Otto PenzlerReseñas

The collection begins with W.B. Seabrook’s “Dead Men Working in the Cane Fields”, the first account of zombies ever written and purported to be “entirely true”! And the fun doesn't stop there! Three of my all-time favorite authors are in this collection - Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, and Edgar Allan Poe! Other authors within that I've enjoyed reading in the past include H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, Robert Matheson, and Michael Marshall Smith. Truly, an all-star line-up!
The only one in here that I thought was a stinker was also the longest - "Z is for Zombie" by Theodore Roscoe. If you grow tired after 600 pages or so, I suggest skipping this last entry!

But BEWARE! “Eat Me” by Robert McCammon is nasty! Like it churned my stomach nasty! Eww…

Some zombie factoids I learned in these pages - they can come from the West Indies. Haiti. Africa. Lots of the time they are simply used as cheap labor! No salt rule (don't feed zombies anything with salt!). No meat rule.

A definition of a zombie appears in “Pigeons From Hell” by Robert E. Howard - “It’s a monster, something more and less than a human being, created by the magic that spawns in black swamps and jungles - well we’ll see.”

“When you sup with the devil, be sure you have a long spoon.”

“Greed inspires horrible things my dear…”

Hard to decide how many stars as this is a collection of stories. There are enough different styles to appeal to any mystery lover. I particularly enjoyed the humor in the Rupert Holmes, the efficiency of the Ed McBain and the devious Deaver.the mentions of favorites like Collins, Poe and Doyle was welcome, as was the chance to check out some of the authors I didn’t recognize.

Great eclectic and marvelously mixed bag of stories, most to all of which were excellent reads no matter their originating genre or sub-genre. I'm going to have to get a copy of this to keep, as I already want to reread some stories despite having returned this book to the library.

An uneven mix but worth the price of the book for "The Caxton Lending Library & Book Depository"by John Connolly.

I almost quit reading this collection of short stories. I didn't care for the first four, and one other later, but after those five, the quality picked up a lot. The stories got better and better until the last two which were the best in the book.

The Mysteries Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023 consists of twenty-one short tales covering several subgenres including noir and modern. As in any anthology, I liked some better than others. As a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, my favourite story was The Adventure of the Misquoted Macbeth by Derrick Balanger and Dodge by Jeffrey Deavers is a definite standout. Overall, the rest were enjoyable and it introduced me to a lot of new authors whose books I will definitely look for in the future. I also liked that each story begins with an introduction to the writer and is followed by an explanation of how the writer came up with the idea for the tale, something I, and I expect most mystery readers, often wonder about.

But for me, the absolute best part of this anthology is the introduction by Amor Towles in which he praises the cadaver and its important and changing role in mysteries from the Golden Age to today. I now have much more respect for that sadly too-often overlooked body in the story.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Keith Sellon-Wright, Christina Delaine, and Terence Kidd and they all do a terrific job of bringing the stories to life.

Thanks to Netgalley and Highbridge Audio for access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review½

Sixty—count ‘em—60 short mystery stories (32+ hours) all set around Christmas. Some very old (1800s) to the 2020s. Best of the best, and some extremely rare. The narration was part of the charm—exceedingly well done. I’m not a short story fan, and I liked about 95% of the stories. I’d love to listen to this book every Christmas if it wasn’t so darned long. So good. One of my favorite books of the year.

This anthology offers a diverse collection of stories meant to cater to a wide range of readers. Jeffery Deaver's "Dodge" is a standout, a thrilling game of cat and mouse that had me on the edge of my seat. Then there's Brendan DuBois's "The Landscaper’s Wife," a traditional mystery that's familiar yet satisfying. And Andrew Child's Jack Reacher tale brings a modern, hard-hitting punch to the mix.

However, not all the pieces in this anthology are a hit. Some aren't mysteries at all, which puzzles me, me given that this is supposed to be a mystery collection. And a few stories don't have a conclusion at all... it's like the authors ran out of steam and thought "Well, good enough. Let's just stop now." As a reader, that's pretty frustrating, to say the least.

Overall, this is book is a mixed bag. If you're a mystery aficionado, this collection is worth a read, just be prepared for the occasional flop.

I only read the first five stories, which amounts to 29% of the 500-page collection. A couple of the stories were better than the others, but none of them really wowed me. So, I'm moving on in my pipeline.

I'm not generally a fan of short stories, which may have contributed to my meh feeling. Hopefully, you'll enjoy the offerings thoroughly.½

There were some great essays in here but the book was a little uneven. I don't think there was enough in depth reviews of his work. Some of the essays felt like they were repeating earlier essays and on a personal note I didn't care about Spenser and cooking. Still enjoyed the books. Brought back a lot offend memories of the earlier Spenser novels.

I’ve been reading Penzler’s collection of mysteries for decades now and always find them fun. They have definitely evolved over time just as our literary culture has evolved. I enjoy his opening remarks and find the author info gives leads about more good mystery stories to investigate.

I'm of two minds about this collection, as I am many of Penzler's collections. There is almost a knee-jerk reaction to give this five stars just because it exists. There is no doubt that there is some great stuff here. Names like Hammett, Cain (Paul and James M.), Chandler, Gardner, Nebel, Charters, and Cornell Woolrich fill these pages. If you're a fan of pulp, and/or these writers, however, you might already have read Chandler's Killer in the Rain (the short story he later expanded into The Big Sleep) and the rather famous Red Wind. The same goes for some of these other names and stories here which are well known to those who enjoy the hardboiled pulp genre of another era (or eras, as the case may be).

Though it’s nice that these familiar names and stories are included in this massive book, if you're fairly well read on ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s pulp, the real reason to pick this one up would be the lesser known authors and stories from the higher-end detective pulps. And therein exists my caveat to this collection. Penzler appears to have a bias against what is considered the B level of pulp magazines, and some of the authors who wrote in them. To my point, one of Fred MacIsaac's great Rambler stories could very easily have replaced one of Penzler's picks. I might understand the omission of Robert Leslie Bellem's Dan Turner: Hollywood Detective stories due to the slightly salacious (for the time period) situations and dialog, had Penzler not thrown in Sally the Sleuth comics! I actually like Sally the Sleuth, they are great fun. But ignoring Bellem’s Dan Turner stories, with their racy situations and over-the-top dialog, while including Sally the Sleuth is rather eye-rolling. It makes one speculate that inclusions and exclusions had more to do with what could be obtained, rather than what should be here.

So a few lackluster choices, coupled with the glaring omission of Robert Bellem, Norvell Page, and Fred MacIsaac make this one hit and miss for me. I am glad I have it, because in one book I have some of the great stories from those pulp giants I cited at the beginning of the review, all of whom are revered today. Many of those stories are four and five star gems, and Penzler is to be commended for gathering these into one book. However, I was ho-hum about some of the other stories chosen, and even more so because of some glaring (at least to me) omissions. I realize that this was meant to be the high-end of the pulp magazine stories, but still…

Story choices are a matter of personal taste, of course. But seriously, no Fred MacIsaac and no Robert Bellem, not to mention a conspicuously absent Norvell Page, in "The Big Book of Pulps" gives this one a downgrade, because those writers' best pulp stories are miles better than some of the picks here, in my opinion. Pulps weren't literature, they were supposed to be entertaining, and having those three guys absent here, in my opinion, is eyebrow raising.

As is the case with most anthologies, The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023 was also a mixed bag. The anthology features twenty-one short mysteries written by contemporary authors and a bonus story by Edith Wharton. I liked that each of the stories began with a brief introduction about the author and enjoyed getting to sample the work of so many authors, many of whom I had never read in the past. Some of the stories also end with a note by the author about the inspiration behind the story. I must mention that the Introduction by Amor Towles, in which he discusses how the “Mystery” genre has evolved, was a fascinating read.

My ratings for the stories are as follows:
The first story, “Blind Baseball” by Doug Allyn (3.5/5), revolves around a tontine insurance scheme. This was a gripping read but ended abruptly. “The Adventure of the Misquoted Macbeth” by Derrick Belanger (4/5) is a mystery featuring Sherlock Holmes and is one of the stories that I thoroughly enjoyed. The circumstances surrounding a mysterious break-in are explored in “Princess” by T.C. Boyle (3.5/5) In “Cold Hands, Warm Heart” by Joslyn Chase (3.5/5), a cold case is reopened after the discovery of a body. In “New Kid in Town”(2.5/5) by Andrew Child, Jack Reacher helps in investigating the disappearance of a young girl.

A resident of a hotel housing near the border sheltering undocumented immigrants takes justice into her own hands in “Death at the Sundial Motel” by Aaron Philip Clark (4/5). A young deputy gets more than he bargained for when he is tasked with assisting a Marshal for the Witness Protection Program in “Dodge” by Jeffery Deaver (4/5). In “The Landscaper’s Wife” by Brendan DuBois (3.5/5), our protagonist finds himself tangled in a complex web of manipulation, blackmail and murder. Co-passengers in a train decide to pass the time guessing solutions to real-life situations they share in the group in “Strangers at a Table” by Kerry Hammond (4/5). “Miller and Bell”(2/5) by Victor Kreuiter follows the story of a career criminal who resorts to his old ways of switching identities to evade those who have an axe to grind with him.

In “Two Sharks Walk into a Bar” by David Krugler (3/5), a hustle results in dire consequences for a pair of pool sharks. In “Pobre Maria: A Capitán Guillén Mystery Of Ecuador”(3/5) by Tom Larsen, a seasoned law enforcement official investigates the suspicious death of the daughter of an influential man. “Playing God” by Avram Lavinsky (3.5/5) takes us through the mysterious circumstances revolving around a man’s suicide. “Ears” by Jessi Lewis(3.5/5) is a heart-wrenching story about a young girl’s bond with her dog. Though there wasn’t much ”mystery “ in the plot, it was a good read. “The Smoking Gunners”(2.5/5) by Ashley Lister follows a murderer apprehended at the scene of the crime as she attempts to justify her actions.

A small-town reporter investigates a murder that was caught on camera by a peeping tom cat, whose owner had a camera fixed on his collar in “What the Cat Dragged In” by Michael Mallory(4/5). In “Sundown” by Lou Manfredo (3/5) we follow the lead detective as he investigates the death of a young woman, often consulting with his grandfather, a retired law enforcement officer, to gain perspective. There’s much more to the kidnapping of the daughter of an affluent man than meets the eye in “Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday” by Sean McCluskey(2.5). A detective is haunted by a promise he made to a murdered young girl’s father in “The Promise” by Annie Reed (3/5). A man tries to help his neighbor after a murder in their apartment building in “Glass” by Anna Round (3/5). A hitman’s latest assignment has him curious about the motive in “Crime Scene” by Joseph S. Walker (3.5).

The final story, “A Bottle of Perrier” by Edith Wharton (3/5) follows a young archaeology scholar on his visit to an archaeologist’s home in the middle of a desert in a foreign country where he finds his friend’s domestic staff’s answers to the owner’s whereabouts vague and misleading.

Overall, I found most of the stories rather predictable and only a handful stood out.

I received a digital review copy from the publisher via Edelweiss+. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Golden Age Bibliomysteries, edited by Otto Penzler, is a carefully curated anthology featuring fourteen mysteries revolving around libraries, librarians, rare manuscripts, antiquarian books and much more. I appreciated the structure of the anthology and that each story is preceded by a brief introduction on the author, the publication history, and screen adaptations if any. Most of these authors were new to me and I enjoyed getting to know more about them.

The Jorgenson Plates by Frederick Irving Anderson (1922) : This wasn’t quite a “bibliomystery” in the true sense of the term but I did like the central theme of a conman and his wife getting their comeuppance. (3)
The Aldine Folio Murders by Lawrence G. Blochman (1940): Several individuals express interest in a rare manuscript soon to be auctioned off. What follows is a sequence of events including, theft, murder, and deception. (4)
Death Walks In Marble Halls by Lawrence G. Blochman (1942): The murder of a Trustee at a Public Library has the library closed off as the police investigate several suspects. This is one of my favorites in the collection. (5)
QL 696 .C9 by Anthony Boucher (1942) A librarian is murdered and the probable suspects include her coworkers and one of the patrons. (4)
Foot In It by James Gould Cozzens (1935) The proprietor of a bookstore is confronted by a relative of a deceased customer over a hefty unpaid invoice. (3.5)
The Missing Shakespeare Manuscript by Lilian de la Torre (1946) During the Stratford Jubilee, 1769 after the rare manuscript of a previously unknown work of the bard goes missing the thief demands a hefty ransom. (3)
State Faír Murder by Frank Gruber (1939) The scion of a publishing house is murdered in public.(3.5)
The Episode of the Codex’ Curse by C. Daly King (1935)An Aztec Codex is stolen from a locked room in a museum. (3)
The Adventure of the Three R’s by Ellery Queen (1946) A college professor and aspiring author goes missing and the details of the case are eerily familiar to the story featured in his new manuscript. (4)
The Unique Hamlet by Vincent Starrett (1920) A Sherlock Holmes pastiche revolving around a missing rare signed Hamlet quarto. (4)
A Volume of Poe by Vincent Starrett (1929) A rare volume of poems leads to murder and mayhem. (4)
The Shakespeare Title-Page Mystery Carolyn Wells (1940) Rare books and a lot of “jiggery-pokery”!(3)
The Book That Squealed Cornell Woolrich (1939) Another favorite of mine featuring a resourceful librarian who follows clues she deciphers from the missing pages of a library book to solve a kidnapping! (5)
The final segment is a puzzle, The Stolen Endymion by Lassiter Wren & Randle McKay, from The Baffle Book, published in 1930.(3.5)

Most of the stories are not too complicated and I could guess a few of the endings. The stories vary in length and pacing. As with most anthologies, some stories were more appealing than others but overall, I found it to be an entertaining read. Those who enjoy mysteries set in libraries and/or bookstores would find this collection interesting in that you can get a historical perspective of the sub-genre. Many thanks to the publisher for granting access to the DRC via Edelweiss . All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Please note that few (not all) stories feature terminology, and/or dialogue and/or characters that do sound offensive (racist/sexist) if viewed from a contemporary perspective. However, as mysteries, these stories do make for interesting reading, if you can accept that these stories were written in a different time period.

Average Rating: 3.7⭐

Contrary to the description here at LibraryThing, this collection does not feature Paul Cain's novel Fast One; in fact, it contains nothing at all by Cain. Possibly this was a reference to an earlier or later edition of the book than the one I own. At any rate, you shouldn't feel unduly discouraged. (A couple of Cain's stories were pretty good--my favorites are "Trouble Chaser" and "One, Two, Three"--but Fast One is absurdly overrated.) The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories is filled to bursting with great material, so the absence of a single author is negligible.

Highlights include Dashiell Hammett's landmark third novel The Maltese Falcon as it was first serialized in Black Mask (a number of changes were made to the text before it was published in book form) and Raymond Chandler's "Try the Girl," his final story for the magazine and one which became the basis for his second novel Farewell, My Lovely. There's also "A Little Different," which marks the debut of W.T. Ballard's studio fixer character Bill Lennox; "Luck," an early draft of Lester Dent's bone-crunchingly violent "Sail" (and the version he preferred to the published story); and "Don't You Cry for Me," in which Norbert Davis--his customarily zany humor somewhat subdued--follows the exploits of pianist/amateur detective John Collins. The biggest surprise of the book is Rainbow Diamonds, a serial novella by Raoul Whitfield--writing as "Ramon Decolta"--and featuring his popular Filipino detective Jo Gar. Better than all of the standalone Gar stories, it also outclasses Whitfield's three full-length crime novels (Green Ice, Death in a Bowl and The Virgin Kills). After a Manila jewelry store is robbed and his cop friend winds up dead, Jo Gar pursues the murderous thieves to Honolulu and finally to San Francisco, seeing a lot of gun-blazing action along the way. It's an engaging, fast-paced read by an author not generally known for his keen sense of narrative momentum. George Harmon Coxe's "Fall Guy" (a typically rough-and-tumble showcase for his greatest character, hapless newspaper photographer Flash Casey) is good, too.

I vastly prefer this book to its companion volume, The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps. There are far fewer duds here because Black Mask had a higher literary standard than the other crime pulps, and editor Otto Penzler has made some really first-rate selections.

I was impressed with this collection, and read every one. They mostly had a bit of a noir feel in my view, but that is not a criticism..I thought the quality was consistent all the way through.

One of the better story collections I have read in recent years.

I have to say that I was impressed with this from the start including the intro by Louise Penny. A number of these stories are not what I would think of as traditional mystery stories (there are plenty of those too), but mystery stories can encompass a lot of things. There are old tropes here wearing new clothes, but that is fine with me when it is done very well. I have never been a fan of Joyce Carol Oates scary stories and the one here ... young women going off to college and dying is not what I ever want to read about.

There are numerous excellent stories in here by excellent writers, Here's a breakdown:

1. Banana Triangle Six by Louis Bayard, 4+ stars, orig from Ellery Queen's Mystery Mag
- This one could almost be too scary real
2. Y is For Yangchuan Lizard by Andrew Bourelle, 4 1/2 stars, from an anthology D is For Dinosaur
- A triple cross drug deal for the rarest drug of all.
3. The Designee by T C Boyle, 3+ stars
- all too believable story of how one of those Nigerian type let's scam the elderly things plays out
4. Smoked by Michael Bracken, 4+ stars
- Motorcycle gang comes for vengeance. One of my favorites from this collection.
5. The Wild Side of Life by James Lee Burke, 4 stars
- I liked this dark bayou type tale
6. Too Much Time by Lee Child, 4 1/2 stars
- Another one of my favorites of the collection, a multilayered Reacher novella that keeps the reader guessing
7. The Third Panel by Michael Connelly, 5 stars
- a great short piece playing off the artwork of H Bosch
8. Gun Work, by John M. Floyd, 5 stars
- a very good story set near Dodge in the old west where a former gunman, now a PI, is tasked with solving a mystery from over 20 years before.
9. Cabin Fever by David Edgerley Gates, 4 stars
- The start of this story lets you know it will be one tense, nail biting ride. A deputy is stranded in the Montana wilderness when his truck breaks down. Two escaped extremely deadly cons are on the loose, unknown to the deputy. Not a terribly original idea but you can read a story like this and it can go many different ways. The dialog gets a little confusing with a few too many actors in such a short story. Good though.
10. Small Signs by Charlaine Harris, 2 - 2 1/2 stars
- Almost my least favorite story
11. Takeout by Rob Hart, 2 1/2 stars
- Sub-par story for this collection, a gambler in New York is being manipulated by a 'friend' and the chinese mob
12. Death in the Serengeti by David H Hendrickson, 3 1/2 stars
- Not good to be a game warden when the rhino and elephant poachers are at war with you.
13. All Our Yesterdays by Andrew Klavan, 3 stars
- a WWI English soldier is sent home to recover after being very badly hurt and runs headlong into a slasher horror story not of his making. Rather unbelievable.
14. PX Christmas by Martin Limon, 3 stars
- Bad things happen to the Korean wife of a GI in Seoul in the 1970s.
15. Windward by Paul D. Marks, 3 1/2 stars
- unlike some of the stories here, this one was a mystery to be solved. Begins in Venice Beach, California. PI is hired to find a missing wife. The mystery gets solved.
16. Phantomwize: 1972 by Joyce Carol Oates 1 1/2 stars
- Death of a co-ed. Claustrophobic, trying to be stylish, yet dull, too drawn out maybe, and the creepy subject of 'seduction' by the professor is not my cuppa. Skimmed sections. I'll confess to not liking Oates.
17. Rule Number One by Alan Orloff, 2 1/2 stars
- a triple cross and then a double cross on top - but a bland thing all around
18. The Apex Predator by William Dylan Powell, 2+ stars
- sigh
19. Waiting on Joe by Scott Loring Sanders, 3 stars
- not a good marriage for Steven and Deborah
20. Breadfruit by Brian Silverman, 3 1/2 stars
- to the island, an imaginary St. Pierre in the Caribbean. It is a lovely place for a new life until the drug smuggler comes.

The 20 stories here appear alphabetically by the author's last name but somehow I liked the first 9 stories much more than those that came after. Strange, that. By the time I finished this I was tired of "mystery" short stories!

Whenever I read a wide-ranging (in years) collection like this, I have my favorites and - well - not so favorites. This book was no different.

I will say that mystery,crime and noir genres tend to overlap. So expect some violent and immoral behavior. And no happy endings.

Some Favs:

Gun Crazy
Mackinlay Kantor
I am a fan of the film adaptation first, but the short story puts a different spin on things. Two childhood friends meet in a scene involving a toy gun. One grows up to be an outlaw, and bank robber (the love interest from the movie is in here too). But, even in his love of guns, he harbnors a secret that is his undoing.

A Ticket Out
Brendan Dubois
I discovered Dubois in this collection, and what a find! Two friends dream of a way to break loose from a small town in rural New England. They choose burglary as their means of escape ( a porr choice). Things naturally go awry, and choices must be made.

Iris
Stephen Greenleaf
Reads like Mickey Spillane novel, but not a knock-off.

(A story by Spillane is in here as well. Also includes stories by heavyweights Dorothy B Hughes (a noir pioneer and icon!), Patricia Highsmith, James Cain, Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke and Jim Thompson.)

Midnight Emissions
F.X. Toole
A grim look into the world of boxing and grooming championship contenders.

Out There in the Darkness
Ed Gorman
This story has been made into a movie, The Poker Club. Poker friends make one ill-advised choice after another, and the consequences threaten their very lives.

A good collection of mystery stories is a lovely thing. One can get the reward of "finishing" on a regular basis—and if one story doesn't suit, the next one may. Golden Age Bibliomysteries, collected and edited by Otto Penzler, is just such a collection. These mysteries featured stories of stolen books or documents, investigations by librarians, and clues only a bibliophile could interpret so the police can stay on the trail.

I had doubts about this collection at the beginning. The first story, The Jorgenson Plates, was not, as far as I could tell, a bibliomystery. One character was twice referred to as reading a book, but the book made no appearance in the story beyond those two mentions, and the mystery centered around plates for forging currancy. I'm dubious about Penzler's choice of the second story in this collection, The Aldine Folio Murders, which was unbearably long and full of sexism in exchanges between male and female characters. Sexism and racism are scattered through these stories, and readers will have to decide for themselves whether these are off-putting or understandable within their historical context.

After those two, I almost put Golden Age Bibliomysteries down, but I didn't, and I'm glad of that. My favorite stories were those dealing with rare documents/books: a purportedly "new" Shakespeare play and an investigation into its authenticity by Samuel Johnson; the disappearance of a rare early edition of Hamlet investigated by Sherlock Holmes. I also enjoyed the tale of a plucky librarian attempting to support the war effort by keeping an eye on borrowers of suspicious books.

Golden Age Bibliomysteries will please readers of mysteries, especially those interested in the history of the genre. With fourteen stories in the book, readers can skip the stories that don't engage and jump ahead to those that do (and these will be different for every reader). I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.

No lie! It is really a big book of short stories by renowned authors of the genre. I loved almost all of them and earned about some authors I didn't know.½

I enjoy crime fiction. I have read Otto Penzler’s Best American series in its entirety. I got started after the series started so went back and read older volumes. Now that the Publisher has changed the editor for the series I find I now have two annual crime fiction anthologies to keep track of. A good thing from a readers perspective. I am sure the publisher felt there were good reasons to make the switch. I won’t enter into that debate - but it van be followed in the internet if you are interested.
I continue to enjoy the anthology Otto Penzler has put together,. Now I need to go back and sort out when the change happened - if this year or earlier. If earlier I have some catch up reading to do. Time will tell if there is any overlap between the two series. I had the impression I had read one of the stories in this volume before. Now going through the table of contents I can’t remember which. I enjoyed all the stories in the volume and have to say that as a reader I have benefitted from the change in editorship and release of a new series.

by Wombat the Bookworm

I don't envy anyone tasked with assembling a book like this. You'd want to be original, but you couldn't skip the best things. You'd need to hit many of the major figures while not ignoring minor gems. You'd want to hit every flavor and node.

Hillerman and Penzler did a fine job, selecting many moving and startling stories for the collection. Several made me laugh, some made me shiver, some stayed with me for days. At the same time, some seem out of place for tone, others for content. Rather than discuss every story (there are 46, after all), I'll list my five favorite and the five most out of place.

Let's start with the out-of-place ones:

- "The Comforts of Home" - Flannery O'Connor is a stark story, but isn't strictly a mystery, nor is it pleasant
- "Do with Me What You Will" by Joyce Carol Oates feels too ham-handed-- a story about something instead of being a story that makes you think about something
- "First Offense" by Evan Hunter has the same problem -- it's too "on the nose"
- "An Error in Chemistry" by William Faulkner - tries to be a clever mystery but falls flat. It's also written in a confusing way, revealing details in the wrong order.
- "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather feels like a rambling story that isn't really a mystery at all.

The five best stories. I'd like to be clear -- there are many great stories in this collection. I'd have no trouble assembling a list of 10 instead of five. But five will do:

- "The Dark Snow" by Brendan DuBois seethes with the daily torments of modern life, and challenges the reader to rethink easy dichotomies of good and evil.
- "The Terrapin" by Patricia Highsmith is perhaps the most horrifying story of the book, followed in a close second by Harlan Ellison's "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs."
- "The Catbird Seat" by James Thurber still holds as one of my favorite stories ever. A tale of petty bureaucracy and orderliness.
- "A Jury of her Peers" by Susan Glaspell brings the early 20th century feminism into bright relief, and works wonderfully.
- "The Moment of Decision" by Stanley Ellin prods our conscience, asking how we'd act if a harrowing moment presented itself.

Overall, a very good read. The anthology takes a pretty broad view of what a "mystery" is, but it can be forgiving since this broad definition yielded so many gems.

Hot Springs, by James Crumpet
2 ⭐

The Weekender, by Jeffery Dealer
4 ⭐

The Dark Snow, by Brendan DuBois
3 ⭐

Karen Makes Out, by Elmore Leonard
2 ⭐

Red Clay, by Michael Malone
2 ⭐

Faithless, by Joyce Carol Oates
3 ⭐ I knew what the ending was going to be in this.

Poachers, by Tom Franklin
4 ⭐ Haha! Sweet revenge.

Running out of Dog, by Dennis Lehanec
2 ⭐

Lobster Night, by Russell Banks
3 ⭐ it got an extra star for letting Stacy kill the pendejo who shot the bear and killed the lobster.

The Paperhanger, by William Gay
4 ⭐

It is Raining in Bejucal, by John Biguenet
3 ⭐

Midnight Emissions, by F.X. Toole
2 ⭐

Home Sweet Home, by Hannah Tinti
1 ⭐

All Through the House, by Christopher Coake
4 ⭐

Disaster Stamps of Pluto, by Louise Erdrich
3 ⭐

When All This Was Bay Ridge, by Tim McLoughlin
2 ⭐

Case Closed, by Lou Manfredo
3 ⭐

Loyalty, by Scott Turow
1 ⭐

Her Lord and Master, by Andrew Klavan
1 ⭐

Improvisation, by Ed McBain
2 ⭐

What a great collection of pulp stories from the first half of the 1900s. Very long but well worth the time spent. There were many authors represented who were new to me, and whose stories I really enjoyed, and I plan on getting more of their books. Highly recommended for fans of the crime genre.

I have long been fascinated by locked room mysteries, though many have had mundane solutions. So it was with great anticipation that I read Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries, a collection of classic and lesser known stories from the 30s and 40s. They are all excellent, though a bit dated. Mr. Penzler’s introduction to the book and his brief biographies of the authors prior to each story are very informative. An outstanding collection!