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Tuesday, November 15, 2022

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022 Edited by Jess Walter (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 


Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @marinerbooks @williammorrowbooks for a review copy of The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022.

What genre do you turn to when life gets stressful?  It varies for me, but lately it has been mystery, suspense, and/or romance.  I made an impromptu trip back to Michigan to see my Grandma who isn’t feeling well this past weekend and I’ve gotten behind on posts.  Please forgive me as I catch up!  I loved this explanation in the Foreword to this collection, “Whatever the mechanism, and whether or not we ask, fiction helps us make sense of life, the universe, everything.”

The Best American Mystery and Suspense is a fantastic collection of the top twenty mystery and suspense stories published in 2021.  I was intrigued by the Foreword by Steph Cha where she explained her process of combing through various publications and anthologies published in 2021 and selecting the top fifty stories.  These stories were then forwarded on to Jess Walter, the author of Beautiful Ruins.  I enjoyed Beautiful Ruins, but now realize I need to find Walter’s works of suspense and mystery.  Walter’s Introduction explained his process of further narrowing down the stories to the top twenty stories in a humorous way.  I loved his introduction and in fact think it’s one of the most entertaining introductions that I’ve ever read.  The foreword and introduction were a great set-up for the stories themselves. 

The collection included a lot of unique and intriguing stories.  I have to admit though that my favorite story was “Long Live the Girl Detective” by Megan Pillow.  The Girl Detective is not named, but it is Nancy Drew.  She is referred to as “The Girl Detective Who Is Dead but Not” as she investigates her own murder and decides to take back the narrative of her own story in the modern day.  Bess and George even make an appearance.  I’ve loved Nancy Drew since I was a child and this story surprised and delighted me.  I did enjoy so many of the other stories and they definitely have kept me thinking about them.  It’s also introduced me to a lot of new to me authors that I will definitely need to keep my eye out for.  I enjoy short stories.

This book was published on November 1, 2022 and is now available.

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