The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories: First Annual Collection

I am usually wary of mystery anthologies because it is hard to write a short story, let alone a crime/mystery piece but this anthology is really absorbing from the first story on. I have owned the Fantasy and Horror anthology (Terri Windling/Ellen Datlow) that is similar in style to this--they do a recap of the year's best books and movies as well. I hope this continues successfully as a series and for mystery fans everywhere, do get this book ... and enjoy!

What a great collection of short mysteries...I finished each and every story (rare) and was sad to reach the end. These truly are the best of the year.

Just a few years ago, if anyone asked me if I enjoyed short stories, I would have responded with show me the character's depth or where's the plot. However, an E-mail cyber pal asked me if I read everything about a detective I had said was one of my favorites. My knee jerk response was yes, but that was not true because the character had appeared in a few anthologies. I decided to try an Ed Gorman edited anthology that included the sleuth and am now hooked for life. I can leisurely enjoy reading superb stories a few tales a night instead of my usual obsession to complete a novel (or two) in one sitting. I also meet new authors and characters in typically twenty to thirty pages, which sends me hustling to find other works by them.Mr. Gorman is much more than just an editor-writer. He is one of the grandmasters of putting together the right combination of stories into a collection that hook fans to want more works from his contributors. His latest effort THE WORLD'S FINEST MYSTERY AND CRIME STORIES is as usual an excellent book that reads like an honor roll of the genre with such international notables as Block, McBain, Rankin, Hoch, and Oates, etc.There are forty entries varying in quality, but none are poor as Mr. Gorman always keeps the level of performance at the highest bars. The stories have an international flavor, varying in time and place. Jon L. Breen also provides an interesting perspective into what occurred to the genre in 1999. This collection is a winner by merit of the strong contributions.Harriet Klausner