Mon 16 Jul 2012
Reviewed by Marv Lachman: Two Mystery Anthologies from 1988.
Posted by Steve under Editors & Anthologies , Reviews1 Comment
Short-story anthologies are good for the reader, as well as the writer who earns some more royalties, and there are more around than usual. The Year’s Best Mystery and Suspense Stories, 1988, edited by Edward D. Hoch (Walker, 1988), inevitably contains a selection of the best of the previous year.
It is the strongest in this series in many years and includes Harlan Ellison’s Edgar winner, “Soft Monkey,” regarding a New York bag lady, and Robert Barnard’s “The Woman in the Wardrobe,” which EQMM‘s readers selected as their favorite story of 1987.
I’m glad editor Hoch showed no false modesty and included his own “Leopold and the Broken Bride,” the year’s best example of pure detection, in which a woman disappears as she is ready to walk down the aisle at her wedding.
MWA’s 1988 anthology, Distant Danger, edited by Janwillem van de Wetering (Wynwood, 1988), shows both variety and quality in thirteen reprints by authors like Hoch,Gores, Lillian de la Torre, Margaret Maron, and Amanda Cross. There were also three new stories, including one by Stephanie Kay Bendel that reminds me of some of the fine short novels American Magazine once published.
Vol. 11, No. 1, Winter 1989.
July 16th, 2012 at 5:29 pm
Otto Penzler’s “Best of the Year” anthology series is still alive, I believe, but the series that Ed Gorman was in part responsible for has ceased, to the best of my knowledge.
Any update on either would be appreciated.
I’d love to see a “Best of the Year” anthology consisting solely of detective fiction, not the more inclusive crime (and/or suspense) fiction, but I don’t suppose anyone will do one anytime soon.
Or if they did, that anyone would buy it.