Best American Mystery Stories 2018
After months of reading as many short mystery stories as possible (seriously, around 3,000 tales of murder, crime, and transgression), editor Otto Penzler and guest editor Louise Penny have selected the twenty best of the past year, to be published in this fall's Best American Mystery Stories anthology from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
We've spent the last week notifying authors of their inclusion in the top twenty, and are sharing it here as a preview of things to come. Runners up will be listed in the book when it is published. Congratulations to all that were selected!
(Note: We still have copies of Best American Mystery Stories 2017 signed by Otto, available here)
- LOUIS BAYARD, Banana Triangle Six, published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
- ANDREW BOURELLE, Y Is for Yangchuan Lizard, published in D Is for Dinosaur, edited by Rhonda Parrish
- T.C. BOYLE, The Designee, published in the Iowa Review
- MICHAEL BRACKEN, Smoked, published in Noir at the Salad Bar, edited by Verena Rose, Harriette Sackler, and Shawn Reilly Simmons
- BURKE, JAMES LEE, The Wild Side of Life, published in the Southern Review
- LEE CHILD, Too Much Time, published in No Middle Name
- MICHAEL CONNELLY, The Third Panel, published in Alive in Shape and Color, edited by Lawrence Block
- JOHN FLOYD, Gun Work, published in Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea, edited by Andrew McAleer and Paul D. Marks
- DAVID EDGERLEY GATES, Cabin Fever, published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
- CHARLAINE HARRIS, Small Signs, published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
- ROB HART, Take-Out, published in MysteryTribune
- DAVID H. HENDRICKSON, Death in the Serengeti, published in Fiction River, edited by Kevin J. Anderson
- ANDREW KLAVAN, All Our Yesterdays, published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
- MARTIN LIMON, PX Christmas, published in The Usual Santas, edited by Peter Lovesey
- PAUL D. MARKS, Windward, published in Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea, edited by Andrew McAleer and Paul D. Marks
- JOYCE CAROL OATES, Phantomwise: 1972, published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
- ALAN ORLOFF, Rule Number One, published in Snowbound, edited by Verena Rose, Harriette Sackler, and Shawn Reilly Simmons
- WILLIAM DYLAN POWELL, The Apex Predator, published in Switchblade
- SCOTT LOVING SANDERS, Waiting on Joe, published in Shooting Creek and Other Stories
- BRIAN SILVERMAN, Breadfruit, published in MysteryTribune