Short Story Wednesday: The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century

 

The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century is an anthology edited by Tony Hillerman and Otto Penzler and published in 2000. The anthology contains 46 short stories, and is 813 pages long. This is my husband's book, which he purchased in 2025 at the Planned Parenthood book sale which we attend every September.

In addition to the short stories, the book has a Foreward by Penzler, an Introduction by Hillerman, and Biographical Notes for each author at the end.

I haven't read any of the stories in this book, but I have read several of the stories from other sources. All the stories listed below were good reads.

• I read "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell, published in 1917, from an anthology of short stories selected by Elizabeth George, A Moment on the Edge. 
• I read "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson online. I think it was the first short story I read by her, except for "The Lottery." It was published posthumously, in 1965.
• Two of the stories I have read were published in 1996. I read "Red Clay" from Red Clay, Blue Cadillac by Michael Malone. 
• The other story from 1996 was "The Dark Snow" by Brendan DuBois. My notes indicate that it was very well done, a great read, but the ending so very dark that it turned me off.

As with most anthologies of short stories, there are mixed reactions to this volume and the stories chosen. For anyone interested in comparing how the styles of the mystery short story changed over the years, this book would probably be very useful.

I am including a list of the stories in the book below. The list is in chronological order. 

• A Retrieved Reformation / O. Henry
• Paul's Case / Willa Cather
• The Problem of Cell 13 / Jacques Futrelle
• Blind man's Buff / Frederick Irving Anderson
• Naboth's Vineyard / Melville Davisson Post
• A Jury of Her Peers / Susan Glaspell
• The Gutting of Couffignal / Dashiell Hammett
• Haircut / Ring Lardner
• Blue Murder / Wilbur Daniel Steele
• The Perfect Crime / Ben Ray Redman
• The Baby in the Icebox / James M. Cain
• The Murder / John Steinbeck
• Sense of Humor / Damon Runyan
• Ransom / Pearl S. Buck
• Red Wind / Raymond Chandler
• The Catbird Seat / James Thurber
• The Rear Window / Cornell Woolrich
• An Error in Chemistry / William Faulkner
• The Nine Mile Walk / Harry Kemelman
• The Adventure of the President's Half Disme / Ellery Queen
• The Homesick Buick / John D. MacDonald
• Gone Girl / Ross Macdonald
• The Moment of Decision / Stanley Ellin
• First Offense / Evan Hunter
• The Couple Next Door / Margaret Millar
• The Day of the Execution / Henry Slesar
• The Terrapin / Patricia Highsmith
• The Possibility of Evil / Shirley Jackson
• The Comforts of Home / Flannery O'Connor
• Good Man, Bad Man / Jerome Weidman
• Goodbye, Pops / Joe Gores
• The Whimper of Whipped Dogs / Harlan Ellison
• The Wager / Robert L. Fish
• Do With Me What You Will / Joyce Carol Oates
• Quitters, Inc. / Stephen King
• The Absence of Emily / Jack Ritchie
• By the Dawn's Early Light / Lawrence Block
• Iris / Stephen Greenleaf
• Three-Dot Po / Sara Paretsky
• The Parker Shotgun / Sue Grafton
• Too Many Crooks / Donald E. Westlake
• Hot Springs / James Crumley
• The Dark Snow / Brendan DuBois
• Red Clay / Michael Malone
• Poachers / Tom Franklin
• Running Out of Dog / Dennis Lehane

Short Story Wednesday: ''Citadel" by Stephen Hunter

  

Almost exactly two years ago I did a Short Story Wednesday post on The Big Book of Espionage, edited by Otto Penzler. I read two stories in the book and enjoyed them both. Since then I haven't read another story in the book. This week I returned to the anthology and read three additional stories.

This time, the stories I read were set in the years leading up to and during World War II. The first two stories I read were "The Army of the Shadows" by Eric Ambler and "The Courier" by Dan Fesperman. These were both very good stories by authors I have read and enjoyed. But my favorite read was a novella, first published as a part of the Bibliomystery Series by The Mysterious Bookshop in 2015.

''Citadel" by Stephen Hunter

This story is a good deal longer than the other stories I have read in this book. In this anthology, with larger pages formatted with two columns, the story is about 44 pages long. In the paperback edition published by The Mysterious Bookshop, it is 147 pages (per Goodreads).

The story opens with a Lysander [a Westland Lysander, an aircraft known for its short-field performance, good for clandestine missions] taking off from somewhere in the UK; the objective is to land in occupied France just long enough to deliver a spy to a small village not too far from Paris. 

From that point the story goes back and forth between the planning for the mission to France, the explanation for the mission, the drop-off in France, and the complicated execution of the mission. The main character is Basil St. Florian, who has carried out other missions in the past. There is plenty of time spent revealing the background of the character, and fleshing out the German soldiers and officers that he has to deal with along the way. 

I enjoyed this story. Generally I prefer Cold War spy fiction, but I have read all kinds. This one kept me entertained and intrigued. I know very little about this author, but I liked his writing and I will look into his other books.

I first learned about The Big Book of Espionage at George Kelley's blog. George gives a good overview of what the book has to offer and lists all the stories and authors, so be sure to check out his post.

The book has four sections with a total of 55 stories: The Great War (19); World War II (6); Other Terrors, Other Battles (19); and The Cold War (11). The book is large format with over 800 pages. Some of the authors are surprising, at least to me (Sara Paretsky, Erle Stanley Gardner, Brendan DuBois).