The Best American Mystery Stories 1997

The Best American Mystery Stories 1997 (Serial) Robert B. Parker, ed. Date: November, 1997   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Mystery, Short Stories

In 1997, Parker decided to select from the best mystery short stories, and asked for submissions from the major magazines, most of which replied that they didn't publish mysteries. Then he had to explain that not all mysteries are mysteries that the reader must solve, and in some cases merely involve crime or other tensions. The result is, to say the least, a collection of very good stories, which range from the classic style of mysteries to that of near horror, or to simple stories that take a sideways turn right near the end.

One of my particular favorites is "Dark Snow," a story originally published in Playboy (which has a good reputation among writers for its high pay and quality work; they have to give guys a legitimate reason to say "I just get it for the articles.") It tells the story of a former covert operative who has settled into an insular little town, the type of town where you have either arrived or you never will. He is continually harrassed, vandalized, and asked when he is going home, but he is home, finally settling after a lifetime of moving... and having to fight against every instinct that tells him to take out these "pillars of the community" like the subhuman rats they are. (Really, in any decent town, they would not be given a pass for their criminal behavior.) His solution to the problem is utterly perfect, and the sort of thing you are glad is only in the pages of a book, because though they deserve it, we're better than that, aren't we?

Also notable is "There are Monsterim," because that story is apt to give me nightmares, it's so simple and chilling.

Silver Birch, Blood Moon

Silver Birch, Blood Moon Eileen Datlow & Terri Windling, editors Date: March, 1999   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy/Horror, Short Stories

Of all of this series of fairytale collections, I like this one the best (so far.) I think it is because the genre of retold fairytales is beginning to mature, and the writers are becoming comfortable with the medium. This collection includes several variants of Rumplestiltskin and a couple Frog Princes, each with a new take on the subject. The sometimes overly strident feminist tone of many of the previous issues (addressed in the foreword) has mellowed out, and the characterization is beginning to take on the depth of modern fantasy.

Naturally enough, these books are not for children. There are descriptions of overt sexuality, and sometimes in these stories, the wolf wins. But for those who like retellings whimsical, dark, passionate or just plain horrifying, this book has plenty for you.

Tapping the Dream Tree

Tapping the Dream Tree (Newford) Charles de Lint Date: 01 September, 2003   —   $11.17   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Short Stories

I love Charles de Lint's work. And it is partly because he infuses his writing with a sense of wonder, and follows that with the necessary spice of terror. His stories of Newford, a Canadian city (though he carefully lets it be an American city, if the reader so desires), are little tidbits of magic, where good things happen to bad people, bad things happen to good people, but the most central reality of all is that your attitudes will come back to bite you in truest fairytale fashion. So be kind and generous, and careful and quick, and all should theoretically be well. Or at least better than if you're nasty.

Alternate Presidents

Alternate Presidents Mike Resnick, editor Date: February, 1992   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Science Fiction

This is a book of limited utility. It is based on the What If? concept, wher one wonders what would happen if a different person were to win a presidential race. Some of the writers use this to great effect, spinning tales that are both plausible and interesting, while some work on the one-shot joke level. (One author annoyed me by the cutesy trick of having history as we know it published as a What If? in his alternate universe, and derided as unlikely by the narrator.) The best highlights were centered far away from the election in question, dealing instead with seemingly incidental occurrences, such as the first woman President (one woman ran in the nineteenth century) turning up with all of her supporters— to vote, because women still did not have the vote. And praising another woman for voting for her husband instead, because the event, and not the outcome, was the important thing.

I much prefer the What If? 2 book written by historians, as the solid research foundation makes their stories both more plausible and intriguing. But this book is worth a glance-through, if only at used prices.

The People: No Different Flesh

People No Different Flesh Zenna Henderson Date: June, 1968   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Science Fiction

This is a continuation of Pilgrimage, and is cut from the same cloth. Which is a good thing, as Henderson's stories are wonderful in texture and evoke a sense of a slowly tamed West (from her writings, I would guess southwestern Colorado or Arizona, but she deliberately doesn't pin it down.) This volume goes into more depth about the evacuation from the Home of the People (nobody said they were all that creative) and the trials of the first generation, as well as how easy it is to lose your way and become selfish and bitter. It speaks to many about the virtues won through hardship, something underappreciated in our time.

But mostly, it's good. And there are still plenty of copies floating around used bookstores if you can get past the strangely hokey covers.

Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage the First Book of the People Zenna Henderson Date: June, 1963   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Science Fiction

This book, and its sequels, are no longer in print. Nor are they likely to be in print any time soon, as they are centered around a people who, though they are from space, are deeply faithful in a very Christian manner. They came from a planet that was destroyed because the Presence— a God whom the People can actually sense— decided they had grown complacent, and that to grow spiritually, they would have to go through hardship.

And hardship they find, as they land in turn-of-the-century America, on the frontiers where different is sometimes dead. And the People are different, not to look at (they are, basically, human), but in abilities— abilities such as levitation which get them killed as witches.

This book is a series of stories set in a loose framework of the saving of a person who has lost herself, a potential human suicide brought in and sheltered by the People. She listens as they tell their tales of hiding, and of fear, of being different and shunned, and, ultimately, of faith, and hope. The stories are well done, and show the problems of being superior (especially with that oh-so-crucial matter of humility.)

Ultimately, though, it is the stories themselves that are alien, because most of us have grown up in an age where faith is not taken for granted, where witch huntings seem silly not because the purported witches* may be innocent but because there is no faith to call them guilty. Henderson writes from a strong and self-evident faith, and her People, though technically not Christian, are what Christians should strive to be. Most of the time. Which they admit.

*Mandatory PC disclaimer: I am speaking of witches in the evil devil-worshipping sense, not the Wicca or harmless herbalist sense.

The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus

The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus Christopher Marlowe Date: April, 2004   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Drama

The story of Dr. Faustus is well known, if not the particulars. Faustus bargains with the devil and exchanges his soul for twenty years of earthly powers, with the demon Mephistopheles as his familiar. Marlowe's is the most famous treatment of the subject; he was a contemporary of Shakespeare, though he died before the age of thirty, knifed through the eye in a tavern brawl.

In Marlowe's tale, Faustus, a learned and studied scholar, is nonetheless a petty man. He doesn't believe in the soul, so he feels free to bargain it away. And instead of using his powers for large and grand events, he does pranks and party tricks. He could have the world and he prefers to numb his mind with demon shows, to turn invisible and steal his enemies' food, to have payback for slights. When Ashland put this show on this summer, they portrayed Faustus as the ultimately unsocialized geek, who is distracted by pretty toys until it is far too late to repent. He believes in his books to the exclusion of looking at life.

It's a morality play, of course, and Faustus is take into Hell at the end. It may read very stilted and stylized to modern eyes. But a good production (such as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's) is well worth the price of admission, and one can contemplate the meaning of turning your back on the good for trifles.

A Caribbean Mystery

A Caribbean Mystery (Miss Marple Mysteries (Paperback)) Agatha Christie Date: 12 June, 2001   —   $5.99   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Mystery

I like Miss Marple much better in this book than in some of the previous novels. You can see her taking a much more active role, and you do get the marvelous imagery of an old lady in a pink fluffy scarf declaring doom.

As with many mysteries, you can't say too much without spoiling the plot. So I won't.

The Mirror Crack'd

The Mirror Crack'D: A Miss Marple Mystery (Audio Editions Mystery Masters) Agatha Christie   —   $29.95   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Mystery

An actress moving to town is always a subject for gossip, particularly when she is buying a manor and having a social event to invite everyone in. Especially when, at this function, someone drinks a deadly poison, and the nervous-breakdown-prone actress might have been the target.

Miss Marple, with her interest in human affairs, hopes to unravel the mystery and find the killer before he or she strikes again. The only clues she has to work with are recollections of party guests, and the description of an encounter between the victim and the actress. The major difficulty she has is a housekeeper who treats Miss Marple as an infant.

What is it with the disrespect for elders in Christie novels? It's obviously not related to birth or breeding— a young silly woman who does some housework for Miss Marple treats her as a real person, while the stolid housekeeper treats her as a child— but it's a recurring theme.

At any rate, I understood the solution, when presented, better than many modern readers (though it is explained). Suffice to say that this is something my mother worried about with good reason, and almost never happens now.

Curtain

Curtain Agatha Christie   —   $5.99   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Mystery

As The Mysterious Affair At Styles is the first Poirot mystery, this is the last... and the little detective dies before the end of it. However, I have to say that Christie's description of the case is surprising, and I had not guessed at the murderer before the end explanation, nor at her twist at how it is dealt with... and whle I understand that it could well have been figured out by somebody else, I had no way of seeing it coming.

I honestly can't say more without giving it away, except to note that the young characters in Christie novels have a horrible tendency to treat their elders as though they are senile and hopelessly out-of-date, which is just appalling. They also act like heartless bastards, honestly. I wonder if that is how Christie herself saw her contemporaries being treated by the younger generation, and if so, how they managed to keep from drowning the Baby Boom generation at birth.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie   —   $5.99   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Mystery

This is the first novel to feature Christie's detective Hercule Poirot, and involves the death of a family matriarch, and who would stand to profit from it. She was poisoned, that was obvious, but the means of delivery is unclear, as is the benefactor... and as it seems she was writing a new will, the need to uncover the murderer is very important.

The story itself is very well plotted out in the manner that is so common to the era, with diagrams and a certain technical knowledge presupposed on the part of the reader. it's not bad, honestly... if you like Poirot.

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (Books of Wonder) L. Frank Baum   —   $16.49   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy, Children's

This is a very strange novel.

It's probably topical, written shortly after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. No doubt this seized the imagination of Baum, so the return trip from Australia takes Dorothy through a bit of California where, wouldn't you know it, an earthquake opens up the ground and swallows her down, carriage, cousin, kitten and horse.

As someone who has grown up in California and who has studied earthquakes, I can assure you that this almost never happens.

Dorothy and her companions fall down into a glass city filled with vegetable people, and are shortly joined by the hapless Wizard of the first book, who has been ballooning in circuses again and who sank through the earth in much the same manner. The rest of the books deal with the perils of the lands they travel through in an attempt to reach the surface again, only to be trapped by a too-small egress at the top...

... and then a deus ex machina ending when Dorothy remembers that Ozma checks on her at a certain time every day. Which of course she didn't remember the previous several days when they were in mortal peril.

As has been said in other places, Baum's work, while imaginative in the extreme and often highly entertaining, does have a bit of a letdown when it comes to properly designed endings. He does not subscribe to the theory of magic as the last resort. Ruth Plumly Thompson, who continued the Oz series after Baum's death, was certainly a better plotter. (One can argue for quite some time about who wrote the better books; I certainly invite you to comment on the same. One can also debate about which writer wrote the more likeable books.)

So after the rescue, there's a lovely party at the palace and then Dorothy gets sent home. Another Oz book under the belt.

Ozma of Oz

Ozma of Oz (Books of Wonder) L. Frank Baum Date: 1904   —   $16.49   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy, Children's

Baum is back on solid ground with Ozma of Oz. He brings back Dorothy, whose plain-spoken ways are marvelous when contrasted with the overtly magical land of Ix, where most of the action takes place. This tale also introduces a princess who has many different heads, the Tik-Tok Man (apparently a holdover from an unsuccessful play of Baum's), and the King of the Nomes, Roquat the Red— an adversary who begins, in this novel, to hate Oz.

This is a favorite novel of many Oz readers, bringing in the right amount of peril while having a backup plan just in case to reassure the children. The peril is real but there is still a sense that they will win out in the end.

The Marvelous Land of Oz

The Marvelous Land Of Oz L. Frank Baum Date: 1904   —   $12.95   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy, Children's

This is generally considered to be a somewhat weak sequel to The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy is nowhere to be seen, and Oz seems drabber and more mundane by far than the original. Sure, you have Mombi the witch, and Jack Pumpkinhead, and the Powder of Life, but the place all of these wonders are set in has no wonders of its own; all magic seems to be implemented by Mombi or Glinda.

The fact that it is also a social satire, and makes fun of education and female suffragettes among other groups, makes the book a bit less fantastical than the previous one.

It's still a fun read, however, though I wish that Baum had spent more time dealing with the obvious culture shock suffered by Ozma in her true form, something I always wondered about, even as a child. I mean, really, you'd think there would be some sort of adjustment period, not the least of which is suddenly becoming a ruler. But Baum wasn't much for the deep stuff.

The Outlaws of Sherwood

The Outlaws of Sherwood Robin McKinley Date: 01 August, 1989   —   $6.50   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy

There are two traditional English myths, Robin Hood and King Arthur. Some children are drawn to one and some to the other, and usually it is either one or the other. I was a Robin Hood child, drawn to the idea of outlaws living in the forest.

McKinley's tale is sometimes marketed toward juveniles, and does feel somewhat like a coming-of-age novel. In her afterword, she explains that she worried about her interpretation until she read of how Robin Hood is always retold to resonate with the time. Therefore, her characters have concerns much like ours would be, and speak in an easy, unaffected manner the way we would.

She does not neglect to examine the hardships that would come from living in the forest. Few people today know what it is like to have to survive a winter in a time before chimneys, let alone out in the open sky or in a little bit of a cave. She makes Robin fairly prosaic, but shows how the myth can outpace the man... and has Marian as the one who realizes what is happening.

Many of the traditional details still appear in her retelling but seem entirely normal witin the context. The ending always struck me as sad, not because of the circumstances but because they have taken the best choice open to them, and that is a thin comfort indeed when viewed from our perspective... we who can, indeed, have it all much of the time.

The Alienist

The Alienist Caleb Carr Date: 15 March, 1994   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction

This is the sort of novel that proves to me just how silly genres are. In any sensible world, books such as this would be shelved with mysteries, much like Mark Helprin's book A Winter's Tale and Gabriel Garcia Marquez novels would be shelved with fantasy.

But, mindful that shelving a book in the genre categories is consigning it to being "just a detective novel" or "just about elves and dwarves", publishers take stellar examples of those very genres and stick them in Literature.

Which, of course, guarantees that the genres will never be "quite as good as modern fiction." It's enough to drive anyone mad.

The Alienist might be described as "CSI: 1896." It is the path of an investigation into a murderer, a man who kills child prostitutes. The investigation is hampered by the fact that the old guard of the police (only recently beginning to be reformulated after massive corruption) shrugs the murders off as something that the children deserved (the idea that children were more easily coerced into bad choices had not yet been accepted), that "alienists" (psychologists) were seen as attacking the moral fiber of the country, and that the whole concept of serial killers— and that there might be a methodology behind their killings— was barely beginning to form. The investigation into the mind of a killer is therefore unofficial, but the bosses of the underworld are still unhappy, and are apt to make their feelings known through pain...

This is a meticulously researched novel, and is a fascinating psychological study. The alienist of the title seems, perhaps, a bit too far on the side of root causes as the reason behind crime for modern tastes, but as his main aim is to treat patients, and as he has to fight against the then prevailing view that free will is total and absolute and that experiences do not, apparently shape us at all, it is quite understandable.

And, once again, the novel is very well written. Consider it a mystery or a thriller, and think kindly of genres in the future.

A Hat Full of Sky

A Hat Full of Sky Terry Pratchett Date: 14 June, 2005   —   $6.99   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy, Juvenile

Tiffany Aching is leaving the plains to go study magic with some witches of the Ramtops. Which is just as well, because the new kelda is somewhat resentful of the hold she has over the local Nac Mac Feegle clan. But no journey is without peril. and a great danger in the form of a body-stealer is drawn to Tiffany, and Tiffany will have to figure out how to defeat an enemy that has never before been defeated.

Tiffany is the sort of witch who has earned some respect from Granny Weatherwax, and if you have read any of the Discworld novels before, you understand that her respect is of a high caliber, well worth the earning. But it's lonely respect, and sometimes being the most mature teenager around isn't very comforting. (Many bibliophiles will sympathize.)

It's a children's novel, but don't let that stop you. The only difference from his standard Discworld novels is it's a little less complex and there are fewer references to popular culture.

The Wee Free Men

The Wee Free Men Terry Pratchett Date: 25 May, 2004   —   $6.99   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy, Juvenile

This is a book for children, but only if you love them.

Pratchett's approach to writing for children is to write a standard story, then "add more blood and violence." (This book does not, in fact, have more blood and violence than a standard Discworld novel, even though "It's not a proper fairy story unless somebody's feet get chopped off at the ankle." Both quotes are from Pratchett himself, at the 2002 World Science Fiction Convention.) The heroine of this novel is twelve, which means this book is aimed at those children of about ten.

Tiffany Aching is an incipient witch, a person who sees things as they actually are. Her encounter with the Nac Mac Feegle, little men made blue by their tatoos ("Pictsies"*) is inspired by the matter-of-fact way she deals with a fairytale creature in the water. The Nac Mac Feegle respect "hags"— their term for witches— and when their female ruler, the kelda, dies and leaves Tiffany in charge until the new kelda comes, they help her as best they can in their bloody-minded independent way.

And they have to help her a lot, because the Queen of Fairies is coming... and she's not exactly sweetness and light.

*One suspects that, far back in the weird mental soup that passes for a writer's inspirational process, Pratchett crossed the idea of gnomes with that of the Smurfs, and came up with something Scottish.

Tam Lin

Tam Lin Pamela Dean Date: 01 April, 1992   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy

I held off reading this for as long as I could. This is one of my favorite novels of all time, and it deserves to be started in the fall, when thoughts turn to school.

To be honest, I didn't like it this much the first time I'd read it. It was good enough, but I didn't have the context. The novel is set in the early 1970s at a small college in Minnesota, and is a spot-on depiction of the way that college feels... and if you have not been to college, you may be forgiven for not understanding the wonder of this novel.

She even got traying— sledding down hills on plastic trays absconded from the cafeteria. If you went to college someplace where it didn't snow, well, you missed out.

At any rate, the fantasy aspect of the novel is woven through the book, but is so subtle as to be all but missed until the end, unless you're like my friend the Shakespeare nut who figured it out the moment certain characters were intorduced. (Pamela Dean is big on dropping English quotations into her works, not just Shakespeare but Tourneur, Webster, St. Paul...)

So if you're not an English geek, you may need to read it twice. At least.

Reaper Man

Reaper Man Terry Pratchett Date: 30 July, 2002   —   $6.75   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy/Satire

The Death of the Discworld is an accomodating sort, who likes cats and curry and who takes an interest in human affairs. Too much of an interest, in the eyes of the Auditors, beings who regulate the universe (and who think of humanity, and life in general, as impossibly messy.) They appeal and cause Death to be cast out, whereupon he becomes mortal.

Until a new Death evolves, then, there is all sorts of life force sloshing around, and people stop living without, you know, dying. Zombies start walking around Anhk-Morpork, not hungry for anything but mostly annoyed that they're not getting the good rest they were promised; little individual deaths start evolving by species; Death learns about farming; and a strange new thing starts appearing in souvenir shops around the city in the most Stephen-King-esque bit I've ever seen from Pratchett.

This book tells of what it means to be alive, and how an taking an interest can be better than engendering fear. We learn a lot about Death in this book.

Pyramids

Pyramids Terry Pratchett Date: 31 July, 2001   —   $6.99   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy

This is one of the stand-alone Discworld novels, with characters Pratchett never found the need to revisit. Pteppic is the crown prince of Djelibeybi, a narrow country along the banks of a river that seems preserved from the dawn of time. The kings are gods who make the sun rise, and are entombed in time-retarding pyramids upon their deaths.

Teppic (as his name soon becomes) isn't too keen on the idea, actually. He's gone off to study at the Assassin's Guild of Anhk-Morpork, and gained all manner of useful skills thereby (such as dodging deadly traps and scaling sheer walls.) He's going to need all the skills at his disposal when his father dies— and when his father's pyramid starts changing the country itself.

This is not a bad yarn, though it pales in comparison to many of Pratchett's other novels. It doesn't hold my attention very well, perhaps because a tale of a sleepy country is fundamentally incapable of sustaining Pratchett's breakneck pacing. Oh, well.

Men At Arms

Men at Arms Terry Pratchett Date: 01 April, 1997   —   $6.99   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy/Satire

This book continues with the adventures of Carrot, Vimes, and the Night Watch. A deadly device has been stolen from the Assassin's Guild, and Vimes is the only person interested in tracking down what has actually happened as opposed to the "obvious" explanation of blaming handy scapegoats. This tendency might cause him to lose his job, even though things have been looking up lately. The Night Watch is growing, and beginning to include minority species such as dwarfs and trolls... who, contrary to all explanations, are not, in fact, killing one another.

This book examines what it means to pull down rulers, something that can be necessary but which has extreme repercussions regardless of the circumstances. It also examines the consequences of power, and what happens when someone knows they can change things through simple, violent means. Some people cannot resist such temptation.

Guards! Guards!

Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett Date: 31 July, 2001   —   $6.99   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy/Satire

"Spear carriers" are those roles which, in any story, are the walk-on parts that usually get killed with barely a sentence, such as "The guards rushed Our Hero, who dispatched them handily." The Night Watch of Anhk-Morpork has, until this book, been featured only in sentences such as "The Night Watchman got almost to the end of the sentence before being mugged."

Pratchett decided to remedy this situation.

This book introduces many of the characters that take a central role in later stories, such as Vimes, a mere captain in this book and head of a Night Watch down to a bare two members— Seargeant Colon and Nobby Nobs (who bears documents witnessing that he is, in fact, human.) Things start to change when a six-foot-plus lad named Carrot joins the Watch, because he was raised as a dwarf and takes his duties very seriously... and he's possessed with a startling amount of charisma, which somehow encourages people to go along with him.

And then a dragon starts attacking the city. Not a swamp dragon, the little beagle-sized chemical factories that so often explode, but a true giant dragon, the type that handily defies physics. It's time for a hero, which is exactly what the people who brought the dragon have planned...

What more do you need? It's Pratchett!

Out of the Shadows

Out of the Shadows Kay Hooper Date: 2005-07-21 17:40:56   —   $7.50   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

This is the third in the Shadows trilogy featuring Kay Hooper's Special Crimes Unit and her psychic detectives. This book has Noah Bishop himself front and center, in a Tennessee town that holds a long-lost love he has been trying to track down for years. In this case, there is a serial killer at large stalking the town, a killer who it is possible to guess before the last pages if you know the mystery conventions.

But first— well, it's not a proper thriller if everyone is not put into danger somehow. "Everyone" in this case includes Sheriff Miranda Knight's younger sister, the reason she ran from Bishop and from everyone else. That sister is put into danger in a remarkably unconventional way. At any rate, if you like Hooper, you'll like this, but if you like your detective stories untainted by anything supernatural you'll have to look elsewhere.

Sense of Evil

Sense of Evil Kay Hooper Date: 2005-07-21 17:47:25   —   $7.50   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

The killer in this bookis highly dangerous to a particular type of woman, and what's worse, his rituals are so well developed as to indicate that he has killed before. Isabel Adams, of the psychic Special Crimes Unit, is on hand to investigate the killer; sadly enough, she fits the killer's victim profile exactly. But it has to be her; her connection to a victim in a previous spree means that she might be able to figure out his identity before she becomes another victim.

Don't even bother trying to guess the killer in this book. Hooper hides it so well that it is literally impossible to guess, and she does it without lying... I would love to see a history of the killer, as there are certain things I can guess at, but the backstory would have to be very well developed in order to make it possible.

And on that note, I'm just going to give my previous recommendation. If you like Hooper, good; if you want CSI, read something else.