FFB: The Best American Mystery Stories, 1997, ed. Robert B. Parker

The history of the "best of" American mystery short story anthology probably dates back to 1931 and The Best American Mystery Stories of the Year, edited by Carolyn Wells, up through David C. Cooke's Best Detective Stories of the Year published from 1947 to 1959. More modern incarnations have been The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, from the editors of Mystery Scene Magazine; The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories edited by Ed Gorman; and Otto Penzler's The Best American Mystery Stories series.

The first Penzler anthology was in 1997 when Houghton Mifflin wanted a mystery version of its already-established Best American Short Stories. They contacted Penzler, who said in the Foreword that "it was his responsibility to identify and read all the mystery stories published in the calendar year," a number which totaled 500 from mystery specialty magazines, small literary journals, popular consumer publications, and anthologies.

The editor for the freshman effort in the Penzler series, Robert B. Parker, first reflects on the Hammett-Chandler origins of the American crime story. Then he introduces the collection with the words "As you will see in this collection, the stories remain the story of the hero's adventure in search of a hidden truth.' They are stories about a hero 'fit for adventure' in a time when stories of far bluer blood are still stuck in their bleak corner of the wasteland where Spade took Hammett. This is no small thing." The 20 stories included cover a wide range of thematic material in a variety of authorial styles: from the high society setting of Elizabeth George to the psychological suspense-with-a-twist by Jeffery Deaver, and from Melodye Johnson Howe's Hollywood banality to the humor-noir of Elmore Leonard.

The collection starts off nicely with "Blind Lemon" by Doug Allyn, draped against a backdrop of the blues and music of real-life musician Blind Lemon Jefferson, in which private eye R.B. "Ax" Axton painfully relives a fateful day a decade earlier  when he and a female singer inadvertently caused the murder of a mutual friend. Other standouts include "A Death on the Ho Chi Minh Trail," by David K. Harford', where an M.P. tries to solve the puzzle of why an American soldier supposedly killed in a firefight with the Viet Cong didn't have bullet holes in his shirt, and "When You're Hungry" by George Pelecanos, a tale of double-crossing and betrayal in the steamy and lawless streets of Brazil.

Ask any author and most will tell you short stories can be harder to write than novels, but when you come across little gems like these, you almost wish the authors would drop the novels and dedicate themselves to the shorter form. The reader benefits, too, from such an anthology, being able to experience one actualized world after another—the literary equivalent of visiting an amusement park, finding some rides more to your liking than others, but having all of them leave you just a little bit breathless.

Comments

[Todd Mason]

Short-fiction-loving minds think alike. I noted that there was no obvious (to me) listing of all of Ed Gorman and MH Greenberg's annuals, so I finally created the rough draft for one, with hopes of tweaking to come.

In 2001 and 2002, we had for the only years so far, I think, no fewer than four annuals, between the Gorman/Greenberg, BAMS, the BEST BRITISH MYSTERY STORIES and Jon Breen's two-volume ibooks series.

[Todd Mason]

And, just to get it in, Cooke's annual continued with volumes edited by "Brett Halliday", "Anthony Boucher", Allen J. Hubin and finally and most sustainedly Edward D. Hoch, who, when Dutton dropped the series, HOch moved over to Walker, and it ended its run with the 1995 volume of THE YEAR'S BEST MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE STORIES..the end of that series probably helped make the pitch for BAMS successful.

[BV Lawson]

Thanks, Todd! And folks should check out the "The best crime fiction of the year annuals of Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg and company" post on your blog recently. Also thanks for compiling the FFB links:

http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2019/05/fridays-forgotten-books-and-more-links_24.html