The Best American Mystery Stories 2003

Начало книги

Each volume of this series of Best American Mystery Stories has certain peculiarities and certain similarities as it is being compiled. Some of these similarities will be immediately evident to those who have read several editions.

First, and perhaps most important, is that one will be struck by the extraordinarily high quality of the fiction between the covers. Whether by established authors, lesser-known writers, or first-timers, the excellence of the prose cannot be denied. It is not surprising, then, to realize that many of the stories selected for these books were first published in literary periodicals, which sometimes have a very small circulation. It is these little magazines that search for experimental work, often accepting material that would be unlikely to find a wide mainstream audience. Frankly, some of it is awful. Experiments that, if successful, should never have been attempted, or, more likely, were poorly conceived and had no chance of being successful. But sometimes they work, and they are wonderful. Most are not mysteries in the way we usually think of them, but some slip into the genre because of my very liberal definition of “mystery” (any work in which a crime, or the threat of a crime, is central to the theme or plot). Most volumes of BAMS have one or two of these.

Читать дальше →