The Year's Best Mystery and Suspense Stories, 1983

by Edward D. Hoch (Editor)

Collects noteworthy short stories of the past year by prominent mystery and suspense writers

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Edward D. Hoch is one of the most honored mystery writers of all time.

* 1968 Edgar Allan Poe Award (Mystery Writers of America): "The Oblong Room", The Saint Mystery Magazine, July 1967
* 1998 Anthony Award (Bouchercon World Mystery Convention): "One Bag of Coconuts", EQMM, November 1997
* 2001 Anthony Award (Bouchercon): "The Problem of the Potting Shed", EQMM, July 2000
* 2007 Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award (awarded 2008): "The Theft of the Ostracized Ostrich", EQMM, June 2007
* Lifetime Achievement Award (Private Eye Writers of America), 2000
* Grand Master (Mystery Writers of America), 2001
* Lifetime Achievement Award (Bouchercon), 2001

Reviews

[Csparrenberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent anthology of short stories, some which are very, very good. My favorite by far is: All the Hero’s are Dead.
This book was published decades ago. You may be able to find it at your library or on the web. It will be worth your efforts.

[Zoë · Rating 3 out of 5]

There must have been a pretty low bar for the "best" stories here, if they were allowed to include a blatant rip-off of Psycho.

[Roger Pettit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am an avid reader of crime fiction. Having read many of the annual anthologies of stories from their eponymous monthly magazine that were edited by crime-writing duo Ellery Queen, I have a particular fondness for the short form of the genre. This book, which is edited by someone who was himself a very good writer of short crime stories (indeed, somewhat unusually, he made his living from short stories rather than novels), is a selection of tales published originally in 1981. (Rather confusingly, this UK edition of the book was, I believe, published in the US under the title "The Year's Best Mystery and Suspense Stories 1982"!) Many of the 15 stories featured in the collection were first published in "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine".

As in all good anthologies, the content is very varied. There are straightforward detective stories as well as more general mystery stories that have a psychological and, occasionally, a comical bent. Perhaps not surprisingly, the quality of the collection is also mixed. My favourite story is "The Absence of Emily", by Jack Ritchie. It is a black comedy about the murder of a wife that has a delightful sting in its tail. (Jack Ritchie, like Edward D Hoch, the editor of this anthology, specialised in the writing of short mystery stories. His work deserves to be much better known: I recommend "Little Boxes of Bewilderment", which is a collection of his humorous crime stories.) Other good stories include another with a comical slant, "Ask A Silly Question", by Donald E Westlake, and "The Chalk Outline", by Brian Garfield, a tale about revenge. There is also a good ghost story by one of my favourite British crime writers, Michael Gilbert. Some of the other stories do not quite live up to the standard set by those I have highlighted. Nonetheless, this is an entertaining collection that should delight most aficionados of crime fiction and which will provide several hours of diverting bedtime reading. 7/10.