The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022

I first came across the name of Michele Slung more years ago than either she or I would probably care to remember, when her notable anthology Crime on Her Mind was published as a Penguin paperback in the UK. It was an admirable selection of classic crime stories featuring female detectives. There have been many such collections over the years - I've often thought of putting one together myself - but her book is the leader of the pack.

I mention Michele because she is working with the legendary Otto Penzler, for The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022, for which the guest editor will be Sara Paretsky. This is primarily an American publication, but stories from authors based elsewhere are, these days, eligible for possible inclusion. For example, my own 'The Locked Cabin' appeared in last year's collection, edited by Lee Child in conjunction with Otto - the cover image is above this post. Michele's role is to 'screen' the stories, which involves a huge amount of reading each year.

So the authors among you may wish to consider submitting your stories - provided they are original to 2022. No dusting down old material, then, however great it is! The other thing you have to bear in mind is that the stories have to be submitted as printed copies, not as email attachments or in some other non-print format. 

If you're tempted, send your story to:

Otto Penzler

BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR

58 Warren Street

New York 10007

United States of America

The Best Mystery Stories of the Year

 

I'm truly delighted to be one of the twenty authors whose work is included in The Best Mystery Stories of the Year, edited by Lee Child, and this year's instalment of a series edited by Otto Penzler. The US version is published by Otto's Mysterious Press, the UK version (titled Best Crime Stories of the Year) by Head of Zeus. 

You can no doubt imagine my glee when Otto told me that Lee had selected my story for the book, and when I found out that the other contributors included such luminaries as Stephen King, David Morrell, James Lee Burke, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton (a posthumous publication, alas) and Joyce  Carol Oates. It's so gratifying to be in such company. And to have another story published by Mysterious Press in the US, just after The Traitor, my new bibliomystery, appeared.

My author copies of the anthology have just arrived and I'm looking forward to diving into my fellow contributors' stories. Early reviews have been terrific. Publishers' Weekly gave the collection a starred review, saying: 'Superior...this volume is a must for mystery aficionados.' There was another starred review from Kirkus, which referred to 'Twenty Gems'. And for good measure Library Journal called the book 'a delicious mixture of style and sub-genre...there isn't a weak link in the bunch.'

My story is 'The Locked Cabin', which originally appeared in Maxim Jakubowski's book of 'impossible crime' stories and was inspired by my Atlantic crossings on the Queen Mary a couple of years back. It's a history-mystery set on the original Queen Mary and was great fun to write. The fact that it's achieved this recognition is an unexpected added pleasure.