The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year: 2022

De: Sara Paretsky - editor and introduction, Otto Penzler - series editor

Narrado por: Daniel Thomas May, Rachel Perry

Sara Paretsky selects the twenty best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Michael Connelly, Jo Nesbo, Joyce Carol Oates, Colson Whitehead, and more!

Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international bestseller and MWA Grandmaster Sara Paretsky has selected the twenty most puzzling, most thrilling, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

Includes stories by: Doug Allyn, Colin Barrett, Jerome Charyn, Michael Connelly, Susan Frith, Tom Larsen, Sean Marciniak, Stefon Mears, Kieth Lee Morris, Gwen Mullins, Jo Nesbo, Joyce Carol Oates, Annie Reed, Kristen Kathryn Rusch, Anna Scotti, Ginny Swart, Ellen Tremiti, Joseph S. Walker, Colson Whitehead, and Michael Wiley; plus a bonus vintage story from the annals of mystery fiction, written over a century in the past.

©2022 The Mysterious Press (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Probably pretty good, but not my thing.

This book may be pretty good; I'm only reviewing my personal opinion of it.
I really can't objectively rate this book. That's why I just gave it 3 stars.
I really wanted to like this book even though I rarely read nor enjoy short stories, but since these were mysteries, and Sara Paretsky edited, and there was a Michael Connelly story included, I thought I'd give it a try. I gave up after a few stories. One was not really so bad (Kiss of Life), a couple WERE pretty bad (especially White Chocolate), and the one by Connelly was just OK (I am a big Connelly fan, he's one of the best, if not the best crime/mystery writer there is (for me), but this short story fell flat for me. Short stories pretty much bore me. They so often start off strong then fizzle at the end; sometimes too clever, sometimes "so what", sometimes so predictable. Overall, for me, they just go nowhere.
If short stories are your thing, this may be the book for you.

strong collection of storirs

I enjoyed most of these which were similar in quality to the 2021 edition and better than the 2020 compendium that I just read

The difference in the author’s styles/ objectives

Loved the variety of short stories . Of course I liked some of the stories more than others, but that’s part of the charm

Some excellent, many were rejected and most just unfinished.

More than half aren’t done, good beginnings and characters and a conflict is started but not resolved. We’re left to imagine climax and catharsis for ourselves.

If you compulsively finish any book you start, don’t go here. Maybe set a timer and skip to the next if not grabbed in about 5 minutes.

Some to be avoided: white chocolate has a 70+ yo woman needing to breastfeed. The one with Butterscotch the dog should be skipped from 8:30-10:30 if cruelty descriptions don’t bring you joy. Can’t remember further…

(To repeat, stories I didn’t like after 5-8 minutes never got better, for me almost half)

Not as good as previous anthologies

When I read Match Up I was excited to discover these collection from Mystery Writers existed. But I’m reluctant to buy more after reading The Mysterious Bookshop.

The authors political views are unnecessary

Some of the stories were good but the political comments from the authors aren’t necessary. Whatever your political views are; remember, half of America disagrees with you. So don’t turn off half of your audience, just keep your politics to yourself. Specifically the Sleigh Bells author, his comments were ridiculous.
Other than that, the stories were okay, not as enjoyable as the previous versions I’ve listened to.

Just average

So so! Average! Ok! Can’t think of enough more Ho hum words to meet the minimum.

Okay…

This particular year’s stories, to me, didn’t capture my attention the way the stories of 2021 and 2022 did. There were a few good ones but over all it paled in comparison.

chaotic

The only "mystery" captured by these short stories is that there is no mystery to them at all. Attempts to throw in some social justice chops simply fall flat.
Don't waste your time, even if it is included with your Audible acct

Disappointing

The stories were okay. Just as you start to immerse yourself, it ends. Some of them end so ubruptly, you are not sure what happened. After a few of the stories, the author's note was politial (super left leaning of course) which ruined the story and the book quite frankly. No one wants to hear what some celebrity, actor, singer, or writer's polical views are. Keep your politics to yourself.