The Best American Mystery Stories 1999

by McBain, Ed; Penzler, Otto

• ISBN13: 9780395939161
• ISBN10: 039593916X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-10-01
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

In its brief existence, THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES has established itself as a peerless suspense anthology. Compiled by the best-selling mystery novelist Ed McBain, this year's edition boasts nineteen outstanding tales by such masters as John Updike, Lawrence Block, Jeffery Deaver, and Joyce Carol Oates as well as stories by rising stars such as Edgar Award winners Tom Franklin and Thomas H. Cook. The 1999 volume is a spectacular showcase for the high quality and broad diversity of the year"s finest suspense, crime, and mystery writing. "Keller's Last Refuge" by Lawrence Block, "Safe" by Gary A. Braunbeck, "Fatherhood" by Thomas H. Cook, "Wrong Time, Wrong Place" by Jeffery Deaver, "Netmail" by Brendan DuBois, "Redneck" by Loren D. Estleman, "And Maybe the Horse Will Learn to Sing" by Gregory Fallis, "Poachers" by Tom Franklin, "Hitting Rufus" by Victor Gischler, "Out There in the Darkness" by Ed Gorman, "Survival" by Joseph Hansen, "A Death on the Ho Chi Minh Trail" by David K. Harford, "An Innocent Bystander" by Gary Krist, "The Jailhouse Lawyer" by Phillip M. Margolin, "Secret, Silent" by Joyce Carol Oates, "In Flanders Fields" by Peter Robinson, "Dry Whiskey" by David B. Silva, "Sacrifice" by L. L. Thrasher, "Bech Noir" by John Updike

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix	(4)
Introduction	xiii
Ed McBain
LAWRENCE BLOCK
Keller's Last Refuge	1	(27)
GARY A. BRAUNBECK
Safe	28	(38)
THOMAS H. COOK
Fatherhood	66	(11)
JEFFERY DEAVER
Wrong Time, Wrong Place	77	(30)
BRENDAN DUBOIS
Netmail	107	(18)
LOREN D. ESTLEMAN
Redneck	125	(14)
GREGORY FALLIS
And Maybe the Horse Will Learn to Sing	139	(18)
TOM FRANKLIN
Poachers	157	(44)
VICTOR GISCHLER
Hitting Rufus	201	(11)
ED GORMAN
Out There in the Darkness	212	(37)
JOSEPH HANSEN
Survival	249	(27)
DAVID K. HARFORD
A Death on the Ho Chi Minh Trail	276	(44)
GARY KRIST
An Innocent Bystander	320	(19)
PHILLIP M. MARGOLIN
The Jailhouse Lawyer	339	(10)
JOYCE CAROL OATES
Secret, Silent	349	(20)
PETER ROBINSON
In Flanders Fields	369	(28)
DAVID B. SILVA
Dry Whiskey	397	(13)
L. L. THRASHER
Sacrifice	410	(16)
JOHN UPDIKE
Bech Noir	426	(23)
Contributors' Notes	449	(7)
Other Distinguished Mystery Stories of 1998	456

Excerpts

IntroductionThere used to be a time when a person could make a decent living writing crime stories. Back then, a hardworking individual could earn two cents a word for a short story. Three cents, if he was exceptionally good. It beat polishing spittoons. Besides, it was fun. Back then, starting a crime story was like reaching into a box of chocolates and being surprised by either the soft center or the caramel or the nuts. There were plenty of nuts in crime fiction, but you never knew what kind of story would come out of the machine until it started taking shape on the page. Like a jazz piano player, a good writer of short crime fiction didn't think he knew his job unless he could improvise in all twelve keys. Ringing variations on the theme was what made it such fun. Getting paid two or three cents a word was also fun. For me, Private Eye stories were the easiest of the lot. All you had to do was talk out of the side of your mouth and get in trouble with the cops. In the PI stories back then, the cops were always heavies. If it weren't for the cops, the PI could have solved a murder - any murder - in ten seconds flat. The cops were always dragging the PI into the cop shop to accuse him of having murdered somebody just because he happened to be at the scene of the crime before anybody else got there. Sheesh! I always started a PI story with a blonde wearing a tight shiny dress who, when she crossed her legs, you saw rib-topped silk stockings and garters taut against milky white flesh. Boy. Usually, she wanted to find her missing husband or somebody. Usually, the PI fell in love with her by the end of the story, but he had to be careful because you couldn't trust girls who crossed their legs to show their garters. A Private Eye was Superman wearing a fedora. The Amateur Detective was a private eye without a license. The people who came to the Am Eye were usually friends or relatives who never dreamed of going to the police with a criminal problem, but who couldn't afford to pay a private detective for professional help. So, naturally, they went to an amateur. They called upon a rabbi or a priest or the lady who was president of the garden club, or somebody who owned cats, or a guy who drove a locomotive on the Delaware Lackawanna, and they explained that somebody was missing or dead, and could these busy amateurs please lend a helping hand? Naturally, the garage mechanic, or the magician, or the elevator operator dropped everything to go help his friend or his maiden aunt. The Am Eye was smarter than either the PI or the cops because solving crimes wasn't his usual line of work, you see, but boy, was he good at it! It was fun writing Am Eye stories because you didn't have to know anything about criminal investigation. You just had to know all the station stops on the Delaware Lackawanna. Even more fun was writing an Innocent Bystander story. You didn't have to know anything at all to write one of those. An Inno

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