The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year: 2022

By: Sara Paretsky - editor and introduction, Otto Penzler - series editor

Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May, Rachel Perry

Sara Paretsky selects the twenty best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Michael Connelly, Jo Nesbo, Joyce Carol Oates, Colson Whitehead, and more!

Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international bestseller and MWA Grandmaster Sara Paretsky has selected the twenty most puzzling, most thrilling, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

Includes stories by: Doug Allyn, Colin Barrett, Jerome Charyn, Michael Connelly, Susan Frith, Tom Larsen, Sean Marciniak, Stefon Mears, Kieth Lee Morris, Gwen Mullins, Jo Nesbo, Joyce Carol Oates, Annie Reed, Kristen Kathryn Rusch, Anna Scotti, Ginny Swart, Ellen Tremiti, Joseph S. Walker, Colson Whitehead, and Michael Wiley; plus a bonus vintage story from the annals of mystery fiction, written over a century in the past.

©2022 The Mysterious Press (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Probably pretty good, but not my thing.

This book may be pretty good; I'm only reviewing my personal opinion of it.
I really can't objectively rate this book. That's why I just gave it 3 stars.
I really wanted to like this book even though I rarely read nor enjoy short stories, but since these were mysteries, and Sara Paretsky edited, and there was a Michael Connelly story included, I thought I'd give it a try. I gave up after a few stories. One was not really so bad (Kiss of Life), a couple WERE pretty bad (especially White Chocolate), and the one by Connelly was just OK (I am a big Connelly fan, he's one of the best, if not the best crime/mystery writer there is (for me), but this short story fell flat for me. Short stories pretty much bore me. They so often start off strong then fizzle at the end; sometimes too clever, sometimes "so what", sometimes so predictable. Overall, for me, they just go nowhere.
If short stories are your thing, this may be the book for you.

The authors political views are unnecessary

Some of the stories were good but the political comments from the authors aren’t necessary. Whatever your political views are; remember, half of America disagrees with you. So don’t turn off half of your audience, just keep your politics to yourself. Specifically the Sleigh Bells author, his comments were ridiculous.
Other than that, the stories were okay, not as enjoyable as the previous versions I’ve listened to.

strong collection of storirs

I enjoyed most of these which were similar in quality to the 2021 edition and better than the 2020 compendium that I just read

Not as good as previous anthologies

When I read Match Up I was excited to discover these collection from Mystery Writers existed. But I’m reluctant to buy more after reading The Mysterious Bookshop.

The difference in the author’s styles/ objectives

Loved the variety of short stories . Of course I liked some of the stories more than others, but that’s part of the charm