Jonathan Lethem - The Best American Mystery Stories 2019

Copyright 2019 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Introduction copyright 2019 by Jonathan Lethem

All rights reserved

The Best American Series is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. The Best American Mystery Stories is a trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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ISSN 1094-8384 (print) ISSN 2573-3907 (e-book)

ISBN 978-1-328-63609-6 (print) ISBN 978-1-328-63611-9 (e-book)

These stories are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Christopher Moisan Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Cover photograph Samuel Bradley Photography / Getty Images

Lethem photograph Adrian Cook

v2.0919

Coach O by Robert Hinderliter. First published in New Ohio Review, no. 24. Copyright 2018 by Robert Hinderliter. Reprinted by permission of Robert Hinderliter.

The Keepers of All Sins by Sharon Hunt. First published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, November/December 2018. Copyright 2018 by Sharon Hunt. Reprinted by permission of Sharon Hunt.

Open House by Reed Johnson. First published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November/December 2018. Copyright 2018 by Reed Johnson. Reprinted by permission of Reed Johnson.

A Damn Fine Town by Arthur Klepchukov. First published in Down & Out: The Magazine, vol. 1, no. 4. Copyright 2018 by Arthur Klepchukov. Reprinted by permission of Arthur Klepchukov.

The Walk-In by Harley Jane Kozak. First published in For the Sake of the Game. Copyright 2018 by Harley Jane Kozak. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Top Ten Vacation Selfies of YouTube Stars by Preston Lang. First published in Deadlines: A Tribute to William E. Wallace. Copyright 2018 by Preston Lang. Reprinted by permission of Preston Lang.

Mastermind by Jared Lipof. First published in Salamander, no. 45. Copyright 2018 by Jared Lipof. Reprinted by permission of Jared Lipof.

That Donnelly Crowd by Anne Therese Macdonald. First published in False Faces: Twenty Stories About the Masks We Wear. Copyright 2018 by Anne Therese Macdonald. Reprinted by permission of Anne Therese Macdonald.

The Clown by Mark Mayer. First published in American Short Fiction, vol. 21, no. 67, Summer 2018. Copyright 2018 by Mark Mayer. Reprinted by permission of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.

Interpreting American Gothic by Rebecca McKanna. First published in Colorado Review, Summer 2018. Copyright 2018 by Rebecca McKanna. Reprinted by permission of Rebecca McKanna.

Hannah-Beast by Jennifer McMahon. First published in Dark Corners/Amazon Original Stories. Copyright 2018 by Jennifer McMahon. Reprinted by permission of Writers House LLC.

The Archivist by Joyce Carol Oates. First published in Boulevard, nos. 98 & 99. Copyright 2018 by The Ontario Review, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author.

A Box of Hope by Brian Panowich. First published in One Story, no. 244. Copyright 2018 by Brian Panowich. Reprinted by permission of Brian Panowich.

Payback by Tonya D. Price. First published in Fiction River: Hard Choices. Copyright 2018 by Tonya D. Price. Reprinted by permission of Tonya D. Price.

If You Say So by Suzanne Proulx. First published in False Faces: Twenty Stories About the Masks We Wear. Copyright 2018 by Suzanne Proulx. Reprinted by permission of Suzanne Proulx.

Neighbors by Ron Rash. First published in Epoch, vol. 67, no. 1. Copyright 2018 by Ron Rash. Reprinted by permission of Ron Rash.

Faint of Heart by Amanda Rea. First published in One Story, no. 237. Copyright 2018 by Amanda Rea. Reprinted by permission of Amanda Rea.

Lush by Duane Swierczynski. First published in Blood Work: Remembering Gary Shulze Once Upon a Crime, edited by Rick Ollerman. Copyright 2018 by Duane Swierczynski. Reprinted by permission of Duane Swierczynski.

Inside Man by Robb T. White. First published in Down & Out: The Magazine, vol. 1, no. 4. Copyright 2018 by Robert T. White. Reprinted by permission of Robert T. White.

Burning Down the House by Ted White. First published in Welcome to Dystopia: 45 Visions of What Lies Ahead. Copyright 2018 by Ted White. Reprinted by permission of Ted White.

Plus a change, plus cest la meme chose. For The Best American Mystery Stories series, its true: the more it changes, the more it stays the same.

When the series began in 1997, the guest editor was Robert B. Parker. I was the series editor. This year the guest editor is Jonathan Lethem. Im still the series editor.

The mission back then was to try to read every mystery story published by an American or Canadian in 1996, and more than five hundred stories were examined in order to find the twenty best. For this edition, the mission remained precisely the samebut more than three thousand stories were examined.

A primary source for great crime fiction was the specialty magazines (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine), a handful of mystery anthologies, literary journals, and popular consumer magazines such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic. Today those publications are still a treasure trove of stories suitable for being collected in The Best American Mystery Stories, but other mystery magazines have been created (notably The Strand and the rebirth of Black Mask), the modest number of anthologies has mushroomed into scores, mostly from small publishers, and electronic magazines (e-zines), of which I was unaware in 1996, have drawn some highly talented authors to their sites.

The look of the books in this series remains largely unchanged twenty-three years later, but the hardcover editions have been abandoned to be replaced with electronic editions. Additionally, the original publisher was Houghton Mifflin and, after a merger, it is now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. You (and I) would barely notice the difference in the books, because there is none.

Are these changes good or bad? Both, but mostly good. I lament the passing of the great Dr. Parker, as well as the loss of the next three guest editors: Sue Grafton, Evan Hunter (Ed McBain), and Donald E. Westlake. (Thankfully, the others appear to be in good health, still writing their popular and acclaimed books.) Examining literally thousands of stories is a huge challenge for Michele Slung, my invaluable colleague, who did all the preliminary reading then and still does; without her, this series could not exist, as I am such a slow reader that I practically move my lips when I read. The disappointment is that so many e-zines do not produce fully edited stories, some of which have unrealized potential.