The Best American Mystery Stories 2020 Read online

  Contents

  * * *

  Title Page

  Contents

  Copyright

  Foreword

  Introduction

  PAMELA BLACKWOOD: Justice

  JERRY M. BURGER: Home Movie

  JAMES LEE BURKE: Deportees

  MICHAEL CEBULA: Second Cousins

  BRIAN COX: The Surrogate Initiative

  DOUG CRANDELL: Shanty Falls

  DAVID DEAN: The Duelist

  JEFFERY DEAVER: Security

  JOHN M. FLOYD: Rhonda and Clyde

  TOM FRANKLIN: On Little Terry Road

  RICHARD HELMS: See Humble and Die

  RYAN DAVID JAHN: All This Distant Beauty

  SHEILA KOHLER: Miss Martin

  JAKE LITHUA: The Most Powerful Weapon

  RICK MCMAHAN: Baddest Outlaws

  LISA MORTON: What Ever Happened to Lorna Winters?

  JOHN SANDFORD: Girl with an Ax

  DAVID B. SCHLOSSER: Pretzel Logic

  WALLACE STROBY: Nightbound

  ROBIN YOCUM: The Last Hit

  Contributors’ Notes

  Other Distinguished Mystery Stories of 2019

  Read More from the Best American series

  About the Editors

  Connect with HMH

  Copyright © 2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

  Introduction copyright © 2020 by C. J. Box

  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.

  No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without the proper written permission of the copyright owner unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law. With the exception of nonprofit transcription in Braille, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is not authorized to grant permission for further uses of copyrighted selections reprinted in this book without the permission of their owners. Permission must be obtained from the individual copyright owners as identified herein. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

  hmhbooks.com

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

  ISBN 978-1-328-63610-2 (print) ISBN 978-1-328-63612-6 (e-book)

  ISBN 978-0-358-39459-4 (audio)

  Cover image © Bill Hinton / Getty

  Author photograph © Dave Neligh Photography

  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.

  “Justice” by Pamela Blackwood. First published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, January/February 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Pamela Blackwood. Reprinted by permission of Pamela Blackwood.

  “Home Movie” by Jerry M. Burger. First published in The Briar Cliff Review, Spring 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Jerry M. Burger. Reprinted by permission of Jerry M. Burger.

  “Deportees” by James Lee Burke. First published in The Strand Magazine, October to January 2019/2020. Copyright © 2019 by James Lee Burke. Reprinted by permission of James Lee Burke.

  “Second Cousins” by Michael Cebula. First published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Michael Cebula. Reprinted by permission of Michael Cebula.

  “The Surrogate Initiative” by Brian Cox. First published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, September/October 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Brian Fox. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Shanty Falls” by Doug Crandell. First published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January/February 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Doug Crandell. Reprinted by permission of Doug Crandell.

  “The Duelist” by David Dean. First published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, May/June 2019. Copyright © 2019 by David Dean. Reprinted by permission of David Dean.

  “Security” by Jeffery Deaver. First published in Odd Partners, edited by Anne Perry, Mystery Writers of America Press. Copyright © 2019 by Jeffery Deaver. Reprinted by permission of Jeffery Deaver.

  “Rhonda and Clyde” by John M. Floyd. First published in Black Cat Mystery Magazine, November 2019, Wildside Press. Copyright © 2019 by John M. Floyd. Reprinted by permission of John M. Floyd.

  “On Little Terry Road” by Tom Franklin. First published in From Sea to Stormy Sea, edited by Lawrence Block. Copyright © 2019 by Tom Franklin. Reprinted by permission of Tom Franklin.

  “See Humble and Die” by Richard Helms. First published in The Eyes of Texas, edited by Michael Bracken, Down & Out Books, 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Richard Helms. Reprinted by permission of Richard Helms.

  “All This Distant Beauty” by Ryan David Jahn. First published in Mystery Tribune #8, Winter 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Ryan David Jahn. Reprinted by permission of Ryan David Jahn.

  “Miss Martin” by Sheila Kohler. First published in Cutting Edge, edited by Joyce Carol Oates, Akashic Press, 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Sheila Kohler. Reprinted by permission of Sheila Kohler.

  “The Most Powerful Weapon” by Jake Lithua. First published in The Odds Are Against Us, edited by Oren Litwin, Liberty Island. Copyright © 2019 by Oren Litwin. Reprinted by permission of Oren Litwin.

  “Baddest Outlaws” by Rick McMahan. First published in After Midnight: Tales from the Graveyard Shift, edited by Phoef Sutton. Copyright © 2019 by Richard A. McMahan. Reprinted by permission of Richard A. McMahan.

  “What Ever Happened to Lorna Winters?” by Lisa Morton. First published in Odd Partners, edited by Anne Perry, Mystery Writers of America Press. Copyright © 2019 by Lisa Morton. Reprinted by permission of Lisa Morton.

  “Girl with an Ax” by John Sandford. First published in From Sea to Stormy Sea, edited by Lawrence Block. Copyright © 2019 by John Sandford. Reprinted by permission of John Sandford.

  “Pretzel Logic” by dbschlosser. First published in Die Behind the Wheel: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Steely Dan, edited by Brian Thornton, Down & Out Books, 2019. Copyright © 2019 by dbschlosser. Reprinted by permission of dbschlosser.

  “Nightbound” by Wallace Stroby. First published in At Home in the Dark, edited by Lawrence Block, Subterranean Press, 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Wallace Stroby. Reprinted by permission of Wallace Stroby.

  “The Last Hit” by Robin Yocum. First published in The Strand Magazine, July to November 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Robin Yocum. Reprinted by permission of Robin Yocum.

  Foreword

  Another year, another edition of The Best American Mystery Stories. Just as each year presents surprises and memorable moments, so does each volume in this prestigious series. It has been my privilege to be the series editor for all twenty-four annual volumes of these monuments to excellence in the realm of the mystery short story.

  Writing a good mystery story is no small thing. Many of the novelists I’ve worked with over the years have claimed that it’s harder to produce a good short story, where every word must count so heavily, than to have the expansive luxury of telling the story over scores of thousands of words.

  John Dickson Carr, the greatest writer of impossible crime stories who ever concocted a locked-room puzzle, claimed that the natural form of the traditional mystery is not the novel but the short story. It is not uncommon, he pointed out, for a detective
story to revolve around a single incident, with a single clue, which can be discovered, divulged, and have its significance explained within a few pages. The rest is embellishment.

  While it is redundant for me to write it again, since I have already done so in each of the previous twenty-three volumes of this series, it falls into the category of fair warning to state that many people regard a “mystery” as a detective story. I regard the detective story as one subgenre of a much more inclusive literary form, which I define as any short work of fiction in which a crime (usually murder, as the stakes are highest when a human life is being taken), or the threat of a crime (creating suspense), is central to the theme or the plot.

  While I love good puzzles and tales of pure ratiocination, few of these are written today, as the mystery genre has evolved (for better or worse, depending on your point of view) into a more character-driven form of literature, with more emphasis on the “why” of a crime’s commission than the “who” or the “how.” The line between mystery fiction and general fiction has become more and more blurred in recent years, producing fewer memorable traditional detective stories but more significant literature.

  As is true every year, I could not have perused the 1,500–2,000 mystery stories that were published and examined last year, and much of the heavy lifting was done by my invaluable colleague, the longtime editor Michele Slung. She is able to read, evaluate, and commit to seemingly lifelong memory a staggering percentage of those stories, culling those that clearly do not belong on a short list—​or a long one either, for that matter. She examines twice as many stories as that to determine if they have mystery or criminal content, which is frequently impossible to know merely by reading the title.

  The same standards have pertained to every one of the volumes in this important series. The best writing makes it into the book. Fame, friendship, original venue, reputation, subject—​none of it matters. It isn’t only the qualification of being the best writer that will earn a spot on the table of contents; it also must be the best story.

  After Michele has gathered the stories to be seriously considered, I read the harvested crop, passing along the best fifty (or at least those I liked best, which I like to think is the same thing) to the guest editor, who selects the twenty that are then reprinted, with the other thirty being listed in an honor roll as “Other Distinguished Mystery Stories.”

  Sincere thanks are due to this year’s guest editor, C. J. Box, the number-one New York Times bestselling author of twenty-seven novels, including the Joe Pickett series. He has won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel (Blue Heaven, 2009) as well as an Anthony, a Macavity, a Gumshoe, two Barrys, and the 2010 Reading the West Book Award for fiction. His novels have been translated into thirty languages, and over 10 million copies of his books have been sold in the U.S. and abroad.

  This is an appropriate time to thank the previous guest editors, who have done so much to make this prestigious series such a resounding success: Robert B. Parker, Sue Grafton, Ed McBain, Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block, James Ellroy, Michael Connelly, Nelson DeMille, Joyce Carol Oates, Scott Turow, Carl Hiaasen, George Pelecanos, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, Harlan Coben, Robert Crais, Lisa Scottoline, Laura Lippman, James Patterson, Elizabeth George, John Sandford, Louise Penny, and Jonathan Lethem.

  While Michele and I engage in a relentless quest to locate and read every mystery/crime/suspense story published, I live in terror that I will miss a worthy story, so if you are an author, editor, or publisher, or care about one, please feel free to send a book, magazine, or tearsheet to me c/o The Mysterious Bookshop, 58 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007. If it first appeared electronically, you must submit a hard copy. It is vital to include the author’s contact information. No unpublished material will be considered, for what should be obvious reasons. No material will be returned. No critical analysis will be offered, nor an explanation of why a story wasn’t selected. If you distrust the postal service, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard.

  To be eligible, a story must have been written by an American or a Canadian and first published in an American or Canadian publication in the calendar year 2020. The earlier in the year I receive the story, the more fondly I regard it. If it is published near the end of the year, that can’t be helped, so please get it to me as quickly as possible. For reasons known only to the dunderheads who wait until Christmas week to submit a story published the previous spring, holding eligible stories for months before submitting them occurs every year, causing murderous thoughts while I read a stack of stories while my friends are trimming the Christmas tree or otherwise celebrating the holiday season. It had better be a damned good story if you do this.

  Because of the very tight production schedule for this book, the absolute firm deadline is December 31. If the story arrives one day later, it will not be read. This is neither whimsical nor arbitrary, but absolutely necessary in order to meet publishing schedules. Sorry.

  O.P.

  Introduction

  Several years ago I published a collection of my short stories (including a couple of new ones) under the title Shots Fired: Tales from Joe Pickett Country. Although I knew my editor wasn’t wild about the idea and a majority of regular readers would prefer a new Joe Pickett or Cassie Dewell novel, the collection did well and I’m quite proud of it. When I want to gift a book to someone who isn’t familiar with my work, I give that person Shots Fired.

  What did surprise me (and, to be honest, disappoint me as well) were the number of folks I met along the trail who said things like “Sorry—​I don’t read short stories,” or, worse, “I hate short stories. I prefer the real thing.” The real thing, of course, meaning full-length novels.

  I tried to gently persuade the former commenters to give them a try. Short stories done well, I told them, can pack a punch like no other form of writing. A few of the people agreed to give them a read.

  As for the “I hate short stories” people, I shot them on the spot and stepped over their bodies (after a final double tap) to engage with more pleasant people. Of course, this is a lie.

  For years now, the brilliant and legendary Otto Penzler has devoted thousands of hours of his time to studiously reading short mystery stories that appeared the year before in anthologies, collections, and specialty publications. Of those he read last year, he winnowed them down to his fifty favorites and then sent them to me. Having had the real pleasure of reading those works, I think he got it exactly right, and selecting the final twenty was no easy task.

  For over a century in America, short stories were a staple of both literary and mainstream magazines and periodicals. Great and popular short story writers were well known and valued, as they should have been. I think that’s one reason why this country has such a long tradition of excellent short stories and short story authors.

  But things changed. Just try to find a short story in a popular magazine today.

  Nevertheless, Otto has kept the flame alight.

  And it’s an honor for me to have been asked to write this introduction.

  * * *

  I remember when I found out that a short story of mine had been selected to appear in the 2017 volume of this series. The story was called “Power Wagon,” and the anthology was edited by John Sandford. I was absolutely—​and maybe disproportionately—​thrilled. It’s a badge of honor as well as a validation that’s hard to put into words. I would venture to say that the authors included here will feel the same way.

  I’ll confess right here that crafting a good short story is much harder than writing a full-length novel. Not all of the short stories I’ve written are the same quality, damn it. The length and breadth of novels leaves you room to adjust, to fill in, to take a couple of side trips, and all is forgiven in the end. It’s the difference between stringing a series of dissimilar pearls on a string and calling it a necklace and being the oyster who creates a single perfect pearl. This volume contains twenty perfect pearls.

  It’s strange how
the whims of popular culture go. Albums used to be the thing for music lovers. Now it’s hit singles. These stories are hit singles, literary version.

  Take, for example, John Sandford’s brilliant little gem “Girl with an Ax.” How can anyone who loves the genre not want to read that? It begins: “The girl with the ax got off the bus at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Gower Street and started walking the superheated eleven blocks down Gower to Waring Avenue, where she lived by herself in a four-hundred-square-foot bungalow with an air conditioner designed and manufactured by cretins.” I love everything about that opening, and it only gets better from there. It’s a wonderful story that can only be described as “Sandfordian.”

  I made notes and bullet points next to some of the selections so I’d remember which ones to read a second time later. On a few of the stories, I underlined sentences I wish I’d written.

  An unscientific smattering of notes includes:

  “On Little Terry Road” by Tom Franklin: “. . . the room so cold he could see the captions of his breath.” The story itself: Desperate. Very, very dark.

  “Security” by Jeffery Deaver: A political hit job like no other, ever.

  “Nightbound” by Wallace Stroby: Breathless, action-packed, great sense of place.

  “Home Movie” by Jerry M. Burger: An entire life in five reels of 8mm film.

  “Deportees” by the master James Lee Burke: Evocative, haunting. “She was a beautiful woman and had a regal manner, but she was also crazy and had undergone electroshock treatments and had been placed in the asylum in Wichita Falls.”

  “See Humble and Die” by Richard Helms: “She looked like someone had wrapped a refrigerator.”

  “Pretzel Logic” by dbschlosser: Clipped, severed, sharp dialogue. A terrific scheme.

  “Second Cousins” by Michael Cebula: Noirish, featuring a woman named Toola. Cool twist ending. I cannot not read a story with a character named Toola.