The Best American Mystery Stories 2019

New York Times best-selling author of ten genre-bending novels Jonathan Lethem helms this collection of the year’s best mystery short fiction. 

For Jonathan Lethem, “crime stories are deep species gossip.” He writes in his introduction that “they’re fundamentally stories of power, of its exercise, both spontaneous and conspiratorial; stories of impulse and desire, and of the turning of tables.” The Best American Mystery Stories 2019 has its full share of salacious intrigue, guilt, and retribution. The twists and bad decisions pile up when a thief picks the wrong target or a simple scavenger hunt takes a terrible turn. What happens when you befriend a death row inmate, or just how does writing Internet clickbait became a decidedly dangerous occupation? “How can we not hang on their outcomes?” asks Lethem. “Are we innocent ourselves, or complicit?” 

Guest editor Lethem infuses much-needed variety into the 23rd volume in Penzler’s annual best-of series. Rebecca McKanna’s marvellous “Interpreting American Gothic” finds an unlikely correspondence between a death row inmate and an art museum employee, who is transformed by the experience. In Amanda Rea’s haunting “Faint of Heart,” a carefully honed piece of perfection, two children are led from their backyard into a forest by a 15-year-old boy, who attempts to hang them with a homemade noose. For Nora, who finds one of the missing children, the ramifications of witnessing the trauma echo throughout her life. Tonya D. Price’s riveting “Payback” begins with a dog being chased down a country road by the reckless driver of a sports car; an act of reprisal from the narrator sets off a breathless chain of events demonstrating the extremes of human behaviour. The anthology also features reliably strong stories from Joyce Carol Oates, Ron Rash, and Duane Swierczynski. Lethem’s wide-ranging sensibilities will be a welcome palate cleanse for fans clamouring for something different.