Best Amer Mysteries 04 Pa (Best American) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0618329676 ISBN 13: 9780618329670

Publisher: Best American, 2004

Synopsis

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected — and most popular — of its kind. Assembled by best-selling suspense author Nelson DeMille, The Best American Mystery Stories 2004 contains a spectacular array of stories by mystery veterans and talented newcomers. Follow a chain reaction that saves a woman’s life, visit a house haunted by a husband’s violent killing spree, enter the high-stakes world of Las Vegas gambling, watch the line between reality and dream blur, travel with a bored salesman driven to crime, and much more. Encompassing all aspects of the genre, this year’s selections are sure to quicken pulses, send chills down the spine, and keep readers continually guessing.

About this title

About the Author

OTTO PENZLER is a renowned mystery editor, publisher, columnist, and owner of New York's The Mysterious Bookshop, the oldest and largest bookstore solely dedicated to mystery fiction. He has edited more than fifty crime-fiction anthologies. He lives in New York.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Best American Mystery Stories 2004

By Otto Penzler

Houghton Mifflin Company

Copyright © 2004 Otto Penzler
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780618329670
Introduction

As editor and introducer of The Best American Mystery Stories
2004, I bid you welcome.

You needn"t read any further, but may now go directly to the stories.
Still here? Well, then, I won"t take much of your time.

In the beginning was Otto Penzler, a legend in the ?eld of mystery
publishing, and a very persuasive gentleman. When Mr.
Penzler asked me to be the editor of this anthology, I explained
that I wasn"t quali?ed to take on the task. He agreed, but in turn
explained to me that his ?rst and second choices had dropped out
at the last minute, and I apparently owed him a favor.

Like many of my generation, I grew up on mystery short stories, devouring
anthologies and collections as well as mystery magazines.

My favorite mystery stories, and probably everyone"s favorites, were
Edgar Allan Poe, and Conan Doyle"s Sherlock Holmes mysteries.
The short story is a deceptively simple format, and the mystery
shorts seem even simpler, until you try to write one.

Two of the ?rst things I ever had published were mystery stories:
one titled "Life or Breath," in Alfred Hitchcock"s Mystery Magazine;
the other called "The Mystery at Thorn Mansion," in the now-defunct
Mystery Monthly.

I also have a ?le of rejection letters and enough unpublished
short stories to kindle wet logs.

It became obvious to me that short stories are not easy to write
just because they are short. Which takes me back to my high school
days, when I was a sprinter on the track team. Anyone can run a
hundred-yard dash, but the difference between doing it in 11 seconds
or 10.2 seconds is the difference between last place and ?rst
place.

Obviously, when it came to writing, I wasn"t a sprinter, so I tried
out for the long-distance team and became a novelist, which I
found to be a lot easier.

The moral, if there is a moral, is that the short story, like the
short race, needs to be close to perfect; there is no recovery from a
bad start, no time to get a second wind, and no forgiveness for even
one misstep.

And so, I am honored to have been chosen to pick the top twenty
stories for this anthology, and to join a long and illustrious list of
past editors whom I will mention here in the hope that future editors
will mention me: Robert B. Parker, Sue Grafton, Ed McBain,
Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block, James Ellroy, and Michael
Connelly.

Those authors are themselves the best of the best, but I"m sure
that they, like me, have trouble judging the works of others.
I am currently one of four judges for the Book-of-the-Month
Club, along with Annie Proulx, Bill Bryson, and Anna Quindlen,
and I can tell you that most authors would rather not be judges of
other authors — I"d rather be a wine judge, or (ecstasy!) a beauty
pageant judge.

So, when Otto Penzler asked me to pick the best twenty mystery
stories from more than ?fty entries, I was not being coy or humble
when I said I was not quali?ed; I am actually quali?ed, I just don"t
like to read with the knowledge that I"ve got to winnow and toss.
Newsday once asked me — and Susan Isaacs and Roger Rosenblatt
— to judge essays and ?ction pieces sent in by hundreds
of readers on the topic of Long Island history. We had to pick one
non?ction and one ?ction piece, and I can tell you, these were
among the worst pieces of writing any of us had ever read. Thankfully,
there were two or three pieces in each category that were
good, so picking the winners was not that dif?cult.
But here we have a different situation; without exception all ?fty
mystery stories that I read were very good to excellent, and the difference
in quality was like the difference between the 11-second
hundred-yard dash — very impressive — and the 10.2-second hundred-
yard dash — exceptional.

I had great fun reading, but not so much fun picking. In fact, it
was agonizing, and I suggested to Otto Penzler a bigger, fatter book
of, say, ?fty of the Best American Mystery Stories.

"Not possible," he said. "It would look like your last bloated
novel."

So, I went back to the stories, this time using a single criterion:
Did I really want to reread this story?

Doyle"s Sherlock Holmes stories are probably the only things I"ve
read six, eight, or ten times each. I can pick up a collection of
Sherlock Holmes anytime, anyplace, open at random, and enjoy
the story as much as or even more than when I ?rst read it.
So, for better or worse, without too much further agonizing, I
have picked what I hope you agree are the Best American Mystery
Stories for the 2004 edition.

Enjoy.

And try to pick the best ?ve.

Nelson De Mille

Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin. Introduction copyright © 2004 by
Nelson De Mille. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin
Company.



Continues...

Excerpted from The Best American Mystery Stories 2004by Otto Penzler Copyright © 2004 by Otto Penzler. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Best American
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0618329676
• ISBN 13: 9780618329670
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448
• Editor: DeMille Nelson