An Awesome Array of Anthologies

Short fiction is perfect for bite-sized reading, whether you're taking a work break, waiting at the doctor's office, or just want a quick story fix. This summer brings some recent and upcoming crime fiction anthologies that you can seek out and maybe even take to the beach with you. They range from classic crime to dark horror to a book of essays about one of the most popular mystery conventions, and include many of the best writers working crime fiction today.

The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries volume 10, once again edited by Maxim Jakubowski, brings you the best in British crime fiction with 30 gripping stories from beloved bestselling authors and exciting new up-and coming talents.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Malice Domestic convention this past June comes the essay collection Not Everyone's Cup of Tea, available from Wildside Press. Elizabeth Foxwell, a cofounder of the convention, wrote a piece on the Malice anthologies, and there are photos and plenty of essays, speeches, program notes, and other contributions from distinguished authors such as Rhys Bowen, Charlaine Harris, Carolyn Hart, Peter Lovesey, and Peter Robinson.

Also released in June was Crime Square, an anthology of twenty top-flight mystery writers—including Max Allan Collins, John Lutz, Reed Farrel Coleman, Robert S. Levinson, Martin Meyers and Warren Murphy—who portray New York City's Times Square through a century of murder and mayhem as a place where danger lurked around every corner, and where characters walked its streets with the easy confidence of a con man.

Noir Carnival from Fox Spirit Books hit the bookshelves on July 4th. K.A. Laity collected and edited tales that reflect the spirit of a dark carnival, "whether you picture it as a traveling fair in the back roads of America or the hedonistic nights of the pre-Lenten festival where masks hide faces while the skin glories in its revelation, it’s about spectacle, artificiality and the things we hide behind the greasepaint or the tent flap." The nineteen stories range the gamut from "In the Mouth of the Beast" by Li Huijia to "She's My Witch" by Paul D. Brazill and everything inbetween.

Author/blogger Sarah Weinman serves as editor for Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives, Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense, due in bookstores August 27. As Weinman notes, where would bestselling authors like Gillian Flynn, Sue Grafton, or Tana French be without the women writers who came before them? The book includes fourteen hair-raising tales by women who—from the 1940s through the mid-1970s—who took a scalpel to contemporary society and sliced away to reveal its dark essence.

Akashic Books continues their "City Noir" series with the latest release in that line, Manila Noir (Philippines), offering fresh noir from one of the most intense, congested, and overpopulated cities in the world. As Publishers Weekly notes, the Filipino take on noir "includes a liberal dose of the gothic and supernatural, with disappearance and loss being constants." Jessica Hagedorn, a Filipino native, serves as editor and divides the book into three sections. Part One is called "Us Against Them;" Part Two is entitled "Black Pearl of the Orient" and Part Three is "They Live By Night."

A little farther into the future (possibly sometime in the Fall), Akashic Books is adding Belfast Noir to its "City Noir" series, with contributors to include Lee Child, Alex Barclay, Gerard Brennan, Ruth Dudley Edwards and many more, with editorial direction from Adrian McKinty and Stuart Neville.

Although the pub date hasn't been announced yet, Criminal Element's inaugural Malfeasance Occasional anthology, titled Girl Trouble, is due sometime this summer with fourteen tales from the likes of Patricia Abbott, Hilary Davidson, Brendan DuBois, Robert Lopresti, and Chuck Wendig,

Comments

[Paul D. Brazill]

A great selection there and thanks for the mention.

[BV Lawson]

You are welcome Paul, but just thank me by writing more terrific stories!!

[Robert Lopresti]

Found this through Sandra Seaman's site and not only found some titles to look for, but found my own name. Thanks, By the way, I think CRIME SQUARE came out in hard cover last year.

[Ayo Onatade]

Good collection! Aside from the Best British Mysteries,will any of them be published in the UK?

[BV Lawson]

Hi, Ayo! I don't think the Malice book will be; previous anthologies from that conference appear to be U.S.-only. CRIME SQUARE, NOIR CARNIVAL, TROUBLED DAUGHTERS, and the "noir city" series are available via Amazon UK (print and digital), which makes me think they could be available or ordered from UK print bookstores, too. I don't have much details on the MALFEASANCE anthology just yet. As to whether a UK publisher will pick up reprint rights for any of these, I would doubt it, with the possible exception of CRIME SQUARE. There's not a lot of money to be made in anthologies, especially print versions. I think that, despite the digital-book explosion, short stories are still a niche market.