Steph Cha, a rising star who brings a fresh perspective as series editor, takes the helm of the new The Best American Mystery and Suspense, with best-selling crime novelist Alafair Burke joining her as the first guest editor. "Crime writers, forgive the pun, are killing it right now creatively," writes guest editor Alafair Burke in her introduction. "It was difficult--painful even--to narrow this year's Best American Mystery and Suspense to only twenty stories." Spanning from a mediocre spa in Florida, to New York's gritty East Village, to death row in Alabama, this collection reveals boundless suspense in small, quiet moments, offering startling twists in the least likely of places. From a powerful response to hateful bullying, to a fight for health care, to a gripping desperation to vote, these stories are equal parts shocking, devastating, and enthralling, revealing the tension pulsing through our everyday lives and affirming that mystery and suspense writing is better than ever before. The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021includes JENNY BHATT- GAR ANTHONY HAYWOOD- GABINO IGLESIAS- AYA DE LEÓN- LAURA LIPPMAN DELIA C. PITTS- ALEX SEGURA- FAYE SNOWDEN- LISA UNGER and others

Internationally bestselling author and acclaimed screenwriter Anthony Horowitz, creator of Magpie Murders, together with founder of Mysterious Press, Otto Penzler, selects the very best of the year's crime and mystery tales in this latest collection perfect for crime fiction lovers. Featuring stories from Jeffery Deaver and L. Frank Baum among many others! These twenty tales represent the best of short form crime and mystery fiction from over the past twelve months. With a variety of fiendishly twisty plots, and featuring murder and mischief in evilly evocative settings, this collection is perfect for crime fiction lovers. Also includes a bonus short mystery story from the Golden Age of Crime Fiction, by the fabled L. Frank Baum. Featuring stories by: Ace Atkins Michael Bracken Fleur Bradley Shelley Costa Doug Crandell Jeffery Deaver John Floyd Nils Gilbertson Peter Hayes Shells Legoullon Victor Methos Leonardo Padura Dan Pope Annie Reed Cameron Sanders Anna Scotti Archer Sullivan Andrew Welsh-Huggins Stacy Woodson

This issue, we have original mysteries by Mark Thielman (thanks to Acquiring Editor Michael Bracken) and Joslyn Chase, plus a modern classic by Eve Fisher (thanks to Acquiring Editor Barb Goffman). Our novel is a Golden Age tale by Isabel Ostrander. Of course, there’s also a solve-it-yourself puzzler from Hal Charles. On the more fantastic side of things, we have a dark fantasy from British master Edmund Glasby, plus a classic tale by Allen Kim Lang...who, at age 95, is still with us. (His most recent story appeared in Analog in 2020.) Plus we have a Lancelot Biggs story by Nelson Bond, a classic SF story by Randall Garrett, and a fantasy novel by Manly Wade Wellman. Good stuff! Here’s the complete lineup— Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “Dramatis Personae,” by Mark Thielman [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “The Black Bandana Kid Rides Again,” by Hal Blythe Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery] “Sophistication,” by Eve Fisher [Barb Goffman Presents short story] “A Killer View,” by Joslyn Chase [short story] Ashes to Ashes, by Isabel Ostrander [novel] Science Fiction & Fantasy: “Something About Spiders,” by Edmund Glasby [short story] “Lancelot Biggs Cooks a Pirate,” by Nelson S. Bond [short story] “The Price of Eggs,” by Randall Garrett [short story] “I, Gardener,” by Allen Kim Lang [short story] Fearful Rock, by Manly Wade Wellman [novel]

Our 54th issue is another good one. On the mystery side, we have a great original tale by Jacqueline Freimor (courtesy of Acquiring Editor Michael Bracken), plus strong stories by Stephen D. Rogers (selected by Barb Goffman) and James Holding, another solve-it-yourself puzzler from Hal Charles (the writing team of Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet), and an Edwardian mystery novel by Dick Donovan—whose popularity rivaled that of Arthur Conan Doyle in their day. On the science fiction side, Acquiring Editor Cynthia Ward has a stunning tale by Holly Wade Matter, plus we have classic shorts by James Blish, Robert Zacks, and Kendell Foster Crossen—plus a novel by Arthur K. Barnes. Good stuff! Here’s the complete lineup: Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “A Death-drop to Die For,” by Jacqueline Freimor [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “Most Guilty Person,” by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery] “Sensing the Fall,” by Stephen D. Rogers [Barb Goffman Presents short story] “Phase Four,” by James Holding [short story] A Gilded Serpent, by Dick Donovan [novel] Science Fiction & Fantasy: “The Russian Winter,” by Holly [short story] "Inside Matter," by James Blish “From Outer Space,” by Robert Zacks [short story] “The Gnome’s Gneiss,” by Kendell Foster Crossen [short story] Interplanetary Hunter, by Arthur K. Barnes [novel]

In Do The Work, Roxane Gay presents thought-provoking exercises to guide readers to unlearn their unconscious biases and help to create a fairer future for everyone.

Across five studio albums with Art Garfunkel (1964-1970) and fourteen solo albums (1965-2018), Paul Simon’s music and lyrics have inspired generations of listeners. For Paranoia Blues, nineteen masters of contemporary short crime fiction wrote new stories, each inspired by one of Simon’s songs: one from each of the five Simon and Garfunkel studio albums (plus a bonus second story inspired by a song from Bridge Over Troubled Water) and one from each of the fourteen solo studio albums. The contributors include award-winners E.A. Aymar, Martin Edwards, Cheryl A. Head, Edwin Hill, Tom Mead, Raquel V. Reyes, Gabriel Valjan, and a dozen more—plus the first new story by Robert Edward Eckels in more than forty years! This is the fifth “inspired by” anthology edited by Josh Pachter, a recent winner of the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement; the previous books drew on the music of Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel, and Joni Mitchell—and the films of the Marx Brothers.

When an aging actress and her two companions move to small-town Laskin, South Dakota, everyone is dazzled by their racy sophistication and style. But no amount of sophistication will help when something happens to one of the actress’s teen groupies and the town needs someone to blame.

Action-Adventure tales to lead you to places you’ve never been — and hope you make it back. Make a wildfire your ally. Tread softly with the French Resistance during WWII. Extract an informant from the dangers of the Babylonian streets. Sail the Atlantic, float down a river, or take a fishing boat far out to sea. And you can always fight the Phoenicians with the least lucky Viking ever born. Join the adventure and you’ll never look back.

Latina sleuth and culinary master Miriam Quiñones-Smith is cooking up a storm in the fourth installment of the Caribbean Kitchen mystery series. It’s been three years since food anthropologist and cooking show star Miriam Quiñones-Smith had her last brush with death. Her Spanglish culinary show, Abuela Approved, is topping the charts. Her parents are back in Miami and living with her in Coral Shores. And her kids are great. But when bones start popping up in unexpected places, Miriam’s idyllic life is threatened. Her husband Robert’s much-delayed hotel project screeches to a halt when human bones are unearthed. Tribal representatives, forensic archaeologists, and a pompous professor rain down on the possibly ancient site. Then a fake skeleton with the name "Smith" etched into it is found floating in the bay with an ominous note. Is it a threat to Miriam’s husband or her inlaws? And when Miriam’s boss Delvis is seen going off on a tour guide who marched through the crew-only area on set and is later found dead, Delvis is declared the main suspect. To protect her family and friends, Miriam must dig up the truth that has been hiding in plain sight.

The perfect holiday gift for the crime fiction lover in your life! Curated by New York Times bestselling author Tod Goldberg, this collection of eleven delightful and twisted Hanukkah capers will entertain you through all eight nights of the Festival of Lights. In Stefanie Leder’s “Not a Dinner Party Person,” an unstable pharmaceutical rep tries not to kill anyone at her family dinner on the last night of Hanukkah; in Ivy Pochoda’s “Johnny Christmas,” a taciturn Gulf War vet commissions a tattoo from a man he knew from his prison days, a man not named Christmas but Goldfarb; in David L. Ulin’s “Shamash,” it’s the last night of Hanukkah, and a live-at-home adult son considers doing something drastic to get out of his elderly father’s Upper West Side apartment; in James D.F. Hannah’s “Twenty Centuries,” a pair of detectives solve a curiously unprompted murder during the holiday season. This captivating collection contains old-school slapstick comedy, hardboiled noir, gritty procedurals, and poignant reminders of the meaning of Hanukkah, offering something for almost every reader willing to take the journey through these twisted tales. With stories by: Ivy Pochoda, David L. Ulin, James D.F. Hannah, Lee Goldberg, Nikki Dolson, J.R. Angelella, Liska Jacobs, Gabino Iglesias, Stefanie Leder, and Jim Ruland, plus a foreword and story by Tod Goldberg.