Richard Burgin - The Best American Mystery Stories 2005

“The Identity Club” by Richard Burgin. First published in TriQuarterly, Winter 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Richard Burgin. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Disaster Stamps of Pluto” by Louise Erdrich. First published in The New Yorker, December 13, 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Louise Erdrich. Reprinted by permission of the Wylie Agency, Inc.

“Jack Duggan’s Law” by George V. Higgins. First published in The Easiest Thing in the World, November 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Loretta Cubberly Higgins. Reprinted by permission of Carroll & Graf Publishers, an imprint of Avalon Publishing Group, Inc.

“Old Boys, Old Girls” by Edward P. Jones. First published in The New Yorker, May 3, 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Edward P. Jones. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Shooting of John Roy Worth” by Stuart M. Kaminsky. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, June 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Stuart M. Kaminsky. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Until Gwen” by Dennis Lehane. First published in The Atlantic Monthly, June 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Dennis Lehane. Reprinted by permission of Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency, Inc.

“The Shoeshine Man’s Regrets” by Laura Lippman. First published in Murder... and All That Jazz, November 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Laura Lippman. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“When All This Was Bay Ridge” by Tim McLoughlin. First published in Brooklyn Noir, 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Tim McLoughlin. Reprinted by permission of Akashic Books.

“Case Closed” by Lou Manfredo. First published in Brooklyn Noir, 2004. Copyright © 2004 byLou Manfredo. Reprinted by permission of Akashic Books.

“Sault Ste. Marie” by David Means. First published in Harper’s Magazine, August 2004. Copyright © 2004 by David Means. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins publishers Ltd.

“Public Trouble” by Kent Nelson. First published in The Antioch Review, Fall 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Kent Nelson. Reprinted by permission of The Antioch Review.

“Officers Weep” by Daniel Orozco. First published in Harper’s Magazine, June 2004. Copyright © by Daniel Orozco. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Last Man I Killed” by David Rachel. First published in Eureka Literary Magazine, Spring 2004. Copyright © by David Rachel. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“One Mississippi” by Joseph Raiche. First published in The Baltimore Revew, Winter/Spring 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Joseph Raiche. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Cruisers” by John Sayles. First published in Zoetrope: All-Story, Fall 2004. Copyright © 2004 by John Sayles. Reprinted by permission of Avalon Publishing Group, Inc.

“Reconstruction” by Sam Shaw. First published in StoryQuarterly, issue 40. Copyright © 2004 by Sam Shaw. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Love of a Strong Man” by Oz Spies. First published in The Ontario Review, Fall/Winter 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Oz Spies. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Loyalty” by Scott Turow. First published in Playboy, January 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Scott Turow. Reprinted by permission of Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.

“Barracuda” by Scott Wolven. First published in plotswithguns.com, November/December 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Scott Wolven. Reprinted by permission of International Creative management.

It is possible, I suppose, that there is a smarter, harder-working, more dedicated literary figure on planet Earth than Joyce Carol Oates, but someone else will have to point out who that might be. Don’t ask me to do it.

When I asked Ms. Oates to be the guest editor for this volume, I didn’t quite know what I was getting into. (I could rewrite that sentence to avoid ending it with a preposition, but somehow it just sounds a bit off to say “I didn’t quite know into what I was getting,” so I’ll just let it go.)

It is the role of the series editor for all the volumes in Houghton Mifflin’s prestigious Best American series to select the year’s fifty best stories, and then for the guest editor to select the top twenty from that group. It was a little different this year. Ms. Oates started reading before I did, and recommended stories before I even found them. She wanted batches of stories throughout the year, rather than all fifty at once, and we engaged in frequent (I might even be tempted to say relentless) correspondence, our respective fax machines humming at every hour, and eventually telephone conversations while we debated the relative merits of certain stories. This 2005 volume is certainly the most collaborative one yet. I’m not entirely certain we followed all the guidelines set by my editor at Houghton Mifflin, but I can assure you that all of the time and energy were directed at a single goal, which was to make the book the best it could be. I hope you agree that we have achieved that.

Speaking of guidelines, this is a good time to point out how great it is to work for a house like Houghton Mifflin. It is well understood in the publishing world that if anthologies are to have any chance of success, they must have some big names among the contributors. Never — not once — has Houghton Mifflin suggested that these annual volumes (this is the ninth) should have bigger names. From the first day I started as the series editor, it was about the writing. The best stories (or at least those I most admired) were nominated, and the guest editors have followed that directive.

It’s not about the most popular authors, and it’s not about personal relationships (two close friends, both at my wedding this past May, didn’t make the cut, though both are accomplished writers, named Grand Masters by the Mystery Writers of America, who have been selected for this series in the past). It’s about finding the best stories, by whoever happens to have written them.

It is not uncommon for excellent writers to become famous, so although there are a few extremely popular writers in this book (Scott Turow, Louise Erdrich, George V. Higgins), it is doubtful that you know very many of the others. It is equally likely, however, that you will.

Tom Franklin’s first appearance in book form was in the 1999 edition of Best American Mystery Stones, with a masterpiece titled “Poachers”; he went on to publish a short story collection with William Morrow titled Poachers and Other Stories, followed by a novel, Hell at the Breech. Christopher Coake had never been published in book form until “All Through the House” was collected in BAMS last year; his short story collection, We’re in Trouble, under the prestigious imprint of Harcourt Brace, launches what should be a great career. Scott Wolven, too, who makes his fourth consecutive appearance in BAMS this year, had not been published in any book before “The Copper Kings” was selected for the 2002 volume, and now he has a book issued by Scribner, Controlled Burn: Stories of Prison, Crime, and Men. With the quality of the stories contained between these covers, it is impossible to imagine that some of the authors in BAMS 2 005 won’t have more of their work published in the satisfying permanence of books.

You know how much fun it is to read a book that you love or see a movie that moves you and to share that with a friend who comes back and tells you how much he loved it, too. That’s one of the things that makes editing this series such a great job. I get to recommend a lot of stories to a lot of people, almost all of whom seem to be pretty happy about it, even though the title of the book is a little misleading for the literal-minded.