The best American mystery stories 2008 - George P. Pelecanos

Expect the unexpected and prepare to be entertained . . .

No book published this year will deliver more thrills per page than this one.

Here are twenty of the year's stand-out crime short stories, showcasing not only the very best of the genre, but also the very best American writing full stop.

George Pelecanos, bestselling author, producer and writer on the HBO hit series The Wire, takes his pick of the past year's most distinguished tales of mystery, crime, and suspense. James Lee Burke offers a chilling snapshot of the life of a reluctantly recovering drug addict, battling grief for her soldier husband in New Iberia's old brothel district. Michael Connelly takes us to Mulholland Drive, where a cop examining the wreckage of a fatal collision has a frighteningly life-like crash dummy concealed in his own trunk. Alice Munro resurrects the memory of a sinister childhood friendship after forty years of silence. And Joyce Carol Oates visits not-so-sleepy suburbia, where, years after a newspaper exposes a man's shady past, his daughters realise the control they have over his future . . .

From white-picket-fenced towns to the grubby grandeur of the Tunisian capital, The Best American Mystery Stories 2008 is a powerful collection certain to delight mystery aficionados as well as lovers of all great fiction.