Customer Reviews

The Best American Mystery Stories 2000

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I would have easily given this compilation five stars if I were able to make it through every single story. But unfortunately there were three which I could not finish. They bored me to death!! For the most part though, the majority were excellent mysteries written by many authors I had never even heard of but will now seek out in bookstores. Some of the gems are "Motel 66," by Barbara D'Amato, "The Defenstration of Aba Sid," by Robert Girardi, "ICU," by Edward Lee, and "Wrong Numbers," by Josh Pryor. This should be a definite read for all mystery fans.

"Best American Mystery Stories 2000" lives up to its title. It is a varied collection of (mostly) fine mystery and crime stories, many by up and coming authors. I'll confess that two or three of them didn't work for me, but that's a very small number in a book than contains 20 stories and nearly 480 pages of text. My two favorites were by two of the few old names in the collection. Dennis Lehane spins an excellent down south slice of life tale in "Running Out of Dog," while longtime television writer and children's author, the late Shel Silverstein, chimes in with the light-in-tone but still serious courtroom story "The Guilty Party." Doug Allyn contributes a fine private eye tale with "Miracles! Happen!" while Barbara D'Amato spins an on-the-road yarn with a twist in "Motel 66." Also first rate are Tom Franklin's "Grit," and the down and dirty gangster in the hospital tale "ICU."

Basically, there's a mystery story here for just about every type of mystery fan, from hard-boiled detective tales, to crime stories, to amature sleuths to compelling whodunnits? Modern short stories do not get nearly the audience they should, and this is a book that deserves to be read.

(Note: The 2000 "Best Mystery Stories" collection is far superior to the 2001 anthology, mostly because it has a better variety of stories).

I'm not the biggest fan of mystery stories, so I was unsure of how much I would like this collection. I was surprised at how much I liked it. There were a few that I didn't like that much, but most of them were good stories and most were well written. They ranged from ok to good, better, and on up to great stories like Shel Silverstein's story, Edward Lee's twisted story "ICU", and what i think was the best, Robert Girardi's "The Defenestration of Aba Sid", which is his 'anti-Grisham' story. A great deal of the selections here come from books and there is no surprise that both Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine both had three stories in here (the most from any one place). I suppose it's because there aren't many genre magazines anymore, but a few of these stories first appeared in literary magazines. The book is a little longer (around 480 pages) than those in The Best American Short Story series, but mystery stories need a little time to unfold. It's a good selection for the mystery reader (no matter which 'type' of mystery story you like) and for those of us who don't normally read the genre.

Having read the 1999 anthology I looked forward to this year's edition with great anticipation. The 1999 anthology was quite simply the best book of mystery stories I had ever read. Unfortunately, mystery writers apparently had an "off" year this year, though--maybe their minds were preoccupied with Y2K. It wasn't until the last third of the anthology that the 2000 edition really took off, with Edward Lee's twisted little "ICU", Dennis Lehane's excellent "Running Out of Dog" and Thomas McNeely's twisted long "Sheep". Shel Silverstein's "The Guilty Party" is an amusing addition, but I thought he telegraphed the ending by miles. All in all, this book has many good stories, but simply lacks the consistency of quality from the previous year's. Lehane's story was reprinted from another anthology also edited by Otto Penzler. Several stories listed as "Other Distinguished Mystery Stories of 1999", including one by the terrific novelist James Hall, appear in this book, called "Murder and Obsession", and it might well be worth a look.

In this anthology, Donald E. Westlake includes a lot of new authors who have not yet published their first novel. I had trouble following some of the stories after reaching their conclusion (GHOSTS by David Beaty), but others show real promise for the future.

One of my favorite stories is MOTEL 66 by Barbara D'Amato. It is a fairly short story that packs a lot of suspense and intrigue. The story takes place at different points in time (1971, 1985, and 1999) in which two events that happened in 1971 come full circle in 1999. There is no real ending to this story except for the one in the reader's mind. This is what a good short story should be like. It should leave the reader wondering what will happen after all the stories secrets are revealed. Another one of my favorites is WRONG NUMBERS by Josh Pryor.

There are some other good stories in the anthology written by Dennis Lehane, Shel Silverstein and Jeffery Deaver.

Man oh man, this is a great one! If you love a mystery you are gonna swallow this one whole! Buy this book just to read Shel Silverstein's story The Guilty Party. Or fasten your seat belt for ICU. Oh, for pete's sake just go buy the darn book! Right now!

The recorded cassettes include only eight of the stories, and their range is spotty. As with other reviewers, I was amused by "The Guilty Party", not knowing the premise and wondering what Silverstein was even doing here.

"Motel 66" is also a fine story, and "Grit" was suitably gritty in its collection of low-life characters and theme. Texas-based "Compass Rose" caught my attention, perhaps because its language and dialogue reflected its setting of nearly 100 years ago, and I thought read Eric Conger was especially fitting. The story ended abruptly, without the confrontation I expected. Eric Conger's voice also matched well in "Grit".

"Forgetting the Girl" and "Wrong Numbers" were relatively unpleasant. If I were reading the book instead of listening, I probably would have bailed on them and moved on.

...This book was a pleasant exception to the anthologies-are-boring rule. It was a fun read and I could not find any story that I didn't like. It was worth every penny. Definitely check it out. I loved it and I'm giving a fiver!