Anthologies are tricky things for editors: to select a story for inclusion is to make oneself a target for readers who wonder hotly why X or Y or Z wasn't chosen. And to be so brash as to deem an anthology the best anything of the century practically invites scorn and condemnation. But with The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century, Tony Hillerman, Edgar-winning author, and Otto Penzler, founder of the Mysterious Press, step boldly to the firing line with a salvo of 55 stories that are so devious and absorbing, challenging and rewarding that most readers will hold their fire.

The collection stretches from O. Henry's 1903 tale of a bank robber who abandons his trade ("A Retrieved Reformation") to Dennis Lehane's unsettling sketch of a post-Gothic southern town and its canine conundrum ("Running Out of Dog," 1999), and brings together authors who at first seem uneasy bedfellows. William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway jostle for space with Donald Westlake and Stephen Greenleaf; Willa Cather and Flannery O'Conner stare combatively at Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton. But as one reads along, these potentially tense alliances relax: the boundaries between "modern" and "classic," "pulp" and "literature" evanesce, leaving instead a shimmering web of serendipitous affiliations: O. Henry and Stephen King nod amiably to one another, united by the skill of their devious narrative twists.

Hillerman and Penzler's selections reflect a century-long shift in mystery fiction from an emphasis on an exterior landscape--replete with the tangible artifacts of who, what, where, when, how, why--to a growing interest in the geography of interiority. This landscape thrives on the amorphousness of its own features. In Tom Franklin's "Poachers," for example, the puzzle hardly matters at all: real people, and their endlessly convoluted relationships, do. Three orphaned brothers who live as predators in the swamps of the Gulf Coast, the old widower who loves them, the sheriff who pities them all--who kills two of the boys and blinds a third? We never really know. In any case, Franklin's infinitely shaded nuances of silence and speech matter far more than the violence of the crime itself.

And for those readers who, when all is read and done, still insist that they could have done a much better job of judging, Penzler's disarming editorial shrug serves to remind that any anthology should be approached with equanimity, a touch of resignation, and not a little humor: "There are no scientific instruments that can tell a reader which of Harlan Ellison's two Edgar-winning short stories is better. It is a coin toss, and it can't be anything else. Let's just live with it." Happily, The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century is an extraordinarily rewarding companion. --Kelly Flynn


From Publishers Weekly
Hillerman, one of America's most distinguished crime novelists (The First Eagle, The Fallen Man, etc.), and Penzler, Mysterious Bookshops owner and Mysterious Press founder as well as series editor of the publisher's Best American Mystery Stories, have pooled their considerable expertise to pick the 55 tales that make up this hefty compendium. In between O. Henry's "A Retrieved Reformation" (1903) and Dennis Lehane's "Running Out of Dog" (1999), the editors include short gems by classic masters (Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler) and contemporary giants (Lawrence Block, Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky). Well represented also are authors not usually associated with the field (Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates). In his foreword, Penzler entertainingly describes the formidable and sometimes subjective process of winnowing thousands of possible stories to a manageable number. Hillerman, meanwhile, who made the final selection, comments in his introduction on the genre's evolution from puzzle mystery for an elite readership 100 years ago to something much more substantial and democratic today, taking issue with critics such as Edmund Wilson and Jacques Barzun--who, he says, have failed to appreciate mystery's literary and social worth. Fans are sure to agree with Hillerman. This anthology is a cornerstone volume for any mystery library. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Edited by mystery novelist Hillerman, this substantial anthology might better be titled The Best American Crime and Mystery Stories of the Century. While many of the selections pose a puzzle to be solved, just as many reveal the whole crime as it happens. Dating from 1904 to the present, these stories provide a rough chronology of 20th-century crime fiction, including pieces from the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s and from the "golden age of mystery fiction" of the last two decades. All the great writers of the genre are here--Raymond Chandler, Ellery Queen, Sue Grafton, etc.--but so are writers not normally associated with crime fiction, e.g., Flannery O'Connor, John Steinbeck, and Harlan Ellison. Readers may find offensive the depictions of minorities and women in many of the earlier stories; the tales from the last 25 years are the most entertaining selections. While few of the stories are true gems, this is still a solid purchase for larger collections.-Devon Thomas, Hass Assocs., Ann Arbor, MI Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


New York Times
"[This] book offers pleasures aplenty."


From Booklist
Just when it seemed safe to think we were through with "best of the century" compilations, here comes one more--but a very good one. Crime fiction presents special challenges to the "best of" compiler, as the genre encompasses so widely divergent a group of styles: puzzle tales, cozies, classic hard-boiled stories, and the contemporary, character-driven approach. Hillerman and Penzler, who has capably shepherded the Best American Mystery Stories annual compilations through its first three installments, prove more than equal to the challenge. Hillerman's selections cross all the borders, paying appropriate homage to the early giants of the American mystery (O. Henry, Ellery Queen) and the hard-boiled masters (Hammett, Chandler, Cain) but devoting plenty of space to the post-1950 set: from John D. MacDonald, Ross Macdonald, and Patricia Highsmith through contempories including Paretsky, Grafton, Crumley, and Block. Numerous nongenre writers (Hemingway, Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor) are also included, recognizing the universality of the crime theme. The best read of the lot: Michael Malone's superb "Red Clay," a melancholy jewel in which there is no wrong word. An automatic purchase for all public libraries. Bill Ott


From Kirkus Reviews
In his introduction, Hillerman confides that he'd have included many more stories from the pulps and the slick magazines if Penzler hadnt wisely deterred him. For his part, Penzler takes on all who dissent from the choices with a puckish disclaimer, ``If you don't [like them], it's only because Tony left out the stories that you'd have wanted to see included.'' But who would argue with Futrelle's ``The Problem of Cell 13,'' Susan Glaspell's ``A Jury of Her Peers,'' Hemingway's ``The Killers,'' Thurber's ``The Catbird Seat,'' Harry Kemelman's ``The Nine Mile Walk,'' Westlake's ``Too Many Crooks,'' James Crumley's ``Hot Springs, and Tom Franklin's ``Poachers''? The arguments, if any, will involve whether ``Red Wind, ``The Adventure of the President's Half Disme, ``The Gutting of Couffignal, ``The Moment of Decision,'' and ``The Terrapin'' really represent the best of Chandler, Queen, Hammett, Ellin, and Highsmith. Such quibbles aside, the editors have included 47 stories without a single clunker, and with several unexpected pleasures: Wilbur Daniel Steele's tale of three brothers, one wife, and one horse; Stephen King's plan to stop smoking; Sue Grafton's prowess with a shotgun. And fans will be happy to see entries by O. Henry, Ring Lardner, James M. Cain, MacDonald and Macdonald, Evan Hunter, Margaret Millar, Shirley Jackson, Harlan Ellison, and relative newcomers like Brendan DuBois, Michael Malone, and Dennis Lehane. Even Agincourt didn't have so many luminaries. The biggest problem with this behemoth is that no lap is big enough to hold it. Where's Nero Wolfe when you need him? -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER