Customer Reviews

The Best American Mystery Stories 2005 (The Best American Series)

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

 

 

This book is not for sissies! It's a collection of fantastic, dark & edgy crime stories of fine quality for those who love this type of thing. Who better than Joyce Carol Oates and Otto Penzler to deliver the most unique and provocative yarns for your consumption. If you're a fan of real writing that pushes the edge, then you should read this book. Highly recommended.

If you see the title of this book and think there are twenty "whodunit" mysteries and that's what you're looking for then keep on looking. If you enjoy the mysterious nature of life and how we deal with each other and make the decisions we do then by all means please try this deeply satisfying book.

Favorite stories of mine are When All This Was Bay Bridge by Tim McLoughlin, Delmonico by Daniel Handler and The Last Man I Killed by David Rachel. There are also wonderful stories by Dennis Lehane, Scott Turow, Pulitzer Prize winning author Edward P. Jones and writer/director John Sayles. While the book is not full of "mysteries" many stories do have plot twists and surprises that will keep you turning the pages. They all deal with crimes in different ways and how they can effect us. Some crimes happen to the narrator; in some the narrator commits the crime. Not all is what it seems in these stories.

This collection edited by Joyce Carol Oates is a very good collection of dark mysteries in the tradition of Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, Michael Connelly, and Elmore Leonard(more in line with 'Killshot' and his older works). If you are looking for more traditional mystery stories in the tradition of Agatha Christie then these stories may not be for you.

Joyce Carol Oates proves once again that not only is she one of our most talented writers but she is also a brilliant editor. This is one of the best anthologies of the year.

What a waste of money. I love mysteries, and compilations are my favorite. I will open the book at random and read whichever story comes to my hand. I've read 8 of the 20 stories here and kept hoping for a good mystery. What I read was stories about people that the reader is given no reason to care about -- druggies pushing one of their number off a boat, a thief who meets a bad cop, a depressed divorced man who dates a woman while considering get back with his slightly degranged wife. Ugh. Every character a low-life. This book would have been fine if labeled what it actually is -- a collection of dark violent stories about men on th edge. I never would have bought it if it had been labeled properly. You're welcome to my copy if you find it in the trash.

This was my first shot at reading a collection of short stories in 30 years, and I must say that I'm really disappointed. I expected mysteries - perhaps something out of a 1920's genre - but I got gruesome and morbid from beginning to end. I expected Poe; I got psychotic King. The only thing I can say for the editor is that she was consistent: it was all bad.

I wouldn't use this collection as an intro to mystery fiction, since it barely touches on the traditional aspects of the genre. It is, however, an exercise in the dark and deeply disturbing, which is what I would expect from Joyce Carol Oates. I'm selling this year's collection to my local used bookseller, instead of passing it on to friends as a must read.