The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2025

by Grisham, John; Penzler, Otto

• ISBN13: 9781613166840
• ISBN10: 1613166842
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781613164501
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2025-09-23
• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• More Book Details

Summary

From over 3,000 considered stories published in the past year, this anthology contains the twenty best, selected by #1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham under the auspices of New York City's legendary crime fiction specialty store The Mysterious Bookshop. Included are tales of suspense, detection, and puzzlement that illuminate the diversity of styles contained under the "mystery" umbrella and highlight some of the greatest practitioners of the short form working today, with a blend of household names and lesser known writers no less worthy of your attention. There's something for everyone in this celebrated anthology, now in its fifth year, which continues to dazzle with the breadth of its selection and which draws from sources as disparate as Black Cat Weekly, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and Conjunctions. Plus, it's all capped off with an additional "bonus story" from an earlier era, sourced from the bookshop's rare book room.

Author Biography

John Grisham is the author of fifty consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include Camino Ghosts, The Exchange: After the Firm, and his third Jake Brigance novel, A Time for Mercy, which is being developed by HBO as a limited series. Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction. When he’s not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system. John lives on a farm in central Virginia.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS Foreword, Otto PenzlerIntroduction, John GrishamThe Golden Road, David AvalloneHome Game, Craig Faustus BuckUnder the Blackjack Tree, V.P. ChanderJamming at Jollies, Tracy FalenwolfeTotality, James HearnThe Art of Disappearance, April KellyEat My Moose, Erika KrouseThe Other Brother, Tom LarsenSame Old Song, Billie LivingstonOnly a Story, Kai LovelaceThe Secret Menu, Sean McCluskeyMister George, Richard McMahonDream Stuff, Lou ManfredoHer Dangerously Clever Hands, Karen OddenA New Weariness, Anna ScottiSnapshot, Shelagh SmithEffie’s Oasis, Casey StegmanThe Lost and the Lonely, Lamont A. TurnerRun and Gun, Joseph S. WalkerThrough Thick and Thin, Andrew Welsh-HugginsBonus Story: The Problem of Cell 13, Jacques FutrelleThe Best Mystery Stories of 2025 Honor Roll