Rating: 
Summary: Return of an Annual Classic
Review: "Best American Mystery Stories 2002" is the latest volume in what has become a very fine and enjoyable series. Given that it is so difficult to find magazines featuring short stories these days, it's nice to have the best culled out and placed in one volume. James Ellroy of "American Tabloid" and "L.A. Confidential" fame is the guest editor this year, which may explain why this year's model is a touch more hard-boiled that the 2001 edition. Additionally, it should be noted that the 2002 collection also contains several boxing and baseball stories because series editor Otto Penzler put together theme anthologies for both sports in the last year.That said, the stories in the 2002 collection run the gamut from literary to whodunnits? to crime stories. How you like each one will probably depend on your tastes as a reader. All are expertly written by the best mystery writers working in the genre today. My personal favorites are Thomas J. Cook's boxing story "The Fix," Clark Howard's grim caper story "The Cobalt Blues," and Stuart M. Kaminisky's gritty crime saga "Sometimes Something Goes Wrong." Some of the stories didn't work for me, particularly the literary stories, but that's mostly a matter of personal taste. The short story, particularly the mystery short story, is a disappearing art form. "Best American Mystery Stories 2002" is doing its part to keep it alive and well.
Rating:
Summary: Return of an Annual Classic
Review: "Best American Mystery Stories 2002" is the latest volume in what has become a very fine and enjoyable series. Given that it is so difficult to find magazines featuring short stories these days, it's nice to have the best culled out and placed in one volume. James Ellroy of "American Tabloid" and "L.A. Confidential" fame is the guest editor this year, which may explain why this year's model is a touch more hard-boiled that the 2001 edition. Additionally, it should be noted that the 2002 collection also contains several boxing and baseball stories because series editor Otto Penzler put together theme anthologies for both sports in the last year. That said, the stories in the 2002 collection run the gamut from literary to whodunnits? to crime stories. How you like each one will probably depend on your tastes as a reader. All are expertly written by the best mystery writers working in the genre today. My personal favorites are Thomas J. Cook's boxing story "The Fix," Clark Howard's grim caper story "The Cobalt Blues," and Stuart M. Kaminisky's gritty crime saga "Sometimes Something Goes Wrong." Some of the stories didn't work for me, particularly the literary stories, but that's mostly a matter of personal taste. The short story, particularly the mystery short story, is a disappearing art form. "Best American Mystery Stories 2002" is doing its part to keep it alive and well.
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the mystery?
Review: I agree with another reviewer that the title should have indicated crime stories rather than mysteries. There was never any mystery about who had done it. Also, the vast majority of the stories seemed aimed at a male audience. I got pretty tired of descriptions of fights and near fights and thugs and guns.If I remember correctly, only one story seemed aimed at a female audience and was also the only one read by a female.
Rating: 
Summary: not very mysterious
Review: I don't buy the Best American Mystery Stories every year (like I do for the Best American Short Stories, Essays, Science and Nature Writing, and now Nonrequired Reading). What I do is glance at the editor and at the authors included within. This year's edition is edited by James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential and the rest of his L.A. Quartet). And it has a story by Joe Lansdale, "The Mule Rustlers" --which is a great story, with a nice, humorous twist at the end-- (Lansdale is the greatest Texas writer whose name isn't McMurtry); and a story by Joyce Carol Oates, "The High School Sweetheart"--which is a story very much in her style, and somewhat 'experimental', but isn't as good as what she normally does. The best two stories in this year's volume is Brendan Dubois' "A Family Game" (great twist of an ending) and Daniel Waterman's "A Lepidopterist's Tale", which really only kicks in at the end, and reminds me of an Oates story. Stuart M. Kaminsky, Fred Melton, Annette Meyers, Michael Connelly, Thomas H. Cook, Sean Doolittle, and Joe Gores also have good stories within. What detracts from the collection: the fact that while these may be good stories, there isn't a whole lot of mystery to them; John Biguenet's dull story "It Is Raining in Bejucal"; David Edgerley Gates' mediocre "The Blue Mirror"; James Grady's unreadable "The Championship of Nowhere"; amd F.X. Toole's story "Midnight Emissions", which I was unable to finish. When reading the collection you'll notice an unusual amount of sports stories--mainly baseball and boxing stories (or maybe not surprising since Otto Penzler edited the two books those stories came from). If you are looking for really good 'mystery' stories, you probably want to move along, but there are 11 really good stories (that's over half) to read. Some you would call mystery, some you wouldn't.
Rating: 
Summary: SAVE YOUR MONEY!
Review: I haven't cared for any of the stories I heard. I bought them to listen to while commuting to Washington DC. Based on the reviews, I thought they would be spine-tingling mysteries. Boy oh boy, was I wrong. Maybe it is the readers, but I do not get caught up in the stories like I thought I would. I guess I will buy some language tapes and learn a new language. Beats these stories.
Rating:
Summary: SAVE YOUR MONEY!
Review: I haven't cared for any of the stories I heard. I bought them to listen to while commuting to Washington DC. Based on the reviews, I thought they would be spine-tingling mysteries. Boy oh boy, was I wrong. Maybe it is the readers, but I do not get caught up in the stories like I thought I would. I guess I will buy some language tapes and learn a new language. Beats these stories.
Rating:
Summary: Pick and Choose
Review: This anthology of "Mystery" stories is a puzzling mix of genuine mysteries and several other stories that belong to other genres, as other reviewers have pointed out. Many of them would be better categorized as short dramas or action thrillers. A good chunk of the stories also are unnecessarily lewd in a way that serves no useful purpose in the story. I did, however, enjoy several of the stories, and found some to be rather humorous. Not all the ones I enjoyed fit my understanding of mystery, for example, the "Championship of Nowhere" and the "Mule Rustlers" were good non-mystery fiction. Basically this collection is not what you might expect or hope for, but it does have several redeeming stories.
Rating:
Summary: Pick and Choose
Review: This anthology of "Mystery" stories is a puzzling mix of genuine mysteries and several other stories that belong to other genres, as other reviewers have pointed out. Many of them would be better categorized as short dramas or action thrillers. A good chunk of the stories also are unnecessarily lewd in a way that serves no useful purpose in the story. I did, however, enjoy several of the stories, and found some to be rather humorous. Not all the ones I enjoyed fit my understanding of mystery, for example, the "Championship of Nowhere" and the "Mule Rustlers" were good non-mystery fiction. Basically this collection is not what you might expect or hope for, but it does have several redeeming stories.
Rating:
Summary: The Case of the Missing Mysteries
Review: This compilation should have been more correctly titled: "The Best American CRIME Stories 2002." Those seeking a compilation of whodunnits will be sorely dissapointed. Either the range of good short stories that are truly mysteries (defined by my dictionary as "a piece of fiction dealing usually with the solution of a mysterious crime") was poor this year or the editor of the compilation allowed his personal tastes to take the series on a severe tangent from the mystery genre. The result is that the collection is heavily weighted on crime stories and literary depictions of seedy characters with only a sparse dose of any real mystery. I presume that those that enjoy gritty, hardboiled crime stories will find these to be among the 'best' that 2002 has to offer. Though I regret that the title of this book will misdirect it into the hands of many others, like myself, that were actually expecting the use of the word 'mystery' in the title to be reflected in the stories within.
Rating:
Summary: Another dud
Review: What is Mr. Penzler thinking? This is the second year in a row that he has chosen inferior mystery fiction as the "best". Although this book is a slight improvement over last year's, which isn't saying much, as a mystery fan and reader, I expect more. And what's most troubling is that I know there are far better stories out there. This anthology, like last year's stinker, is tedious and baffling. I'm beginning to wonder if Mr. Penzler has some ulterior motives in his selection process. Whatever his motivation, it certainly isn't selecting the "best" that mystery fiction has to offer. Don't let editors get away with selecting just anything as the best. Please, punish Mr. Penzler for his editorial crimes and skip this book.
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