Carol Oates, or a name source publication like Esquire), rather than actually finding mysteries that are great reads. I'm also not one who likes to puzzle out the endings to mysteries ahead of time, but I had the endings spotted halfway through the three most "traditional" mysteries of the nine on the CD (which were also my three favorites as it happened). The only story to make me somewhat interested in reading something else by the author was Peter Robinson's "Missing in Action", which had an interesting WWII setting and a light touch. Still, one out of nine isn't a great success rate, and if the other eleven stories are of the same ilk, I'd have to recommend skipping this year's collection.
Rating: 1
Summary: sellout
Comment: Penzler and Block sold out to the literary establishment on this one. Or maybe it was Michele Slung. Anyway, it seems like they chose any story--no matter how pointless and uninteresting--with a crime in it that appeared in a 'literary magazine'. Trying to brown-nose some credibility perhaps? Anyway, don't read this if you're looking for a good mystery of crime story. Try Gorman's 'World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories'. This one's a waste.
Rating: 3
Summary: Some good stories, but not terribly hardboiled
Comment: "The Best Mystery Stories of 2001" is a strange collection. Because it was edited by the great Lawrence Block, I expected it to contain a fair number of good hardboiled stories. Alas, that is the one subgenre that gets the short shrift in this collection. I noted that many of these stories first appeared in literary magazines, which may have something to do with why so many of them are written with flowery prose and are a tad shy on gritty street realism. There is also a decided absence of big name mystery authors, with long time great Bill Pronzini being one of the few icons in the collection. As soon as Pronzini's story, a first rate "Nameless" dectective tale, begins, the level of excitement rose for me. Jerimiah Healy is also in this collection, but his Cuddy short story is fairly pedestrian. Big name T. Jefferson Parker delivers "Easy Street," which is among the best in the collection. The others were a mixed bag for me, and I found some of them, like Roxanna Robinson's "The Face Lift," to barely qualify as mystery stories.
Overall, this collection left me wondering. If these really are the "best" mystery short stories being produced today, then the genre could definately use a good jump start.
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Title: The Best American Mystery Stories 2000 by Otto Penzler, Donald E. Westlake ISBN: 0395939186 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 26 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Best American Mystery Stories 2002 (Best American (TM)) by Otto Penzler, James Ellroy ISBN: 0618124934 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Best American Mystery Stories by Ed McBain, Otto Penzler ISBN: 0395939151 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 29 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Best American Mystery Stories 1998 by Sue Grafton, Otto Penzler ISBN: 0395835852 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 30 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Best American Mystery Stories 2003 by Otto Penzler, Michael Connelly ISBN: 061832965X Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 10 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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