The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century

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The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century

by Tony Hillerman (Editor), Otto Penzler (Goodreads Author) (Series Editor), Robert L. Fish (Contributor), Tom Franklin (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Jacques Futrelle (Contributor), Pearl S. Buck (Contributor), Raymond Chandler (Contributor), Susan Glaspell (Contributor) , more…

3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 · rating details · 118 ratings · 16 reviews

In THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES OF THE CENTURY, best-selling author Tony Hillerman and mystery expert Otto Penzler present an unparalleled treasury of American suspense fiction that every fan will cherish. Offering the finest examples from all reaches of the genre, this collection charts the mystery's eminent history from the turn-of-the-century puzzles of Futrelle, t...more

Paperback, 832 pages

Published April 13th 2001 by Mariner Books (first published 2000)

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Jul 29, 2012 Werner marked it as being-read-intermittently

July 1, 2012
Otto Penzler edits a long-running and well regarded annual anthology series called The Best American Mystery Stories, showcasing short fiction in the genre. This volume is a sort of spin-off of the series, collecting 46 of the "best" mystery tales (in the estimation of book editor Hillerman) produced by American writers in the 20th century. Not all of the 47 authors represented ("Ellery Queen" was actually the pen name of the team of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee) are usually as...more July 1, 2012
Otto Penzler edits a long-running and well regarded annual anthology series called The Best American Mystery Stories, showcasing short fiction in the genre. This volume is a sort of spin-off of the series, collecting 46 of the "best" mystery tales (in the estimation of book editor Hillerman) produced by American writers in the 20th century. Not all of the 47 authors represented ("Ellery Queen" was actually the pen name of the team of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee) are usually associated with the genre; several were more "literary" writers making a foray into the field, as Hillerman defines it. His definition, in fact, is broader than the conventional mystery; not all of the stories focus on the identification of a culprit or solution of a mystery, though most would fall under the broader rubric of crime fiction. The foreword by Penzler is mostly an explanation of the selection process, but Hillerman contributes a short but interesting introduction that's more substantive. Rather than the usual critical dichotomy between noir and traditional mysteries, he draws a conceptual distinction between stories that focus strictly on the solution of an intellectual puzzle, with as little distraction from the human element as possible, versus those that give equal or more attention to the same factors stressed in other types of fiction: character, relationships, moral choices, social issues, etc. (I have to confess to a preference for the latter.)
The arrangement of the stories here is chronological; the date of publication is given for each one, and the appendix gives a short bio-critical note on each author.

While killing time in Harrisonburg, VA's excellent public library recently, I started this read, as a change of pace from my usual supernatural fiction choices --the mystery genre, of course, being one I also like. Seven stories were ones I'd previously read, all of them well-done tales of their type. One, "The Problem of Cell 13" by Jacques Futrelle (who died in the sinking of the Titanic), and featuring his polymath series character Prof. Augustus S. F. X. Van Duesen, a.k.a. "The Thinking Machine," is one of the best examples of the pure intellectual puzzle type of mystery. In it, the professor accepts a challenge to escape from a maximum-security prison within one week, just to prove he can; although the reader is privy to many of "the Thinking Machine's" outward operations, the means of escape remains illusive until the final reveal. James Thurber's "The Catbird Seat" doesn't really involve crime at all, but it does involve a clever scheme, related with the author's usual wry situational humor. The often anthologized "Haircut" by Ring Lardner is a classic use of an unreliable narrator, as an ingenuous barber spins a tale of local gossip to his customer in which the reader will recognize a much darker import; while O. Henry's "A Retrieved Reformation" provides one of the more satisfying of his trademark surprise endings. Ellery Queen's "The Adventure of the President's Half Disme" is one of the best hidden treasure yarns I've had the pleasure of reading. And "The Homesick Buick" by John D. MacDonald and Willa Cather's "Paul's Case," are both stories I've commented on in reviews of other collections.

As usual, I'm not reading these stories in order; but most of the nine stories I read in this go-around date from before 1935. All but two of these proved to be excellent. While Damon Runyon's "Sense of Humor" is technically well-crafted for effect, none of the characters are remotely likeable (even the narrator), and I didn't really give a care about the outcome, though I was curious enough to finish it. The worst of the bunch by far, though, is "The Murder," a sleazy piece of sadistic misogyny (with a topping of invidious ethnic stereotyping) that reflects very poorly on Steinbeck. But the other selections more than made up for these clunkers!

My favorite in this group, surprisingly, was Dashiell Hammett's "The Gutting of Couffignal" --surprising because it has clear affinities to the noir tradition, which isn't my typical cup of tea, and plot points that recur four years later in The Maltese Falcon, a novel that got only two stars from me. But Hammett's handling of his material here is less cynical and to me much more appealing than in the novel, and his unnamed sleuth doesn't have Sam Spade's obnoxious edge. (He works for the Continental Detective Agency; though the note doesn't say so, I believe he may be the author's "Continental Op" character.) Another standout is Susan Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers," which has a feminist subtext that makes a good antidote to the Steinbeck story. Although, IMO, one of the clues does not, on reflection, hold water, I also really liked Melville Davisson Post's "Naboth's Vineyard" (1916). Shirley Jackson's "The Possibility of Evil" and Henry Slesar's "The Day of the Execution" are two of the darkest selections in the bunch; a couple of the other stories feature protagonists who are actually the crooks in the story, rather than the detective --but just because they happen to be crooks doesn't necessarily mean you can't root for them. :-) I'll hope to read more in this book later this month!

July 29, 2012
Out of the 11 stories (ranging in tone from tragic to humorous) that I read in this go-around, the majority were not, strictly speaking, "mysteries," as opposed to unpredictable stories with plot twists, though all could be called crime fiction. Several were by authors not usually associated with the genre, whose work I've sampled before (Buck, Faulkner, O'Connor, and King); others were by authors I hadn't read before, including one, Ben Ray Redman, whom I hadn't heard of until I opened this book. The only one of the 11 that proved less than satisfying was "An Error in Chemistry," which is definitely not on a par with Faulkner's best work in the short format, IMO. He pulls off a surprise ending --but there are details in the story that render that ending impossible, and the prose is often clumsy and confusing, especially in the dialogue (which I suspect has some careless attributions to the wrong speaker in at least one exchange!). If I'd been the editor, I'd have chosen "A Rose for Emily" over this one, hands down. But the other ten tales more than make up for that one.

Pearl S. Buck departed from her usual Chinese setting in "Ransom" (1938) to tell a tale of the kidnapping of a toddler, which probably was influenced by the 1932 Lindbergh kidnapping case, and which delivers both taut suspense and some serious thought content. Editor Hillerman spares us, in his Flannery O'Connor selection, from the very disturbing horror of the often-anthologized "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," opting instead for the quieter and less well known "The Comforts of Home," which still affords us quite a dark vision of the negative possibilities of human behavior. But the author's vision isn't about shocking us or preaching meaninglessness and despair; rather, it's about moral instruction in how to relate to our fellow humans --which sometimes is taught more effectively by negative than by positive examples. "Ouitters, Inc.," the Stephen King selection, packs quite a punch as well, and explores some serious philosophical ideas, such as whether or not the ends justify the means, and the nature and limits of human freedom and autonomy. It also has real social implications --though King may not have consciously thought about them-- for things like the modern quasi-totalitarian Nanny State, and about the shortcomings (as pointed out by C. S. Lewis decades ago) of the "therapeutic" approach to social control as opposed to the approach based on the traditional concept of justice.

Sue Grafton basically created the modern genre character type of the tough, hard-boiled professional female sleuth, holding her own on what used to be all-male turf, with her iconic P.I. heroine Kinsey Milhone; and Sara Paretsky followed close on her heels with another popular pistol-packing woman sleuth, V. I. Warshawski. "The Parker Shotgun" and "Three-Dot Po," respectively, proved to be excellent introductions to both fictional ladies; V. I. in particular comes across as highly likeable, but neither of the two are abrasive or uncaring, and both get to solve their cases without gun-play (though in one of the stories, our heroine shows her mettle in a hand-to-hand fight). It's also worth noting that the Paretsky story is a particular treat for dog lovers; Three-Dot Po is a Golden retriever, who plays a big role in the plot.

Versatile writer Wilbur Daniel Steele, in "Blue Murder" (1925) evokes the parochial, close-knit atmosphere of an early 20th-century New England mountain community, to tell a perfectly-crafted tale of rancorous family dynamics, repressed grievances, sibling rivalry and romantic jealousy, with a surprise ending hidden in plain sight. When I began reading Redman's "The Perfect Crime," I quickly recognized it as the source of a skit I saw as a teen on, I believe, Rod Serling's old TV series The Night Gallery, starring Vincent Price and James Gregory (though it differed in some details). That reduced the suspense, but ratcheted up the dread, and didn't detract a bit from the emotional wallop. It's difficult to say more without a spoiler, except that it's a dark tale indeed. I also had an introduction, in my teens, to a dramatic adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's "Rear Window," through the classic Hitchcock film with James Stewart and Grace Kelly (though again the story differs significantly in details --there is no counterpart to Kelly's character, for instance). It's an effective piece of suspense writing, and deduction under circumstances that both handicap and help our protagonist. My only quibbles are that one use of the telephone doesn't really make convincing sense with 1942-vintage technology, and the eye-rolling moment when the hero tells his black servant (intending it as a compliment) that "you're as close to being white as you'll ever be." :-( (To Woolrich's credit, though, he doesn't portray the black man as either stupid or cowardly.)

Not being a noir fan, I didn't expect much from "The Baby in the Icebox," given the image conjured by the title, and the fact that it was penned by noir master James M. Cain. To my pleasant surprise, it proved to be one of my favorites in the collection so far! (No spoiler here either; but it is only fair to note that an old-fashioned icebox isn't air-tight, unlike modern refrigerators; so to readers in 1933, the title does NOT connote a death-trap in which an infant would be condemned to suffocation.) Finally, what happens when two would-be bank robbers tunnel into a bank vault --and find it occupied by the hostages of a gaggle of Uzi-wielding thugs, with the bank surrounded by cops? Well, if one of the pair is Donald E. Westlake's larcenous but not altogether unlikeable anti-hero John Dortmunder, the results are apt to prove more comic than tragic; and you can read all about it in "Too Many Crooks."

With 19 more stories to go, there's still plenty to read in this collection. So, more next summer!(less)

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Nov 08, 2011 Ralph rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reviews on stories from the book THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES of the CENTURY
1903 A Retrieved Reformation-
This short story was centered on a character that had just gotten out of jail and started a new life but his old life as a robber makes things difficult. This was a very interesting story that played with the deeper emotions of human nature from my point of view. The language used was very insightful; I could picture everything that was happening. Also the ending was something that had m...more Reviews on stories from the book THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES of the CENTURY
1903 A Retrieved Reformation-
This short story was centered on a character that had just gotten out of jail and started a new life but his old life as a robber makes things difficult. This was a very interesting story that played with the deeper emotions of human nature from my point of view. The language used was very insightful; I could picture everything that was happening. Also the ending was something that had my heart pounding at every moment, and it made me believe that people do get second chances. I would recommend this short story to any of my friends.
1928 The Perfect Crime-
This short story was centered on a few characters who area having a conversation about the perfect murder and the ideals around it. Then all the sudden an actual murder happens. And well let me just say that some of the ideals that were being said at the beginning of the book about how to do it without being caught were being put in to play. This was very interesting short story it really allowed me to see into a detective mind. The language used in the short story didn’t really have imagery but it was something that I could really without much difficulty. I would recommend this short story to any of my friends.
1933 The Murder-
This short story is about a character that gets into a dangerous sate of thinking and kills someone in a gory manner right in front of his wife. As I read this short story I was a bit confused about the language. But after I finished reading the story it was amazing. The perfect short story to read around Halloween. Of course the murder scene was interesting and about how almost every detail about this story, showed a great sense of imagery. Also it was a very sad ending with how the characters who saw the murder and the other characters reaction to this. I would recommend this short story to any of my friends.
1933 The baby in the ice box
This story I can’t comment on because I really did not understand it. From the beginning it seem as though it jump straight in to the middle so I really didn’t know what was happening. So I would suggest reading this short story yourself to form an opinion.
Overall from my perspective and the stories that I have read from this book, the language used is very impressive, the imagery that I could see was too. The short stories that I read were awesome too. And today I can say that if any other read took time out of there day to find and read a story from the book they too will greatly enjoy this. Thank you for reading this review for THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES of the CENTURY

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Jan 25, 2012 Maura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: shortstories, mystery

what can i say -- if you like mysteries & the short story form, then this will have something in it for you. as for me, i don't think i hit a story i didn't like. Donald Westlake solidified his position in my pantheon of favorite authors. stalwarts like Dennis Lehane and Raymond Chandler delivered wonderfully. my impression that i ought to read more of Dashiell Hammet was reinforced. Sue Grafton didn't make me run screaming. hoo-whee Dwight Yoakum!

yeah, i mentally complained that a heck of a...more

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May 25, 2013 Chris Cosci rated it 4 of 5 stars

As the editors rightfully point out in the foreword and introduction, calling these stories the best of the century is very subjective. They even address the debate about whether some of these stories would qualify as "mystery" stories. Once these potential complaints are defused, all that's left to ask is: are they stories any good?

Like any anthology, there's bound to be a few stories that don't resonate with the reader as strongly as the others. However, because of the careful selection from a...more

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Nov 04, 2007 Rick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthologies

How could a 813 page book with 46 stories titled The Best American Mystery Stories Of the Century steer you wrong? It can’t. Sure you won’t agree with everything that is in and not in the book (that is part of the fun of Best of... collections) but with contributors like Lawrence Block, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, William Faulkner, Sue Grafton, Dashiel Hammett, O. Henry, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, Donald E. Westlake (still chuckling from his Dortmunder tale) and a host of others even th...more

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Apr 03, 2008 meeners rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthology, mystery, short-stories

n impressively ambitious project, and i appreciated the variations in styles and plots and moods. (though i have to admit that it's those very variations that also irked me at times - felt too much like the editors were straining to "break free" of genre restraints, when really they didn't have to.)

there were quite a few stories i didn't think really deserved the title, but i guess you could cite personal preferences as part of the reason. my favorites were the ones by cain (can't go wrong with...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Patrick added it

4/5/12: "The Catbird Seat" (1942) by James Thurber
4/5/12: "First Offense" (1955) by Evan Hunter (Ed McBain)
4/4/12: "The Day of the Execution" (1957) by Henry Slesar
3/20/12: "Haircut" (1925) by Ring Lardner
3/20/12: "A Retrieved Reformation" (1903) by O. Henry
3/19/12: "The Dark Snow" (1996) by Brendan DuBois
3/17/12: "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" (1973) by Harlan Ellison
3/11/12: "Red Clay" (1997) by Michael Malone

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Jun 28, 2009 Judith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Great collection of short stories by outstanding writers of suspense and surprise endings. The stories range from the spooky supernatural (a la Stephen King) to thriller whodunits (Dashiell Hammett, Sue Grafton), to masters of complex plot and character intrigue (John Steinbeck, Willa Cather). Really good book to keep handy on the lamp table for a quick read when time is short and an escape from the grind beckons.

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Jan 14, 2011 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this anthology of mystery short stories dating from 1900 to 2000 as part of an assignment for my "Master Class" workshop for professional fiction writers.

It was quite a mix - some very good, some excellent, some truly disgusting, others lackluster.

Good reading, overall.

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Apr 14, 2012 Beth rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is an enormous book filled with a whole lot of not very mysterious mysteries. There are some gems, by masters like Raymond Chandler and John D. MacDonald, and favorite authors like Sara Paretsky, but most of the stories are either dull or pretty creepy reads (there was even one by Stephen King). I did enjoy the story by Sue Grafton (of the "A is for..." series). It reminded me of the first time I read her, in Redbook magazine, about a million years ago. I did find one author, who was new to...more

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Jul 29, 2009 James Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

good, quick summer reading from a diverse group of authors. includes 'rear window', drastically different from hitchcock's rendering, very short and lacking a love interest.

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Dec 16, 2010 Mad_Maudie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries, short-stories

I enjoyed the earlier stories more than the later, more so than the recent ones. The later stories just got too profane for my tastes because I like my mysteries to be more mysterious than vulgar. What a shame when writers have to depend on that sort of thing. It's no wonder I like the classics so much.

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Sep 16, 2011 SeriouslyJerome rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

For me, this redefined what constitutes a "mystery" story. I'm used to the hard crime, murder mysteries, but this tome included much more. Sometimes, after finishing a story, I was left scratching my head, thinking, "That was a mystery story?". But that's why I liked this. It was an excellent bathroom reader. I'd lend you my copy, but I doubt you'd want to barrow it now... :)

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Aug 06, 2008 Janet rated it 4 of 5 stars

the "best" is the opinion of Tony Hillerman and Otto Penzler and for the most part I've enjoyed the stories. I love having a short story choice just before bed and from authors such as steinbeck, runyan, cather, O.Henry, faulkner and many others that one doesn't make a point of reading since college days.

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Aug 08, 2009 Henry added it

Shelves: fiction-short

Ring Lardner - Haircut
John Steinbeck - The Murder
Damon Runyan - Sense of Humor
Pearl S. Buck - Ransom
Raymond Chandler - Red Wind
William Faulkner - An Error in Chemistry
Flannery O'Connor - The Comforts of Home
Joyce Carol Oates - Do With Me What You Will
Stephen King - Quitters, Inc.

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Jul 08, 2009 Barbara DaCosta rated it 4 of 5 stars

A great survey of the broad range of writers who delve into mystery.

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Aug 29, 2008 Christine Verstraete added it

I love these collections, great stories.

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About Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman, who was born in Sacred Heart, Oklahoma, was a decorated combat veteran from World War II, serving as a mortarman in the 103rd Infantry Division and earning the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart. Later, he worked as a journalist from 1948 to 1962. Then he earned a Masters degree and taught journalism from 1966 to 1987 at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, wh...more

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