The Best American Mystery Stories 2020

A collection of the year’s best mystery short fiction selected by New York Times best-selling and Edgar Award-winning author C. J. Box.

Series editor Otto Penzler culls fifty finalists from nearly two thousand published works, presenting twenty standout crime short stories from across the country. The roster pairs veteran novelists with rising talents.

The twenty selections travel from the dark alleys of East New York to rural Wyoming, following a seasoned hit man facing a deadly setup and an undercover thief fleeing a Brooklyn stash house.

C. J. Box , #1 New York Times best-selling author of the hugely popular Joe Pickett series, selects the best short mystery and crime fiction of the year in this annual “treat for crime-fiction fans” (Library Journal).

• Short Story Anthology: James Lee Burke follows a veteran Texas lawman sheltering an undocumented mother and infant during a bitter winter dust storm.
• Noir Short Stories: In backwoods Ohio, a conflicted deputy discovers a rival dealer shot inside a Cadillac and plots to pin the killing on his estranged father.
• Mysteries and Thrillers: An experimental Detroit courtroom tests a replicate-consciousness jury whose digital consensus threatens to convict an exploited woman of murder.
• Morally Grey Hero: Retired Texas Ranger Huck Spence looks into the bludgeoning of a local butcher, only to uncover a deadly domestic triangle.