The Best American Mystery Stories 2002 (2002) - Plot & Excerpts
This compilation dates back to 2002 and I picked it up because it was edited by one of my favourite authors, James Ellroy, and contained a story by another of my favourite authors, Michael Connelly, he of Harry Bosch fame. However, it was a few other stories that really stood out for me.The first was A Family Game, by Brendan Dubois, which really worked as a short story and had a neat pay-off. According to the endnotes, Dubois has done most of his fiction writing in short stories and it really shows in his efficient storytelling. I would definitely look out for his work in future.The second was Midnight Emissions by F X Toole. This tells the story of a boxer reluctantly returning to the ring. It’s a well-worn tale but Toole creates some fantastic characters and writes dialogue that really brings them to life. This is not a tale with a twist as such; you can see the ending coming from a mile away, but the writing makes you enjoy getting there.Finally I got to read Joyce Carol Oates for the first time. Her confessional piece, The High School Sweetheart really impressed me, being written in a beautifully elliptical style; I would definitely read more of her work.
Le principe de cette collection "Moisson Noire'' c'est que chaque année, un auteur reconnu du polar choisit ce qu'il considère comme les meilleures nouvelles du genre pour un même recueil. Si c'est le cas, j'ai été doublement déçu par le choix de James Ellroy, ces nouvelles étant terriblement inégales allant du juste bien au vraiment nul. J'en retiens quelques unes spécialement celle de Michael Connelly, toujours aussi efficace et celle de FX Tool, un vrai noir comme on les aime. Sinon le reste se lit avec un intérêt poli sans plus.
What do You think about The Best American Mystery Stories 2002 (2002)?
Not bad, but not great. I expected more from a book that featured mystery stories by such a diverse group of authors as Stephan King and Joyce Carol Oates. But I found that rather then push the author's limits to write in a new genre, the definition of "mystery" was expanded to include any story that was even remotely about a crime. It's difficult to write really good short mysteries, and many of these stories succeeded remarkably (I loved Bet on Red) but most of the works just weren't mysteries. Big named authors were particularly bad in this way- King's story was a shallow thriller and Oates' contribution was a crime-related account of a terribly dysfunctional and sexually abusive family. In all, the stories in this book were worth the read, but don't expect real mysteries. Also, don't sit down and read the whole book at once the way I did, or you'll get incredibly sick of the whole crime genre.
—Becca
