The Adventure of the Missing Detective and 19 of the Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories

The Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories #2004

by Ed Gorman (Editor), Robert Barnard (Contributor), Luke Sholer (Contributor)

From traditional mystery stories with devious doings and a plot full of clues to terse thrillers with edge-of-the-seat climaxes to the nail-biting tale of psychological suspense, no field of popular fiction can match contemporary crime writing in diversity, excitement, cunning, or satisfaction. In this stunning collection of the year's best offerings in the genre, armchair detectives, suspense addicts, and crime solvers alike can thrill to new stories by Edward D. Hoch, Carolyn Wheat, Jeffrey Deaver, Stuart Kaminsky, Val McDermid, Laura Lippman, Joyce Carol Oates, and Max Allen Collins, in the unique way only mystery fiction can provide.

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery

568 pages, Paperback

First published January 27, 2005

About the author

Librarian 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.”

Reviews

[Jenny]

I read some of the short stories in this compilation. One by Jeffrey Deaver was exceptionally good - the other 6 or so that I read were terrible. There were typos and spelling problems all over. The story by Joyce Carol Oates must have been proofed by a person who thought the more commas, the better. Surely this couldn't have been the author's choice to insert so many in between nouns and verbs! In any case, not bad but not worth slogging through. (There should be some kind of synopsis for each story so you know what they will be about!)

[Metagion]

This is one of the best mystery/crime anthologies I've read in quite some time! The stories are short but sweet, and they go very quickly; the front is of news and reviews of the year of publication in the genre (2004). Find yourself a copy and read it--great stuff! :)

[Sureshkannan]

goog