The Best American Mystery Stories 2014 (58 page)

Laura van den Berg
is the author of the story collections
What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us
, which was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection and shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Award, and
The Isle of Youth
. A
New York Times
Editors’ Choice,
The Isle of Youth
was named a Best Book of 2013 by NPR, Amazon, the
Boston Globe
, the
New Republic
, and
O, The Oprah Magazine
. Van den Berg’s first novel,
Find Me
, is forthcoming in 2015. She currently lives in the Boston area.

• In 2012, I heard about an explosion at the Comandante Ferraz research base in Admiralty Bay on the news. Two men were killed. The story stayed with me. A few weeks later a line got stuck in my head: “There was nothing to identify in Antarctica because there was nothing left.” Right away I was flooded with questions. Why was this person in Antarctica? Who or what was she there to identify? Why was there nothing left? This line soon became the first line of a new story, and eventually two interlocking narratives emerged: a present thread set in Antarctica, where the narrator has come to investigate the mysterious death of her scientist brother, who perished in an explosion, and a past thread set in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I have never been to Antarctica, but I know Cambridge intimately, and it was the collision between the radically familiar and the radically foreign that helped this story take flight.

A
LLYN
, D
OUG

Borrowed Time.
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
, September/October

B
OHEM
, L
ES

Remus.
Popcorn Fiction
, December/January

C
HARYN
, J
EROME

Marla.
The Southern Review
, Autumn

C
HRISTENSEN
, P
AUL

How Frank Died.
The Antioch Review
, Winter

C
OLEMAN
, R
EED
F
ARREL

The Terminal.
Kwik Krimes
, ed. Otto Penzler (Thomas & Mercer)

D
EAN
, D
AVID

Jack and the Devil.
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
, December

D
ERESKE
, J
O

A Tree in Texas.
Kwik Krimes
, ed. Otto Penzler (Thomas & Mercer)

D
OOLITTLE
, S
EAN

Next Right.
Kwik Krimes
, ed. Otto Penzler (Thomas & Mercer)

D
U
B
OIS
, B
RENDAN

Small-Town Life.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
, January/February

F
INCH
, D
OC

Prompt Watts.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
, September

G
ILSTRAP
, J
OHN

In the After.
The Strand Magazine
, February-May

G
REEN
, B
RAD

The Moans of Bill February.
Needle
, Summer

H
AMILTON
, S
TEVE

The Weight.
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
, August

H
AMMETT
, D
ASHIELL

The Hunter.
The Hunter and Other Stories
, by Dashiell Hammett (Mysterious)

H
ENION
, A
NDY

Liability.
Grift Magazine
, Spring

K
ENYON
, J
OHN

Countdown.
Kwik Krimes
, ed. Otto Penzler (Thomas & Mercer)

L
EOPOLD
, B
RIAN

With One Stone.
Thuglit
, no. 5

M
ACHNIK
, J
USTIN

Marquette.
Midwestern Gothic: A Literary Journal
, Spring

M
ALLORY
, M
ICHAEL

Dirty Cop.
Death and the Detective
, ed. Jess Faraday (Elm Books)

M
C
G
ORAN
, J
ONATHAN

Bad Debt.
Grift Magazine
, Spring

M
C
K
ENNA
, J
OHN
D
WAIN

The Emerald Pearl Witch.
Colorado Noir: Stories from the Dark Side
, by John Dwain McKenna (Rhyolite)

M
C
L
EOD
, C
HARLES

Dog.
Kwik Krimes
, ed. Otto Penzler (Thomas & Mercer)

M
ILES
, S
COTT

Erwin’s Main Attraction.
Needle
, Summer

M
INER
, M
IKE

The Little Outlaw.
Plan B Magazine
, vol. 1, March

R
ABB
, J
ONATHAN

A Game Played.
The Strand Magazine
, June-September

R
EDWOOD
, J
AMES

The Angel of the Tenderloin.
Notre Dame Review
, Summer/Fall

R
OBINSON
, T
ODD

Good Dogs.
All Due Respect
, no. 1

R
OSS
, J
AMES
L.

The Gypsy Ring.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
, October

W
ILLIAMS
, T
IM
L.

Promissory Notes.
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
, February

Z
ELVIN
, E
LIZABETH

A Breach of Trust.
Mysterical-E
, Fall

Visit
www.hmhco.com
to find all of the books in The Best American Series
^®
.

L
AURA
L
IPPMAN
, guest editor, is the best-selling author of eleven novels featuring Baltimore private detective Tess Monaghan, eight standalone novels (most recently
After I’m Gone
), and a short story collection. She has won numerous literary prizes for her work, including the Edgar, Anthony, Nero, Agatha, Gumshoe, Barry, and Macavity Awards.

O
TTO
P
ENZLER
, series editor, is a renowned mystery editor, publisher, and columnist, and the owner of New York’s The Mysterious Bookshop, the oldest and largest bookstore dedicated solely to mystery fiction. He has edited more than fifty crime-fiction anthologies.