The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022: A Collection

by Jess Walter, Steph Cha

Overview

A collection of the year’s best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by #1 New York Times bestselling author and guest editor Jess Walter and series editor Steph Cha. 

New York Times bestselling author and “superb storyteller” (Boston Globe), Jess Walter flexes his genre chops and selects twenty short stories that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063264489
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/01/2022
Series:	Best American Series
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	98,839
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jess Walter is the author of seven previous novels, including the bestsellers The Cold Millions and Beautiful Ruins, the National Book Award Finalist The Zero, and Citizen Vince, winner of the Edgar Award for best novel. His short fiction, collected in The Angel of Rome and We Live in Water, has won the O. Henry Prize, the Pushcart Prize and appeared three times in Best American Short Stories. He lives in his hometown of Spokane, Washington.

Steph Cha is the author of Your House Will Pay, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the California Book Award, and the Juniper Song crime trilogy. She’s an editor and critic whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. A native of the San Fernando Valley, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two basset hounds.

Hometown:

Spokane, Washington

Date of Birth:

July 20, 1965

Place of Birth:

Spokane, Washington

Education:

B.A., Eastern Washington University, 1987

Website:

http://www.jesswalter.com

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Introduction xiii

La Chingona from The Eviction of Hope Hector Acosta 1

Lucky Thirteen from Midnight Hour Tracy Clark 16

An Ache So Divine from Jukes & Tanks S. A. Cosby 29

Detainment from Speculative Los Angeles Alex Espinoza 42

Here's to New Friends from When a Stranger Comes to Town Jacqueline Freimor 56

A Career Spent Disappointing People from Palm Springs Noir Tod Goldberg 67

The Very Last Time from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Juliet Grames 86

The Wind from The New Yorker Lauren Groff 101

No Man's Land from Only the Good Die Young James D. F. Hannah 111

Return to Sender from Jukes & Tonks Gar Anthony Haywood 123

Harriet Point from The Southern Review Leslie Jones 140

Stingers from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine LaToya Jovena 159

God Bless America from Collectibles Elaine Kagan 168

A Bostonian (in Cambridge) from Collectibles Dennis Lehane 186

Remediation from This Time for Sure Kristen Lepionka 206

Long Live the Girl Detective from Electric Literature Megan Pillow 220

Mata Hambre from Midnight Hour Raquel V. Reyes 233

Turning Heart from This Time for Sure David Heska Wanbli Weiden 242

Lycia from The Colorado Review Brendan Williams-Childs 253

Thank You for Your Service from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine Matthew Wilson 268

Contributors' Notes 295

Other Distinguished Mystery and Suspense of 2021 307

Editorial Reviews

To Cha’s great credit, along with her guest editor, novelist Alafair Burke, this year’s edition...not only features many women and writers of color, but also pairs household names like Alex Segura, Lisa Unger and Laura Lippman...with top up-and-comers to paint a clear picture of the genre in 2021.”  — USA Today

“In this selection of tales exploring crime-sparking marginalization and thwarted desires, guest editor Alafair Burke and debut series editor Steph Cha have created a powerful vehicle for processing 2020’s volatility...Cha and Burke have curated a magical collection that serves as a master class in suspense writing.”  — Booklist

From the Publisher

In this selection of tales exploring crime-sparking marginalization and thwarted desires, guest editor Alafair Burke and debut series editor Steph Cha have created a powerful vehicle for processing 2020’s volatility...Cha and Burke have curated a magical collection that serves as a master class in suspense writing.” 

Booklist

To Cha’s great credit, along with her guest editor, novelist Alafair Burke, this year’s edition...not only features many women and writers of color, but also pairs household names like Alex Segura, Lisa Unger and Laura Lippman...with top up-and-comers to paint a clear picture of the genre in 2021.” 

USA Today

In this selection of tales exploring crime-sparking marginalization and thwarted desires, guest editor Alafair Burke and debut series editor Steph Cha have created a powerful vehicle for processing 2020’s volatility...Cha and Burke have curated a magical collection that serves as a master class in suspense writing.” 

Booklist

To Cha’s great credit, along with her guest editor, novelist Alafair Burke, this year’s edition...not only features many women and writers of color, but also pairs household names like Alex Segura, Lisa Unger and Laura Lippman...with top up-and-comers to paint a clear picture of the genre in 2021.” 

USA Today

11/01/2022

The quality of this collection will be no surprise to readers of earlier volumes. With only one true detective story in the whole batch, Gar Anthony Haywood's "Return to Sender," and one closest to Golden Age conventions from old pro Dennis Lehane, this year's collection focuses more on suspense, with a welcome variety of perspectives and settings. "Detainment" is about a child detained by ICE. Two of the creepiest stories, by Tracy Clark and Jacqueline Freimor, are about serial killers, and there's a killer clown in Tod Goldberg's "A Career Spent Disappointing People." David Heska Wanbli Weiden's "Turning Heart" takes place on a Lakota reservation. Hector Acosta's "La Chingona" and Raquel V. Reyes's "Mata Hambre" drop in and out of Spanglish. Juliet Grames's "The Very Last Time" revolves around time travel, and Megan Pillow's "Long Live the Girl Detective" takes place partly inside a book. Thirty additional stories are recommended at the back of the book. VERDICT This first-rate collection asserts that the short story is alive and flourishing still.—David Keymer

Library Journal