The Best American Mystery And Suspense 2021 Edited by Alafair Burke

 

These twenty stories were chosen as the best mystery short stories of 2021 and edited by Alafair Burke.  Some of the authors are well known names such as Laura Lippman, Alex Segura, Lisa Unger and Chris Bollen.  Others are names that are still making their way in the genre.  These include Jenny Bhatt, Nikki Dolson, E. Gabriel Flores, Alison Gaylin, Gar Anthony Haywood, Ravi Howard, Gabino Iglesias, Charis Jones, Preston Lang, Aya De Leon, Kristen Lipionka, Joanna Pearson, Delia C. Pitts, Eliot Schrafer, Brian Silverman and Faye Snowden.

One of my favorite stories was The Green-Eyed Monster by Charis Jones where the narrator has the good luck (?) to be married to the Nobel prize winner Martina.  Unfortunately, Martina believes that she has done the narrator a favor by marrying him and slowly over the years has come to the point where she micromanages every aspect of his life.  How he responds is striking.

In Wings Beating by Eliot Schrafer, a father takes his son to a resort where they have the bad luck to encounter a pair of oafs who try to bully the pair of them.  The bullying, however, brings the two closer together and they both find a way to get back at their tormentors.  

This is an part of an annual series which chooses twenty of the best North American mystery stories first available in the year featured.  I've read several of these and they all are worth the read.  The stories can be read one a day which is how I do it or in a marathon of mystery.  It is a great opportunity to read some of mystery's best known authors as well as newcomers.  This book is recommended for mystery and anthology readers.