Crime bragging

BN.com has spit out the table of contents for Best American Mystery Stories 2013. Now I know who else is in it. Odd mix. Here's the line-up:

TOM BARLOW
Smothered and Covered • 1
MICHAEL CONNELLY
A Fine Mist of Blood • 14
O’NEIL DE NOUX
Misprision of Felony • 29
EILEEN DREYER
The Sailor in the Picture • 46
DAVID EDGERLEY GATES
The Devil to Pay • 61
CLARK HOWARD
The Street Ends at the Cemetery • 91
ANDRE KOCSIS
Crossing • 126
KEVIN LEAHY
Remora, IL • 158
NICK MAMATAS
Thy Shiny Car in the Night • 172
EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL
Drifter • 180
DENNIS MCFADDEN
The Ring of Kerry • 194
MICAH NATHAN
Quarry • 211
JOYCE CAROL OATES
So Near Any Time Always • 225
NANCY PICKARD
Light Bulb • 263
BILL PRONZINI
Gunpowder Alley • 277
PATRICIA SMITH
When They Are Done with Us • 300
RANDALL SILVIS
The Indian • 316
BEN STROUD
The Don’s Cinnamon • 366
HANNAH TINTI
Bullet Number Two • 381
MAURINE DALLAS WATKINS
Bound • 392

For those who follow such things, there seem to be more women than unusual in the BAMS table of contents this year. Watkins has been dead for forty years or more, but I guess something came out last year anyway.



Meanwhile, Crows n Bones has an early review of Love is the Law, which reads, in part:

Nick Mamatas’ Love Is The Law is a genre- defying bastard of a novel. Starting off as a murder mystery, it blends revolutionary politics, suburban alienation, hardcore punk and the teachings of that old whore Aleister Crowley in a disorienting, unpredictable read. Part of the fun is that the book never becomes what you expect.

Read the rest here.