Best American Mystery Stories 2020 (The Best American Series ®)

Short stories are a special art form, often under-appreciated, but seldom disappointing. The form works particularly well for mysteries — compact, little stories with a puzzle to be solved. C. J. Box, who edited this collection, knows a thing or two about mysteries and about short stories. He has written twenty-seven mystery books as well as a collection of his own short stories and is a New York Times best-selling author. Box describes the difference between novels and short stories as, “the difference of stringing a series of dissimilar pearls on a string and calling it a necklace and being the oyster who creates a single perfect pearl.” He then goes on to describe the stories in this collection as twenty perfect pearls. The authors of these little gems will be familiar to mystery readers and include such names as Pamela Blackwood, John Sandford, and Jeffrey Deaver. Every story is worth your time, but don’t miss Home Movie and Girl with an Ax. They are terrific. This is a perfect book to keep next to your reading chair or on your bedside table, where you can pick it up and fill a short period with a glorious story.