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The Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories #2005-2006
The Deadly Bride and 19 of the Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories
The annual that has included the likes of Joyce Carol Oates and Max Allan Collins is back with another array of traditional mysteries and tales of crime and suspense from its usual roster of luminaries. Besides presenting twenty of the year's finest crime and mystery stories, from Sharan Newman and James W. Hall to Anne Perry and Jeffery Deaver, The Deadly Bride is also the only annual to feature a roundup of the year in mystery. This invaluable overview includes everything the true fan needs to know about the year in crime and mystery, from a comprehensive list of award-winners and essays on the state of the art to obituaries and an annotated bibiliography of the year's releases.
336 pages, Paperback
First published December 12, 2006
132 people want to read
About the author
Ed Gorman
468 books121 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Edward Joseph Gorman Jr. was a prolific American author and anthologist, widely recognized for his contributions to crime, mystery, western, and horror fiction. Born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gorman spent much of his life in the Midwest, drawing on that experience to set many of his novels in small towns. After working over two decades in advertising, political speechwriting, and industrial filmmaking, he published his first novel, Rough Cut, in 1984 and soon transitioned to full-time writing. His fiction is often praised for its emotional depth, suspenseful storytelling, and nuanced characters. Gorman wrote under the pseudonyms Daniel Ransom and Robert David Chase, and contributed to publications such as Mystery Scene, Cemetery Dance, and Black Lizard. He co-founded Mystery Scene magazine and served as its editor and publisher until 2002, continuing his “Gormania” column thereafter. His works have been adapted for film and graphic novels, including The Poker Club and Cage of Night. In comics, he wrote for DC and Dark Horse. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2002, he continued writing despite his illness until his passing in 2016. Critics lauded him as one of the most original crime writers of his generation and a “poet of dark suspense.”
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Edward Joseph Gorman Jr. was a prolific American author and anthologist, widely recognized for his contributions to crime, mystery, western, and horror fiction. Born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gorman spent much of his life in the Midwest, drawing on that experience to set many of his novels in small towns. After working over two decades in advertising, political speechwriting, and industrial filmmaking, he published his first novel, Rough Cut, in 1984 and soon transitioned to full-time writing. His fiction is often praised for its emotional depth, suspenseful storytelling, and nuanced characters. Gorman wrote under the pseudonyms Daniel Ransom and Robert David Chase, and contributed to publications such as Mystery Scene, Cemetery Dance, and Black Lizard. He co-founded Mystery Scene magazine and served as its editor and publisher until 2002, continuing his “Gormania” column thereafter. His works have been adapted for film and graphic novels, including The Poker Club and Cage of Night. In comics, he wrote for DC and Dark Horse. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2002, he continued writing despite his illness until his passing in 2016. Critics lauded him as one of the most original crime writers of his generation and a “poet of dark suspense.”
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April 29, 2020Iunno when I'll just give up on anthologies because *sigh* not my genre.
January 10, 2019
Couldn't get through it. Started at random in the middle, by chance hitting upon the story for which the collection is named. It was pretty bad. Next, was a story by J. A. Jance where the author poured 99.999% of her energy into lovingly describing her dogs, and whatever was left over grudingly went towards sketching out a bland, suspenseless, utterly lackluster mystery. After that, a story by F. Paul Wilson that was so blatantly and dishearteningly racist within just the first page that I was like, "You know, I think I'm done with this book." The story opens with some classic 'I've literally never spoken to a black person in my life, but this is how I think they talk' dialogue, which, ok, MAYBE he is just terrible at writing dialogue, it could happen. But then he goes on to describe the woman as having "Chia Pet hair" and looking like a "brown manatee in a muumuu". I just... I want to let that sit for a moment.
Because I am a curious person even when I know I'll regret it, I flipped through the rest of the story, which is basically about this white off-duty cop going into a drugstore that is then held up by a group of bad guys straight out of Racist Stereotypes Central Casting. Everything goes about as you would expect, if you were expecting it to go nowhere good, with a slight twist at the end, in which one of the bad guys, "the Ecuadorian" (who we find is named "Pepe"), gets beaten to death with a tub of ice cream by the woman ("brown manatee") from the beginning.
I just.
I know it's generally not fair to judge an entire anthology by 3 stories, but in this case, I feel like the inclusion of the Wilson story ALONE calls the editors' judgment into question in a major fucking way. Maybe there are some gems hidden in this godforsaken tome, but alas, I'll never know it. I almost don't want to return it to the library, because there's just no warning! People know what they're getting into with Huck Finn or whatever, but this? An anthology claiming to be the finest stories from 2005? JEEZ.
Because I am a curious person even when I know I'll regret it, I flipped through the rest of the story, which is basically about this white off-duty cop going into a drugstore that is then held up by a group of bad guys straight out of Racist Stereotypes Central Casting. Everything goes about as you would expect, if you were expecting it to go nowhere good, with a slight twist at the end, in which one of the bad guys, "the Ecuadorian" (who we find is named "Pepe"), gets beaten to death with a tub of ice cream by the woman ("brown manatee") from the beginning.
I just.
I know it's generally not fair to judge an entire anthology by 3 stories, but in this case, I feel like the inclusion of the Wilson story ALONE calls the editors' judgment into question in a major fucking way. Maybe there are some gems hidden in this godforsaken tome, but alas, I'll never know it. I almost don't want to return it to the library, because there's just no warning! People know what they're getting into with Huck Finn or whatever, but this? An anthology claiming to be the finest stories from 2005? JEEZ.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews