Even though I gave most of these 3 stars they were very average and over all I didn't enjoy it

30 and Out by Doug Allyn ⭐⭐⭐

Things That Follow by Jim Allyn ⭐⭐⭐

Blest Be The Tie That Binds by Michael Bracken ⭐⭐⭐

Harbor Lights By James Lee Burke ⭐⭐⭐

The Locked Cabin by Martin Edwards ⭐⭐⭐

Biloxi Bound by John Floyd ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Gift by Alison Gaylin ⭐⭐⭐

If You Want Something Done Right by Sue Grafton ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Sixth Decoy by Paul Kemprecos ⭐⭐

The Fifth Step by Stephen King ⭐⭐⭐

The Client by Janice Law ⭐⭐

The Truth About Lucy by Dennis McFadden
⭐⭐

The Adventures of The Home Office Baby by David Marcum ⭐⭐

Heatwave by Tom Mead ⭐⭐

Requiem For A Homecoming by David Morrell ⭐⭐

Parole Hearing by Joyce Carol Oates ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Love And Other Crimes by Sara Paretsky
⭐⭐

Etta At The End Of The World by Joseph Walker ⭐⭐⭐

The Path I Took by Andrew Welsh-Huggins
⭐⭐⭐

My Favourite Murder by Ambrose Bierrce
⭐⭐⭐

I reviewed the audiobook version of this book. There are twenty stories from mostly well-known authors - Stephen King, Sue Grafton, Joyce Carol Oates, Sara Paretsky, James Lee Burke and more. One of the great things about a short story anthology is that you can get some idea about an author's work with a shorter time investment. This audiobook uses several narrators which helps. One disadvantage is that this genre of short story often tends to follow a certain formula. There's a crime - and often some surprising twist. After a bit the stories tend to run together. There is one story from the late 1800s. as a bonus story. It did not really fit.

Fans of this type of short story should enjoy this book. A good way to try out some authors.

I received this audiobook from Highbridge via Netgalley for a review. A good collection of short stories. Personal favourites Stephen King, Sue Grafton and an appearance by Sherlock Holmes. The narrator does an effective job of keeping you listening.

A collection of twenty short stories all positioned to be ‘mysteries’. It has the mixed bag feel of virtually every compendium I’ve read: some I really loved others I skipped pretty early on having failed to be engaged. But for me, too many fell between these two extremes – they were just middle-of-the-road, well enough written but just not really grabbing me.

Although I’ve read plenty of mysteries I have to say that most of the authors were new to me. Perhaps because I’m already drawn to these writers, my favourites were penned by James Lee Burke (atmospheric and superbly written) and Stephen King (short but the most surprising). There were others that I enjoyed too, a story by Joseph S Walker springs to mind.

I listened to an audio version and this worked well as the stories were tag teamed by competent male and a female narrators. Overall, I think that for listeners/readers who are attracted to the idea of the book then it’ll probably work well. My problem, I feel, is that I just found myself wanting more of the stories I liked and less of the others; I think I just prefer longer, more immersive tales - a decent pint of beer rather than a jolting shot of something stronger.

Best Mystery Stories of the Year: 2021 is an engaging anthology of twenty short stories curated by Lee Child and presented by Otto Penzler. Released 14th Sept 2021 by The Mysterious Press, it's 451 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is an engaging group of varied stories with major league authors (Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, James Lee Burke, and others) as well as some who were less familiar to me. There's also a bonus story by Ambrose Bierce. The stories are varied, there were (as always) some which didn't grab me personally, but all were well written and competently plotted. They were mostly in the 4 star range(ish) with a couple of really standout stories.

One reason I prefer collections and anthologies is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters or the plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. I also love collections because if one story doesn't really grab me, there's another story just a few pages away. One thing worth mentioning here is that even the stories whose authors were previously mostly unfamiliar to me were engaging enough that a couple of them (Paul Kemprecos and Paul Morrell) sent me running to acquire some of their other work. Widening my horizons of "must read" authors is a big fringe benefit with anthologies and this one delivers.

The audiobook format has a run time of 14 hours, 7 minutes and is beautifully narrated by Matt Godfrey and Emily Sutton-Smith. They both manage to read clearly and well and imbue characters with distinct voices and personality. I'm always impressed by very talented narrators' ability to imbue each voice with its own timbre and tone, especially in rapid dialogue. Both of these voice actors are quite talented and pleasant to listen to. The sound and production quality is very high throughout.

Four and a half stars. It's a diverting read/listen.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

The Best Mystery Stories of the Year: 2021
Lee Child and Otto Penzler, editors
Mysterious Press
This was a very enjoyable collection of short stories by some unknown authors (to me) and some very well known authors such as Stephen King, Sue, Grafton, Joyce carol Oates, Sara Paretsky, and Ambrose Bierce.
The Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates stories were more creepy than mysterious but both packed quite a punch. The story by Ambrose Bierce was gruesomely hilarious.
I also found several authors I intend to look into for further reading pleasure.
Thanks to Netgalley.

I enjoyed this little anthology audiobook immensely. The stories were quick and enjoyable, and it was great to have stories written by some of my favorite authors.

I didn’t like every single story (I’m not sure who really does when it comes to an anthology), but ultimately I think it was well put together and the narrators did a fantastic job and really brought the characters to life.

Highly recommend this.

EXCERPT: taken from 30 and Out by Doug Allyn

The sign on the door read Sgt. Charles Marx, Major Crimes. I raised my fist to knock, then realised the guy at the desk wasn't just resting his eyes. He was totally out, slouched in his chair, his grubby Nikes up on his desk, baseball cap tipped down over his eyes, snoring softly. Looked like a Class C wrestling coach after a losing season. Edging in quietly, I eased down into the chair facing his desk. When I glanced up, his eyes were locked on mine like lasers.

'Can I help you?'

'I'm Jax LaDart, Sergeant Marx. Your FNG.'

He frowned at that, then nodded. 'The f*****g new guy,' he said, massaging his eyelids with his fingertips. 'Ah, right. You're the home boy the chief hired, straight out of the army. I was reading your record. It put me to sleep.' He spun the Dell laptop on his desk to show me the screen. 'According to the Military Police, you've closed a lot of felony cases overseas, but the details are mostly redacted, blacked out.'

'The army'd classify Three Blind Mice if they could. You don't remember me, do you?'

ABOUT 'THE MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP PRESENTS THE BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR: 2021: Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international bestseller Lee Child has selected the twenty most suspenseful, most confounding, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

Includes stories by:

Alison Gaylin
David Morrell
James Lee Burke
Joyce Carol Oates
Martin Edwards
Sara Paretsky
Stephen King
Sue Grafton (with a new, posthumously-published work!)

And many more!

MY THOUGHTS: There are a couple of absolutely brilliant stories in here - Sue Grafton's 'If You Want Something Done Right . . .' and Stephen King's 'The Fifth Step' are the two that stood out for me. Others that I enjoyed were: 'The Locked Cabin' by Martin Edwards, Janice Law's 'The Client', and David Morrell's 'Requiem For A Homecoming.' There was one story I absolutely detested - Parole Hearing by Joyce Carol Oates, and I didn't much care for David Marcum's 'The Home Office Baby' either, or the first two stories which were 'tough guy' fiction and almost completely put me off reading any more of the collection. The rest fell somewhere in the middle and were mostly quite mediocre.

This is by no means anywhere near my favourite collection. Quite a few, I zoned out of as I was listening, and had to return to. They just didn't hold my interest; absolutely no reflection on the narrators who, on the whole did an excellent job.

I know 2020 was a difficult year for all, but I am sure that there were far better mystery stories out there that could have been included in this collection.

⭐⭐⭐

#TheBestMysteryStoriesoftheYear2021 #NetGalley

#audiobook #contemporaryfiction #crime #detectivefiction #murdermystery #mystery #shortstories

Edited by Lee Child and Otto Penzler

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Highbridge Audio via Netgalley for providing an audio ARC of The Best Mystery Stories of the Year:2021 edited by Lee Child and Otto Penzler for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

22 Short mystery stories that I mostly enjoyed. My favorites were The Gift by Alison Gaylin, The Fifth Step by Stephen King, Thirty and Out by Doug Allen and Edda at the End of the World by Joseph S. Walker.
I chose to listen to this book on audio and the narrators were very good. Don’t just take my word for it, listen to a sample.
Thanks HighBridge Audio via Netgalley.
1. Doug Allyn- Thirty and out. 5⭐️
2. Jim Allan - Things that follow. 4⭐️
3. Michael Bracken - Blest be the Tie that Binds. 3⭐️
4. James Lee Burke - Harbor Lights. 4.5⭐️
5. Martin Edwards - The locked Cabin. 3⭐️
6. John M. Floyd- Luxy Bound. 3.5⭐️
7. Jaclyn (I can’t remember)- That Which is True. 3.5⭐️
8. Allison Gaylee - The Gift 5⭐️⭐️
9. Sue Grafton - If You Want Something Right. 4.5⭐️
10. Paul Kemprecos - The Sixth Decay. 3⭐️
11. Stephen King- The Fifth Step. 5⭐️
12. Janice Law- The Client 4⭐️
13. Dennis McFadden- The Truth about Lucy. 3.5⭐️
14. David Marcum- The Adventure of the Home Office Baby. 3⭐️
15. Tom Mead- Heat Wave. 3⭐️
16. David Morell- Requiem. 3⭐️
17. Joyce Carol Oats- Parole Hearing 5⭐️
18. Sara Paretsky- Love and Other Crimes. 4.5⭐️
19. Joseph S. Walker- Edda at the End of the World. 5⭐️
20. Andrew Welsh-Huggins- The Path I Took. 4⭐️
21. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce- My Favorite Murder.2⭐️

The stories themselves were top notch, just like they are every year when this comes out. Could have used a better narrator or different narrators for the different stories as they kinda ran together.

I love short stories and I love mysteries so when I saw that this year’s edition was available for review I requested it.

As with most compilations, there are some stories I loved and stories I thought were just meh. The great thing about compilations though is that someone else may love the ones I didn’t. I think the selections this year were well chosen. There really wasn’t any that I didn’t want to finish listening to but there were 4 that I absolutely loved- Sue Grafton’s If You Want Something Done Right, Stephen King’s The Fifth Step (probably my favorite), Janice Law’s The Client and Joseph S Walker’s Etta At The End Of The World.

I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait for next year’s edition.

Many thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for providing me with this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book consists of 21 short stories (including the bonus story at the end). I'm going to provide a rating and a comment for each of these stories.

This short story collection begins with "Thirty and Out" by Doug Allyn. It has ultra realistic, well-rounded characters. It's gritty and it's overall vibes are "redneck military". The mystery element, however, is not that strong. Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The second short story featured in this book is called "Things to Follow" and it's written by Jim Allan. His military past comes to life in this short story. It is quite evident that he has inside knowledge of SWAT teams. The characters were realistic, as well as the narrative. I didn't find anything relatable. And the story is not for my taste. Recommended for anyone who loves military related stuff. Rating: 2.5/5 stars

The next story is "Blest be the tie that binds" by Michael Bracken. The characters in it are morally gray and complex. The story is easy to follow and I especially loved the ending. Rating: 4/5 stars

The fourth story is written by James Lee Burke and it's titled "Harbor Lights". It is a strange narrative shrouded in mystery. Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The fifth story is called "The Locked Cabin" and it's written by Martin Edwards. It's a fascinating story about adultery and blackmail. Rating: 4.5/5 stars

"Luxy Bound" (spelling?) by John M. Floyd is the sixth story in this collection. In my honest opinion, it wasn't very memorable. Rating: 2/5 stars

The seventh story is called "That Which is True". It is fun, dynamic and tense. Rating: 4/5 stars

Alison Gaylin's story "the Gift" is story number eight in this collection. And it is my favorite one. It's about a missing girl and her distressed parents. The narrator is the missing girls' mother, who is also a famous actress. When a psychic contacts her with an information about her missing daughter, she must chose - reveal her secret or do what she does best, act. Rating: 5/5 stars

Sue Grafton's story titled "If you want something done right" is intense and intoxicating. It's a raving story of a woman planning on how she is going to kill her husband. Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The tenth story is this collection is called "The 6th Decay" and it is written by Paul Kemprecos. It features Aristotle Socrates who's a private detective and a fisherman. The storytelling is amazing and the characters are life-like and well-rounded. The author knows what he's doing. Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The next story is written by Stephen King and it's called "the Fifth Step". It's ending was oh so horrible. The story centers around addiction and meeting strangers in the park. Those two don't mix well. Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Janice Law's "The Client" is the next short story in this collection. It's about an old lady who may or may not be suspicious. Rating: 4/5 stars

The thirteenth short story is "The Truth about Lucy". It's all about small town weirdness...and murder! Rating: 4/5 stars

David Marcum's "The Adventures of the home office Baby" is a story about Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. They have yet another case that they have to solve. Rating: 4/5 stars

"Heatwave" is the next story in this collection. It's about a missing 17 year old boy and a private detective who investigates his case. Things start to develop for the worse in this fun, dynamic story. Rating: 4/5 stars

David Morrell's "Requiem for a Homecoming" is about an old murder of a student stabbed to death. The story starts naively enough and turns into something unexpected! Rating: 4/5 stars

The seventeenth story is called "Parole Hearing" and it's written by Joyce Carol Oates. It's told by an unreliable character who has been brainwashed by Charlie Manson. Rating: 4/5 stars

Sara Paretsky's "Love and Other Crimes " comes next. It's all about murder. But it wasn't memorable for me.

"Edda at the End of the World " by Joseph S. Walker tells the story of two women bonding over murder. The story is unpredictable and dynamic. Rating: 5/5 stars

Andrew Welsh-Huggins' "The Path I Took" is a fascinating tale of an American student learning Irish in Ireland. But things aren't as simple as that. Things start getting deadly. Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The bonus story is written by Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce and it is titled: "My Favorite Murder". We get inside the head of a murderer who has killed his mother and uncle. Rating: 3.5/5 stars

All in all, this is a great collection of mystery short stories. The narrators did an excellent job as well!

The problem with short story collections is that they can be uneven and who can say which are the best? Well, Lee Child and Otto Penzler know what they’re talking about and their idea of “best” matches mine completely. It would be hard to pick a favorite. Sue Grafton and Stephen King are masters, so it’s not surprising that their stories are amazing. But some stories made me notice some other authors unknown to me until now. Biloxi Bound by John Floyd really, really blindsided me with a twist that I never saw coming. The Gift, by Alison Gaylin; The client, by Janice Law; Heatwave, by Tom Mead and Etta at the end of the world, by Joseph H Walker were my favorites. The audiobook narrations also do them justice. Emily Sutton-Smith seems to do a lot of mysteries so I knew her and was sure I’d like her. I also liked Matt Godfrey’s performance (I didn’t like his Sherlock Holmes in David Markham’s story – but that’s because Sherlock will always be Stephen Fry and the British accent was a little off). I did love his performance for all the rest of the stories. This is required reading for mystery fans.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/HighBridge Audio!

Some of the stories just seemed to go on forever making me wonder if they were really short stories. Then there were those that just flew by, with me wondering how it was going to end. That about sums up my impression of these stories - some I enjoyed and some not as much. I particularly liked the ones by well-known authors such as Sue Grafton and David Morrell. I have read their full length books so it was nice to be able to read some pithy writings.

Matt Godfrey and Emily Sutton-Smith did a really good job at the narrating, with just the right inflections and tones to help differentiate the dialogues.

All in all, worth listening to especially when you are doing housework or commuting,

Content: some rough language.

My thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for letting me review this audio.

A nice collection of mystery short stories. A bit of variety for everyone's taste and narrator was very engaging. Highly recommend.

I've always envied any writer's ability to write a compelling short story--to craft together a full narrative within a few short pages. This collection is, in a word, immaculate.

The mysteries aren't always difficult to predict, but the characters make the effort well worth it.

The narrator does a fantastic job of bringing each character to life, and I'm admittedly astounded by his talent.

I highly recommend this one to anyone who needs a good mystery fix but doesn't have time for a full novel. My advice, give that James Lee Burke story the first read. You won't regret it. It's also a great audiobook for the commute. I highly recommend it.