The Mysterious Press Anniversary Anthology : Celebrating 25 Years [Hardcover]

Mysterious Press (Editor), William Malloy (Contributor), Donald E Westlake (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 3, 2001

There's no mystery to the award-winning success of Warner Books' Mysterious Press: terrific tales well-told by the industry's best writers. Now, in honour of its landmark silver anniversary, Mysterious Press serves up an original short story anthology packed with a who's who of the mystery world, including M. C. Beaton, Charlotte Carter, Loren D. Estleman, Joe Gores, Stuart M. Kaminsky, Peter Lovesay, William Marshall, Ed McBain, Donald E. Westlake and more.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, June 2001: A quarter of a century ago (and doesn't that make me feel young!), I started a small publishing house devoted to high-quality mystery fiction. When it became a partnership with Warner Books, who subsequently bought it from me outright, it became a fairly good-sized house that published many of the greatest mystery writers of the second half of the 20th century. This excellent anthology features original stories commissioned especially for this celebratory volume by many of these authors, and as you might expect, there are some outstanding stories indeed.

Ed McBain's "Activity in the Flood Plain" tells the story of an artist and the Puerto Rican girl he painted until a delicatessen owner took her away to live in Israel, and then the lovely Connecticut woman who falls for him but battles his desire for a new studio to be built onto his house--with shocking results.

Joe Gores tells of the dilemma of the Chinese grocer who must run a gambling game to pay off a debt but is warned by a Mafia hit man that he must stop the game or die, and the members of Dan Kearny Associates who devise a plan to save his life. James Crumley's poignant tale is about a former whore who buys a second-hand wedding gown, "never used," and waits for the man who has promised to marry her--"after the next job." Donald E. Westlake's story of a reporter, a mad woman, and a young beauty apparently returned from the dead is even funnier and weirder than usual. Lindsey Davis provides a contemporary tale of detection, eschewing her usual ancient Rome for this collection.

Peter Lovesey is in the collection, and so are Loren D. Estleman, Marcia Muller, Jerome Charyn (with a fine Isaac Sidel story), recent Edgar-winner Joe R. Lansdale, Stuart M. Kaminsky, Archer Mayor, Robert Greer, Margaret Maron, M.C. Beaton, Charlotte Carter, and Beth Saulnier.

It's a splendid lineup, and a fitting tribute to a publishing enterprise that has continued to flourish as part of Warner Books. --Otto Penzler

From Publishers Weekly

Mysterious Press is celebrating 25 years of quality mystery publishing with The Mysterious Press Anniversary Anthology. Among the 18 contributors who have written stories especially for this book are such major authors as Donald Westlake, Marcia Muller, Ed McBain, Margaret Maron and Peter Lovesey. Mysterious Press editors Sara Ann Freed and William Malloy supply an introduction, while in his foreword Mysterious Press founder Otto Penzler provides a succinct inside history. Mystery aficionados will snap this one up.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press; 1st edition (May 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892967390
• ISBN-13: 978-0892967391
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,630,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Fine Collection, June 25, 2002

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mysterious Press Anniversary Anthology : Celebrating 25 Years (Hardcover)

This book would make a wonderful gift for your favorite mystery buff. The quality is high, the big boys (and girls!) are represented, and there is all the variety one could wish. Comedy, whodunit, cozy, wild, psychological thriller-there is something for everyone.

James Crumley's "Coming Round the Mountain" transcends the genre. It is a story of dignified despair and is immensely moving. I am going to try and find some other works by this author. Joe Landsdale isn't satisfied with giving us a good chuckle or two over "The Mule Rustlers." He has to scare and shock us while we insist, "this cannot be happening." Peter Lovesey's intricate little piece of misdirection "The Usual Table" is very well done. Archer Mayor's "Instinct" is a perfect portrait of the psychology of guilt. Mr. Mayor is another author of whom I must read more. Stuart Kaminsky's "Sometimes Something Goes Wrong" reads like the nightmare you wish you had never had. He is compelling and his characterizations are excellent.

I had a fine time with this anthology. I read one and put the book down; then when I picked it up again, I read them all, one after another. I am sure you will show better discipline. All types of readers, even if they only enjoy an occasional mystery (I suppose there are people like that!), will get pleasure from this book.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Entertaining Collection of 18 Short Stories, May 4, 2001

By 

Roy E. Perry "amateur philosopher" (Nolensville, Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mysterious Press Anniversary Anthology : Celebrating 25 Years (Hardcover)

The prophet Amos compares a calamitous time to a man who runs from a lion and is met by a bear, or goes into a house and leans a hand against the wall, and a snake bites him.

Perhaps Joe R. Lansdale had this passage in mind when he wrote "The Mule Rustlers," a tragicomic tale about two petty thieves who steal an aging mule and get more than they bargained for. The end of this shocking story is improbable, but it gets my vote as the best short story in this collection.

Other favorites in this anthology are:

o Ed McBain's "Activity in the Flood Plain." An artist wants to build a studio on the back of his newly purchased home but is thwarted by bureaucratic red tape. Then he discovers the real reason for the harassment.

o Archer Mayor's "Instinct." A prime suspect turns out to be innocent of a murder--at least so far. The last line reveals the protagonist's keen insight into human psychology: "But I knew it was just a matter of time."

o Margaret Maron's "What's in a Name?" A story about a jilted lover--a con man whose spiteful scheme goes awry. A cursory knowledge of Shakespeare will help you "see this one coming."

The other 14 entries, all written expressly for this collection, are: M.C. Beaton, Charlotte Carter, Jerome Charyn, James Crumley, Lindsey Davis, Loren D. Estleman, Joe Gores, Robert Greer, Stuart M. Kaminsky, Peter Lovesley, William Marshall, Marcia Muller, Beth Saulnier, and Donald E. Westlake.

Several of the stories might be described by a line from Lindsey Davis's "Body Zone": "the struggle of true spectacle and real technical skill [trying] to defeat a banal vision and an ill-conceived narrative." "The Body Zone" is not one of the losers.

In the Introduction, editors Sara Ann Freed and William Malloy look forward to continuing to publish "the brightest of dark literature" over the next 25 years. Dark literature? Well, maybe. But several of the stories in this collection are light-hearted and humorous rather than sinister.

4.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious Press' 25th Anniversary Anthology, January 15, 2011

By 

Richard Berkheiser (South Bend, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mysterious Press Anniversary Anthology : Celebrating 25 Years (Hardcover)

To date, this is one of my favorites books! It was very enjoyable having all of those great authors of the Mystery and Suspense genre represented in one volume. Authors like Donald Westlake, Jerome Charyn, and many others made this an ideal primer for anyone wanting to get their "feet wet". I highly recommend it! After the first short story, I was hooked! I'll be getting more of these types of books in the future. In fact, I'm in the process of getting Westlake's novels on Kindle.

I should warn you that some of the stories in this book contains language and situations not suitable for impressionable minds. Even with that the authors handled it in a very tasteful manner, and didn't detract from the plot of the story.

This book was a page turner from start to finish, and it was very hard to put down. I gave it 4 stars. Enjoy!