The Best American Mystery Stories 2013 Paperback – January 1, 2013

An interesting collection though on the dark side. The stories covered such things as spousal abuse, stalking, mental illness, just plain meanness, murder, child molestation, bullying, terrorism. greed, thievery, pride, and a gamut of human emotions and sometimes lack of emotions. All the writers were deft at creating characters and situations. There were even some killings that earned my sympathy as I could understand why. I cannot fault the selections as I felt all the stories were compelling. Not too graphic and unpleasantness was conveyed without detailed blood and gore descriptions. I think each person would find different stores affected them more than others, for me it was "Prison Town", "Crossing's" and "Quarry".

Editor Lisa Scottoline describes these tales as "stories with abs". They are said to be lean and mean. Rightfully, she speaks of the challenges of penning short stories. This set the bar high which did no service to the ones selected. Only two stood out for me. Smothered and Covered by Tom Barlow kicks it all off with tight but illustrative writing. The Sailor in the Picture is haunting for it's stripping of an innocent time.I wholeheartedly agree with other reviewers who felt the vast majority of the stories were "crime" not "mystery". It was all noir-ish with so many of the characters being utterly detestable that I took frequent breaks to get through it. Beyond the genre debate, if these are the "best" of 2013 then it was a lean and mean year.

I love short stories so for me anthologies are great to take along when I have to sit in a waiting room, or for the times I only have a half hour to read and don't want to get into something longer. These stories are very different in style and content but each is satisfying and entertaining.

Good variety in the selection of stories presented. The reason for only four stars is that a couple of the stories were not of particular interest and not up to the quality of the others. However, maybe that is just my personal taste. Overall, a good read.

I always like to have a collection of short stories on my Kindle, which I carry with me everywhere. These "Best American" collections are my go-to choice. You can rely on them for a wide variety of the best writers in the genre.

I am a big mystery fan and these collections are some of the best mystery short fiction year in and year out. This collection did not disappoint. The stories range from the humorous to very suspenseful, and all genres in between.

"The Sailor in the Picture" by Eileen Dreyer is one of the best short stories (Mystery or just general short story) that I've ever read. Based on just that story, I would recommend this book. I haven't as yet read all of the other stories, But so far, I find this an extremely good collection. If mystery shorts are your thing, then this is a good addition to your collection in my humble opinion.

I haven't read all the stories yet but of the 4 or 5 I've read I only remember one. One or two I couldn't figure out why anyone would have selected them. Maybe the rest will be better.