Steph Cha - Böcker

A collection of the year’s best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby, author of Razorblade Tears, and series editor Steph Cha.In his introduction, guest editor S. A. Cosby observes that writing short stories is “a special skill that combines brevity with wit and cleverness and the hint of the existential malaise that imbues crime fiction with its gravitas.” The stories in this col-lection overflow with gravitas in the most unexpected ways: a cryptic note left on a windshield, a murder for hire meets a game of Mouse Trap, a swipe right on a dating app goes horribly wrong. From an eleven-year-old drawn to the neighborhood spookhouse to a scholarship kid at an exclusive boarding school, a nefarious Old West gunman to a Florida woman’s struggle against both outer and inner demons, the characters in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024 are haunted and haunting, and wholly unforgettable. The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024 includes MEGAN ABBOTT • ALYSSA COLE • TANANARIVE DUE • ABBY GENI • JORDAN HARPER • GAR ANTHONY HAYWOOD •TONI LP KELNER • BOBBY MATHEWS • LISA UNGER • and others

“While a single sentence can turn a novel, a single word can turn a short story,” writes guest editor Don Winslow. The pieces featured in this collection hinge on those small, exacting moments that shock, spook, delight, and change a story entirely. A disgraced ex-cop approaches a crossroads with his ex-wife and new neighbor, pistol in hand; an ill-advised acid trip reveals the dark side of a twisted friendship; a hardened hit man struggles with his latest target. Full of dramatic twists, subtle clues, and chilling reveals, The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025 will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last shoe drops.THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE 2025 INCLUDES: TOM ANDES • ANN APTAKER • JACQUELINE FREIMOR • TOD GOLDBERG • JAMES D. F. HANNAH • CAROLINE KEPNES • IVY POCHODA • TWIST PHELAN • MEAGAN LUCAS • AND OTHERS

A collection of the year’s best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by Edgar-winning author and screenwriter Megan Abbott and series editor Steph Cha. The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction, and it is the most respected—and most popular—of its kind.Megan Abbott, the Edgar Award-winning author of The Fever, picks the best twenty mystery and suspense stories from the previous year.

Two families. One desperate to remember, the other to forget.Will the truth burn them both?'Masterful.' Ruth Ware'A smart, sensitive page-turner.' Daily MailWINNER OF THE LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE 2020Grace Park and Shawn Mathews share a city, but seemingly little else. Coming from different generations and very different communities, their paths wouldn't normally cross at all. As Grace battles confusion over her elder sister's estrangement from their Korean-immigrant parents, Shawn tries to help his cousin Ray readjust to life on the outside after years spent in prison.But something in their past links these two families. As the city around them threatens to spark into violence, echoing events from their past, the lives of Grace and Shawn are set to collide in ways which will change them all forever.Beautifully written, and marked by its aching humanity as much as its growing sense of dread, Your House Will Pay is a powerful and moving family story, perfect for readers of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere and Paul Beatty's The Sellout.What readers are saying:'Simultaneously thrilling and thoughtful... a terrific, fast-moving story of two characters trying to live with the truth.''A must-read.''This novel is wonderful... it will stick with you.''Sensitive and astute, it's a book we need right now, and it's a book that lingers, offering plenty to think about.''A smart, powerful, fully-engaged book that never once blinks or backs down or takes an easy out, and then nails one of the best endings I've ever read.'

Two families. One desperate to remember, the other to forget.Winner of the LA Times Book Prize, Best Mystery/ThrillerWinner of the California Book Awards' Gold Medal for FictionShortlisted for the John Creasey (New Blood) DaggerShortlisted for the Macavity Awards, Best Mystery Novel Shortlisted for the Anthony Awards, Best NovelFinalist for the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award'Masterful.' Ruth Ware'A searing examination of racial and family politics that is also an immaculately constructed whodunit.' Daily Telegraph, Summer Reads'Writing a page-turner about racial politics in the U.S. is a delicate enterprise fraught with pitfalls, but Cha manages it superbly in this thought-provoking family saga.' Daily Mail, Summer ReadsGrace Park and Shawn Mathews share a city, but seemingly little else. Coming from different generations and very different communities, their paths wouldn't normally cross at all. As Grace battles confusion over her elder sister's estrangement from their Korean-immigrant parents, Shawn tries to help his cousin Ray readjust to life on the outside after years spent in prison.But something in their past links these two families. As the city around them threatens to spark into violence, echoing events from their past, the lives of Grace and Shawn are set to collide in ways which will change them all forever.Beautifully written, and marked by its aching humanity as much as its growing sense of dread, Your House Will Pay is a powerful and moving family story, perfect for readers of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere and Paul Beatty's The Sellout.What readers are saying:'Simultaneously thrilling and thoughtful... a terrific, fast-moving story of two characters trying to live with the truth.''A must-read.''This novel is wonderful... it will stick with you.''Sensitive and astute, it's a book we need right now, and it's a book that lingers, offering plenty to think about.''A smart, powerful, fully-engaged book that never once blinks or backs down or takes an easy out, and then nails one of the best endings I've ever read.'

'Nathanael West and Raymond Chandler would be proud.' LA TimesJuniper Song has a new gig: apprenticed to a private investigation firm in downtown LA, she's racking up hours following cheating spouses.When a NY artist hires Song to keep an eye on her long-distance boyfriend in LA, Song has no problem tailing the guy - until a panicked late-night phone call has her racing to the iconic Roosevelt Hotel. There, in the aftermath of a wild party in its top-floor suite, she finds only two people left: the boyfriend and a Hollywood legend. Only one of them is still alive.

'Compelling from first to last page.' DENISE MINAMeet Juniper Song, an under employed, twenty-something, Raymond-Chandler-loving, Korean American woman from downtown LA.When a friend asks Song to carry out surveillance on his father, she figures she doesn't have anything better to do - plus she gets to indulge her Philip Marlowe fantasies. But barely half a day into playing private eye someone has knocked her unconscious and left a dead body in the trunk of her car.