Bingo: “B”
I eagerly picked up this anthology of the best mystery stories of 2024 as it was edited by Anthony Horowitz, one of my new favorite mystery authors. On a scale of 1 to 5 I gave stories an average of 3.3. Because I found the collection pretty mediocre overall, I am giving it two stars. Only two stories out of 20 earned a perfect five, one of them a tale of a staged suicide by L. Frank Baum of all people.
There were some stories that had no suspense, such as a story of a retired stuntman shot by some thugs he owed money to. The story was basically the shooting and then the capture of the shooters. Another story was just a man disappearing to escape a cartel, the story ending on a fond goodbye and that’s it.
Some stories had ridiculous premises, such as one where a deputy kidnaps his sheriff boss out of revenge for his incompetence, and also kidnaps a little boy to be a hero by finding him. It ends with the sheriff apologizing and helping the deputy hide the crimes, exceedingly far fetched. There is a Jeffrey Deaver story, with whom I’ve become disenchanted, that has his usual “shocking” twist that was anything but.
There were some excellent straightforward detective stories and some atmospheric stories that left me with an eerie feeling. I enjoyed those. But overall the collection was a bit weak.