Doug Allyn - The Best American Mystery Stories 2015

Thomas McGuanelives in McLeod, Montana. He is the author of numerous novels and short story and essay collections, including Ninety-Two in the Shade, Driving on the Rim, Gallatin Canyon , and Crow Fair: Stories. His stories and essays have been collected in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Essays , and The Best American Sports Writing. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

• “Motherlode” is a story that suggested itself out of my preoccupation with life in the American West and its collision with the energy industry, often an enemy of the earth with the capacity to generate, besides money, its own publicity and access to government. These are of course generalizations, but I know intimately people like this vulnerable protagonist, and I have seen much of the deterioration of civic life at the behest of oil and its broadly corruptible allies.

Kyle Minoris the author of Praying Drunk , winner of the 2015 Story Prize Spotlight Award.

• Alice Munro said it better than I can say it:

“Two mysteries, really: Why do they do it? And how do they live with it?”

Joyce Carol Oatesis the author of many novels of mystery and suspense, including most recently Ace of Spades, Daddy Love, The Accursed , and Mudwoman , as well as collections of stories, including Give Me Your Heart, The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares , and Black Dahlia & White Rose. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was the 2011 recipient of the President’s Medal in the Humanities. “So Near Anytime Always” will be included in Evil Eye: Four Tales of Love Gone Wrong.

• “The Home at Craigmillnar” was written during a very anxious time in my life, about which I can say only that I survived it!

During this enforced time in Edinburgh at the hospital bedside of my husband, stricken with pneumonia, I had the occasion to read of a breaking scandal involving a Catholic-run orphanage that was truly horrendous — dating back decades and involving generations of abused children. The nuns were as atrocious in life — or more so — as in my story. I found the material extremely upsetting, especially as there seemed to be little remorse among the surviving abusers.

The story of the American-set “Home at Craigmillnar” was my way of converting a personal crisis into something larger and I hope more valuable. It is still very hard for me to reread the story and recall those circumstances spent in a Scottish hospital, though — fortunately! — my husband, Charlie, recovered and we returned home a week after we had planned.

Eric Rutter’s first short story appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine in 2007. Since then he has contributed half a dozen more stories to that magazine, including one that was nominated for a Barry Award. He is a lifelong resident of southeast Pennsylvania.

• My taste in mystery stories has changed over the years. In the beginning I preferred what I think of as the traditional kind, stories of deduction where clues are gathered and a puzzle solved. These days character interests me at least as much as plot. I find the drama more powerful in a story that arises from some personal conflict — someone facing, and then making, a difficult choice. “The Shot” is a good example of this kind of story. The protagonist finds himself in a tough spot, and as the story progresses, the walls close in on him steadily, relentlessly. But he finds his way out.

In terms of this story’s origins, the climax came to me first. I did some research to make sure the climactic act was plausible, then some more to learn about snipers in general. Research is always an integral part of my writing process, and this story was no exception. The fascinating details about snipers I uncovered didn’t just flesh out the story, they gave it a shape I couldn’t have imagined.