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The Best Mystery Stories of the Year: 2021  By  cover art

The Best Mystery Stories of the Year: 2021

By: Lee Child - editor and introduction, Otto Penzler - series editor
Narrated by: Matt Godfrey, Emily Sutton-Smith
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Publisher's summary

Lee Child selects the 20 best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Stephen King, Sara Paretsky, and many 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 best seller Lee Child has selected the 20 most suspenseful, most confounding, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

Includes stories by: Alison Gaylin, David Morrell, James Lee Burke, Joyce Carol Oates, Martin Edwards, Sara Paretsky, Stephen King, Sue Grafton (with a new, posthumously published work), and many more!

©2021 The Mysterious Press; Introduction copyright 2021 by Lee Child (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

What listeners say about The Best Mystery Stories of the Year: 2021

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Nice Selection

Nice selection of well read mystery stories. Some are quite memorable. Lee Child has a good eye for what appeals

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1 person found this helpful

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Mysteries across all peoples and places

When presenting the “best” of a year’s contribution to this genre, the deciders found something for everyone. So many desperate folks out there inspiring tales where little victories keep them living, somehow. Does Art imitate life. Within these audio pages, it evidently does. Dietre

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3 people found this helpful

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Too dark

The only problem with well-written stories is that they can be intensely evocative. By the time I got four hours into this collection, I was too depressed to finish the fifth story, and had to quit. I’ll never know if the last ten hours is easier. Sorry.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Unexpected

Some stories were very strange. And others most entertaining. Thank you mystery writers. and Thank you Audible.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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Cannot get by the narrator.

With no disrespect to any of the authors, I started the series and just couldn’t get past the narrator’s voice. His tone and higher pitch were so distracting I could not continue. Just not for me.

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7 people found this helpful

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  • D
  • 01-03-24

Great Selections

Variety of authors, styles and stories based in different time periods. Kept my interest.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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It was ok

Most of the stories were kind of underwhelming, but some of them I really enjoyed do over all it was worth the credit. There are a couple of authors that I am going to try out, because of this book.

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  • Overall
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Just great writing

Unfortunately, other mystery anthologies have fallen into “wokeness” of late, not so here. Just good-old fashioned, suspenseful writing. All of these stories were a delight.

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1 person found this helpful

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Better than expected

I read more than a few anthologies. The reviews on this one range from bad to good but I’m gonna head. I found some of the stories excellent. As far as comments about stories being dark or violent, violence was not gratuitous. In fact, the ugliest turned out to be a take on a true story most of us are familiar with.
Give it a go, you won’t regret it.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Good stuff!

Loved it! Most appreciated the last story. Go goat! I do appreciate the chance to listen to listen to works by my favorite authors and sample those new to me.

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