The Best American Mystery Stories 2006 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780618517473)

"[Most of] these stories are portraits, in styles ranging from sly to harrowing, of how crimes occurred ... If you like all your characters living at the end of a story, this may not be the book for you." -- from the introduction by Scott Turow

Best-selling author Scott Turow takes the helm for the tenth edition of this annual, featuring twenty-one of the past year's most distinguished tales of mystery, crime, and suspense.

Elmore Leonard tells the tale of a young woman who's fled home with a convicted bank robber. Walter Mosley describes an over-the-hill private detective and his new client, a woman named Karma. C. J. Box explores the fate of two Czech immigrants stranded by the side of the road in Yellowstone Park. Ed McBain begins his story on role-playing with the line "'Why don't we kill somebody?' she suggested." Wendy Hornsby tells of a wild motorcycle chase through the canyons outside Las Vegas. Laura Lippman describes the "Crack Cocaine Diet." And James Lee Burke writes of a young boy who may have been a close friend of Bugsy Siegel.

As Scott Turow notes in his introduction, these stories are "about crime -- its commission, its aftermath, its anxieties, its effect on character." The Best American Mystery Stories 2006 is a powerful collection for all readers who enjoy fiction that deals with the extremes of human passion and its dark consequences.

Author: Otto Penzler
ISBN-10: 0618517472
ISBN-13: 9780618517473
Publisher: Mariner Books
Language: English
Published: 10/01/2006
Pages: 384
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.83lbs
Size: 8.22h x 5.54w x 1.06d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 08/07/2006 pg. 36
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2006 pg. 880
Booklist 09/01/2006 pg. 60