Lee Child (ed.): Best Crime Stories of the Year 2021 (UK 2022)

From the Publisher:
Selected by #1 bestselling author Lee Child: the twenty finest short stories of 2021.
There is no finer form for a crime than the short story. WIthin a few pages, a clue can be discovered, divulged and its significance determined; all else is mere embellishment. The classic mystery tale will be familiar to aficionados and casual readers alike: it was invented by Edgar Allen Poe, popularised by Arthur Conan Doyle, and perfected by Agatha Christie.

But mystery fiction has changed a great deal over the years - as have all things - and the writers within these pages present far more than a simple case of crime and resolution. Far from predictable, these stories provide fertile grounds of aberrant circumstances and the poor choices they lead to. You will find diverse methods and motivations, original perspectives and perils. Above all, you will find tales of the extremes of human psychology caused by despair, hate, greed, fear, envy, insanity or love.

Featuring stories by: Doug Allyn, Jim Allyn, Ambrose Bierce, Michael Bracken, James Lee Burke, Martin Edwards, John Floyd, Jacqueline Freimor, Alison Gaylin, Sue Grafton, Paul Kemprecos, Stephen King, Janice Law, Dennis McFadden, David Marcum, Tom Mead, David Morrell, Joyce Carol Oates, Sara Paretsky, Joseph Walker, Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

Lee Child (ed.): Best Crime Stories of the Year 2021. Head of Zeus, ISBN: 9781801105750 (June, 2022), 480 p., £8.99.

Lee Child (ed.): Best Crime Stories of the Year 2021 (UK 2021)

From the Publisher:
Selected by #1 bestselling author Lee Child: the twenty finest short stories of 2021.
There is no finer form for a crime than the short story. WIthin a few pages, a clue can be discovered, divulged and its significance determined; all else is mere embellishment. The classic mystery tale will be familiar to aficionados and casual readers alike: it was invented by Edgar Allen Poe, popularised by Arthur Conan Doyle, and perfected by Agatha Christie.

But mystery fiction has changed a great deal over the years - as have all things - and the writers within these pages present far more than a simple case of crime and resolution. Far from predictable, these stories provide fertile grounds of aberrant circumstances and the poor choices they lead to. You will find diverse methods and motivations, original perspectives and perils. Above all, you will find tales of the extremes of human psychology caused by despair, hate, greed, fear, envy, insanity or love.

Featuring stories by: Doug Allyn, Jim Allyn, Ambrose Bierce, Michael Bracken, James Lee Burke, Martin Edwards, John Floyd, Jacqueline Freimor, Alison Gaylin, Sue Grafton, Paul Kemprecos, Stephen King, Janice Law, Dennis McFadden, David Marcum, Tom Mead, David Morrell, Joyce Carol Oates, Sara Paretsky, Joseph Walker, Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

Lee Child (ed.): Best Crime Stories of the Year 2021. Head of Zeus, ISBN: 9781801105736 (September, 2021), 451 p., Hardcover £18.99, Trade Paperback £14.99, eBook £8.99.

Lee Child (ed.): The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2021 (USA 2021)

From the Publisher:
As the fog of the Covid-19 pandemic lifts, some people are already calling 2020 a lost year-but not, it seems, in the world of crime fiction, which saw many of its best authors publishing stand-out stories during those long twelve months.

Under the auspices of New York City's The Mysterious Bookshop - which headquarters the Mysterious Press - Lee Child has selected twenty tales as the best of the year and, taken as a whole, they do indicate that, pandemic or no, 2020 was a boon year for the genre. Newcomers published excellent, well-received short works, as did household names-and you can find them all right here.

Edgar Award-winning series editor Otto Penzler brings his decades of anthologist experience to this new annual from Mysterious Press, each of which will, going forward, feature a different bestselling author as guest editor. If you're a fan of mystery short stories, you definitely won't want to miss it.

Lee Child (ed.): The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2021. Mysterious Press, ISBN: 9781613162385 (September, 2021), 451 p., Hardcover $25.95, Paperback $14.95, eBook $12.99.