The Best American Mystery Stories 2014 Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Foreword

  Introduction

  MEGAN ABBOTT My Heart Is Either Broken

  DANIEL ALARCÓN Collectors

  JIM ALLYN Princess Anne

  JODI ANGEL Snuff

  RUSSELL BANKS Former Marine

  JAMES LEE BURKE Going Across Jordan

  PATRICIA ENGEL Aida

  ERNEST FINNEY The Wrecker

  ROXANE GAY I Will Follow You

  MICHELLE BUTLER HALLETT Bush-Hammer Finish

  CHARLAINE HARRIS Small Kingdoms

  JOSEPH HELLER Almost Like Christmas

  DAVID H. INGRAM The Covering Storm

  ED KURTZ A Good Marriage

  MATTHEW NEILL NULL Gauley Season

  ANNIE PROULX Rough Deeds

  SCOTT LORING SANDERS Pleasant Grove

  NANCY PAULINE SIMPSON Festered Wounds

  DENNIS TAFOYA Satan’s Kingdom

  LAURA VAN BERG Antarctica

  Contributors’ Notes

  Other Distinguished Mystery Stories of 2014

  Read More from The Best American Series®

  About the Editors

  Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

  Introduction copyright © 2014 by Laura Lippman

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  The Best American Series® is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. The Best American Mystery Stories™ is a trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

  No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without the proper written permission of the copyright owner unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law. With the exception of nonprofit transcription in Braille, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is not authorized to grant permission for further uses of copyrighted selections reprinted in this book without the permission of their owners. Permission must be obtained from the individual copyright owners as identified herein. Address requests for permission to make copies of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt material to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York 10003.

  www.hmhco.com

  ISSN 1094-8384

  ISBN 978-0-544-03464-8

  eISBN 978-0-544-03257-6

  v1.0914

  These stories are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  “My Heart Is Either Broken” by Megan Abbott. First published in Dangerous Women. Copyright © 2013 by Megan Abbott. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Collectors” by Daniel Alarcón. First published in The New Yorker, July 29, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Daniel Alarcón. Reprinted by permission of Daniel Alarcón.

  “Princess Anne” by Jim Allyn. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, November 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Jim Allyn. Reprinted by permission of Jim Allyn.

  “Snuff” by Jodi Angel. First published in One Story, Issue No. 179. From You Only Get Letters from Jail. Copyright © 2013 by Jodi Angel. Reprinted by permission of Tin House Books.

  “Former Marine” (pp. 1–19) from A Permanent Member of the Family: Selected Stories by Russell Banks. Copyright © 2013 by Russell Banks. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers and Knopf Canada.

  “Going Across Jordan” by James Lee Burke. First published in the Southern Review, Volume 49:2, Spring 2013. Copyright © 2013 by James Lee Burke. Reprinted by permission of the Southern Review.

  “Aida” by Patricia Engel. First published in the Harvard Review 43. Copyright © 2013 by Patricia Engel. Reprinted by permission of Patricia Engel.

  “The Wrecker” by Ernest Finney. First published in the Sewanee Review, Volume CXXI, Number 3. Copyright © 2013 by Ernest Finney. Reprinted by permission of the Sewanee Review.

  “I Will Follow You” by Roxane Gay. First published in West Branch, Number 72, Winter 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Roxane Gay. Reprinted by permission of Roxane Gay.

  “Bush-Hammer Finish” by Michelle Butler Hallett. First published in the Fiddlehead, No. 257, Autumn 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Michelle Butler Hallett. Reprinted by permission of Michelle Butler Hallett.

  “Small Kingdoms” by Charlaine Harris. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, November 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Charlaine Harris. Reprinted by permission of Charlaine Harris Inc.

  “Almost Like Christmas” by Joseph Heller. First published in the Strand Magazine, June–Sept 2013. Copyright © 2013 by the Estate of Joseph Heller. Reprinted by permission.

  “The Covering Storm” by David H. Ingram. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, November 2013. Copyright © 2013 by David H. Ingram. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “A Good Marriage” by Ed Kurtz. First published in Thuglit, Issue Five. Copyright © 2014 by Ed Kurtz. Reprinted by permission of Ed Kurtz.

  “Gauley Season” by Matthew Neill Null. First published in West Branch, Number 73, Fall 2013. Copyright © 2014 by Matthew Neill Null. Reprinted by permission of Matthew Neill Null.

  “Rough Deeds” by Annie Proulx. First published in The New Yorker, June 10 and 17, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Dead Line, Ltd. Reprinted by permission of Darhansoff and Verrill literary agents.

  “Pleasant Grove” by Scott Loring Sanders. First published in Floyd County Moonshine, Vol. 5, Issue 2, Fall 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Scott Loring Sanders. Reprinted by permission of Scott Loring Sanders.

  “Festered Wounds” by Nancy Pauline Simpson. First published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, March 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Nancy Pauline Simpson. Reprinted by permission of Nancy Pauline Simpson.

  “Satan’s Kingdom” by Dennis Tafoya. First published in Needle, Summer 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Dennis Tafoya. Reprinted by permission of Dennis Tafoya.

  “Antarctica” by Laura van den Berg. First published in Glimmer Train, Issue 88, Fall 2013. From The Isle of Youth by Laura van den Berg. Copyright © 2013 by Laura van den Berg. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

  Foreword

  THE WORDS subjective and subjectivity are extremely useful. What they describe is like the blood in the veins of an editor who is forced to reject a book or story. There is an inherent insult implicit in rejection. The editor is essentially saying, Your work isn’t good enough; it doesn’t measure up. What a dreadful thing to hear! After months, or even years, of slaving over a manuscript—rewriting again and again, arriving at le mot juste after trying a dozen other words, even desperately resorting to a thesaurus, editing line by line, fine-tuning (comma? or semicolon?)—and finally being convinced that it is as good as it is ever going to be, you are so proud of it that you are willing to send it out to the world. To hear that it’s being rejected is brutally painful.

  A diplomatic editor can help lessen the blow by employing the word subjective. “I have no doubt that plenty of editors will feel differently about it, because of course all taste is subjective.” “I’m sorry, but it’s just not my kind of book—but I’m sure you understand that editorial decisions are always subjective.” And so on. These aren’t lies. Well, not always. There are times when the complete sentence might well be “It’s just not my kind of book . . . because I like books that have a modicum of originality and that haven’t been scrawled with a crayon, like this one.”

  As I read stories for this distinguished anthology series, I am reminded of this notion of subjectivity, because so many different kinds of stories fall into the broad category of mystery and I don’t want to be overly exclusionary, selecting only a single type of story that will keep the scope of the book too narrow. Like you, and like most people, I have subjective preferences for certain styles, subjects, characters, and plot elements of fiction, to which I naturally gravitate. My taste tends to run to darker, tougher stories (probably as a counterweight to my generally happy, sunny, optimistic personality). I have never found myself enthralled by the exploits of cats or other household pets as they use their extraordinary brainpower and intuitive sense to help their somewhat dim owners solve complicated crimes, though these tales aren’t much worse than books in which the police are portrayed as such dunderheads that crimes need to be solved for them by florists, hairdressers, cooks, fashion designers, gardeners, Realtors, or booksellers.

  Mystery is a very broad genre that includes any story in which a crime (usually murder) or the threat of a crime (creating suspense) is central to the plot or theme. Detective stories are one subgenre, others being crime (often told from the point of view of the criminal), suspense (impending manmade calamity), espionage (crimes against the state, which potentially have more victims than a single murder), and such sub-subgenres as police procedurals, historicals, humor, puzzles, private eyes, noir, etc. I love good stories in all these forms and others.

  This series of anthologies tends to be more balanced than my own range of preference by virtue of several factors. First, my colleague on every book in the series has been and will remain forever (please, Lord) Michele Slung, who does the initial reading. She examines and reads (at least partially) somewhere in the neighbor
hood of three thousand to five thousand stories a year, culling the nonmysteries and the truly dreadful (of which there are more than you might imagine in your darkest nightmare). She then sends me stacks of stories she feels are eligible, from which I select the fifty of which I am most fond. Her taste is more catholic than mine, and her taste is impeccable, so I am exposed to a wider range of fiction than I might normally choose to read.

  The second factor is the taste of the guest editor. It is almost impossible to think that two people who read a great deal will have exactly the same taste, and that certainly has proven to be the case with all the authors who have agreed to be guest editors for this series. To be fair, however, some stories are so obviously brilliant that it would be unthinkable for anyone to fail to appreciate them. So yes, subjectivity is significant, but sometimes an accomplished writer will have the stars align so that he or she produces work that is so transcendently exquisite that argument would be either futile or puerile.

  Laura Lippman, the guest editor for this volume, frequently has been on regional and national bestseller lists, both for her outstanding Tess Monaghan series and for her suspenseful stand-alone novels. She has been nominated for seven Edgar Allan Poe Awards, winning for Charm City. Although on a tight deadline for the delivery of her next novel, she still somehow made the time to read all fifty stories that I submitted to her and come up with a wonderful final list. As the series editor, I get to play my own game and select my own choices—a list not shared with anyone. I bring it up because I’ve raised the issue of subjectivity as well as the notion that some stories defy argument. Seventeen of the stories in this book were also on my list of the top twenty of the year. Of course, I am utterly flabbergasted that Laura didn’t pick my other top three, but I concede that this is how we know subjectivity exists, and I have nothing at all against the three outliers.

  It should go without needing to be mentioned that I’m grateful to Laura for the tremendous amount of time, energy, and thought she put into the role of guest editor, just as I am to the authors who took on the same task in the past, without whom these very distinguished collections would not be as excellent as they are (and that’s not just my subjective opinion; the reviews have been nothing short of astounding ever since the first anthology was released, in 1998). My deepest gratitude continues to resonate for Lisa Scottoline, Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, George Pelecanos, Carl Hiaasen, Scott Turow, Joyce Carol Oates, Nelson DeMille, Michael Connelly, James Ellroy, Lawrence Block, Donald E. Westlake, Ed McBain, Sue Grafton, and Robert B. Parker.

  There can be little as troubling as learning that I missed a great story that deserved to be in The Best American Mystery Stories of the year. It’s happened twice that I know about. Once the story was in an author’s collection that had been sent to me but never got to my desk; I learned of it almost a year later. Another story was in a literary journal that wasn’t familiar to me (I can guarantee you that I know it now and it is read carefully). As a result, I engage in a nearly obsessive quest to locate and read every mystery/crime/suspense story published, living in eye-bulging fear that I will miss another worthy story. Therefore, if you are an author, editor, or publisher, or care about one, please feel free to submit a story for next year’s anthology and send a book, magazine, or tearsheet to me c/o The Mysterious Bookshop, 58 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007. If the story first appeared electronically, you must submit a hard copy. It is vital to include the author’s contact information. No unpublished material will be considered, for what should be obvious reasons. No material will be returned. If you distrust the postal service, enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard and I’ll reassure you that it arrived and will be read.

  To be eligible, a story must have been written by an American or Canadian author and first published in an American or Canadian publication in the calendar year 2014. The earlier in the year I receive the story, the more fondly I regard it. Some knuckleheads (no offense) wait until Christmas week to submit a story published the previous spring (this happens every year), causing my blood pressure to reach dangerous levels. I wind up reading a stack of stories while everyone else seems to be partying, shopping, and otherwise celebrating the holiday season. It had better be an extraordinarily good story if you do this, because I will start reading it with barely contained outrage. Since there is necessarily a very tight production schedule for this book, the absolute firm deadline for a story to reach me is December 31. This is not arbitrary or arrogant but a product of time constraints. If the story arrives twenty-four hours later, it will not be read. Seriously.

  O.P.

  Introduction

  THE OTHER DAY a friend tweeted, “21 years ago today I got married in Las Vegas. Best decision ever.”

  I replied, “But worst opening ever for a noir story.”

  And yet here I am, guilty of the same perky satisfaction as I contemplate the very existence of the mystery short story, much less the superb stories I had the pleasure of reading for this, The Best American Mystery Stories 2014. These stories, filled with mayhem and murder and darkness, make me want to dance and giggle. I’m weird that way.

  The thing is, the mystery story has no practical reason to be. It is an unforgiving form, cutting the writer little slack. A short story is hard enough to write; a short story that incorporates a satisfying crime plot—with the requisite twists and answers but a resolution that must never be too on-the-nose—is harder still. I know from my own experience that a five-thousand-word short story can take as long to craft as twenty thousand words of a novel, but maybe that’s just me. (I doubt it.) Short stories can pay well, but generally don’t, and if you calculated out the hourly wage, you’d weep. The short story is, to steal one of my favorite lines from James M. Cain’s Mildred Pierce, about as commercial an enterprise as a hand-whittled clothespin. And yet, year in and year out, The Best American Mystery Stories anthology attests to the abundance of good short stories out there, which are discovered among the usual suspects (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine), venerable publications (The New Yorker), literary journals (Southern Review, Sewanee Review, Antioch Review), and cutting-edge newcomers (Needle).

  I tried, in reading for this series, to offer up a variety across genres and subgenres. There are straightforward whodunits here, cozy in tone if not in deed, such as “Festered Wounds” by Nancy Pauline Simpson. There is Charlaine Harris’s “Small Kingdoms,” where we thrill and yet shiver to the realization that a new kind of sheriff is in town. But there are also stories that come at their crimes aslant, allowing the reader to fill in the disturbing and puzzling blanks—Jodi Angel’s “Snuff” and Roxane Gay’s “I Will Follow You.” This collection also has a sense of wanderlust that mirrors my own, ranging widely throughout the United States and reaching all the way to Antarctica in Laura van den Berg’s haunting story of that title.

  But why does anyone write short stories? I only know why I write them: because someone has given me a subject, a deadline, and a promise of money, although the money is the least important aspect. (See hourly wage/weeping, above.) In fact, Michele B. Slung, who has been assisting Otto Penzler with this anthology since he began editing it seventeen years ago, jump-started my stalled ambitions that way. I met her at a party in Washington, D.C., and she asked, upon learning that I was a journalist, if I would consider submitting a story to a collection of erotica she was editing.

  At the time I had managed to complete only a few short stories and relatively small ones at that—wistful vignettes inspired by my time in Waco, Texas. The stories all centered on the odd emotions kicked up when an assessor for the local tax district meets his new sister-in-law, a sullen Baltimore girl. It was less Desire Under the Elms, more Mild Lust at the Piggly-Wiggly. But I had enjoyed writing those stories and been encouraged by one teacher, Sandra Cisneros, then ripped apart by her successor, a gifted short story writer who had planted a flag in the vast territory that is Texas and declared it off-limits to me, an outsider who had missed some local nuances. She wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t right either. If she taught me anything, it’s that a tormentor can push you as hard as a mentor.