Reviews

The Best American Mystery Stories 2018 by Louise Penny, Otto Penzler

coleycole's review

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3.0

Highly variable. Nothing badly written, lots of quick moving stories with good pacing, but more than a few with questionable gender/race stuff happening, but I guess that's what happens when you have Too Many White Dudes.

The best stories, really good stuff you should seek out:

Banana Triangle Six - Louis Bayard
Amazing, perfect jewel box of a thriller.

The Designee - T.C. Boyle
Perfect encapsulation of a scam and why you might fall prey to one.

Phantomwise by Joyce Carol Oates is also a good one.

vkaz's review

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4.0

Some really good ones, some just okay. Sad not to see more women writers included here.

deecreatenola's review

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4.0

Most of these were excellent short stories.

moonpie's review

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3.0

I used to love The Best American collections, but hadn't read one in a while, and I don't think I've ever read the mystery flavor, so I was excited to go through this one. I'd say I thoroughly enjoyed about a quarter of the stories, didn't mind a third, and thought it was puzzling that the remaining stories were included, because they didn't seem great, and certainly not "best." I don't read a ton of mysteries, though, so my best-ometer might be out of whack.

vdarcangelo's review

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5.0

Probably my favorite installment of the series. Faves:

Louis Bayard -- Banana Triangle Six

Andrew Bourelle -- Y is for Yangchuan Lizard

T.C. Boyle -- The Designee

Michael Bracken -- Smoked

James Lee Burke -- The Wild Side of Life

Lee Child -- Too Much Time

Michael Connelly -- The Third Panel

Rob Hart -- Takeout

Paul D. Marks -- Windward

Alan Orloff -- Rule Number One

ameve2's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

1.5

verumsolum's review

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3.0

I’m not used to mysteries in short fiction form. I liked many of the stories, but it indicates to me that mystery can be a broader category than the types I prefer.

susannes_pagesofcrime's review

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3.0

I have been slowly reading through these stories for nearly a year now and I can't say that any of them have particularly stood out as being great. There are a few good ones scattered throughout the collection and some that are not to my taste at all.

beingfacetious's review

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My favorite story in this was the Jack Reacher one (I didn't realize that's what it was until after the fact) which probably says more about my pedestrian taste than the quality of the other stories.
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