
The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year: 2024
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Narrated by:
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Kim Niemi
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BJ Harrison
About this listen
Anthony Horowitz selects and introduces the best mystery stories from the past year, under the auspices of the world's oldest mystery fiction specialty bookshop.
From a pool of over 3,000 considered stories published last year—anything that touched on crime, mystery, and suspense, from venues as disparate as the Strand Magazine, Dark Yonder, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, the Bellevue Literary Review, and more—these are the twenty best, selected by series editor Otto Penzler and guest editor Anthony Horowitz.
The tales included cover a range of styles, highlighting the diversity of subjects and forms comprising the genre we call mystery fiction. Featuring a mixture of household names, masters of the short form, and newcomers to the field, the collection offers a variety that promises something for every listener. And it's all capped off by a vintage story from the first half of the previous century, sourced directly from the rare book room at the Mysterious Bookshop, the oldest mystery fiction specialty store in the world.
©2024 Otto Penzler (compilation); copyright 2024 by Otto Penzler (foreword); copyright 2024 by Anthony Horowitz (introduction) (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Edgar Award winner Otto Penzler returns with a new anthology of exhilarating mysteries, assembling Victorian society's lords and ladies and most miserable miscreants. Behind the velvet curtains of horse-drawn carriages and amid the soft glow of the gaslights are the detectives and bobbies sniffing out the safecrackers and petty purloiners who plague everything from the soot-covered side streets of London to the opulent manors of the countryside. Brush off your dinner jackets and straighten out your ball gowns for these exciting, glitzy mysteries.
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Good to listen to over the holidays
- By Linda Conover on 01-01-23
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The Best Crime Stories Ever Told
- By: Dorothy L. Sayers - editor
- Narrated by: Robin Bloodworth, Suehyla El Attar
- Length: 20 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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When acclaimed mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers first began compiling anthologies of the best crime stories in the 1920s and ’30s, the genre was in the flush of its first golden age. While it is hard to imagine today - after every possible mystery plot has been told, retold, subverted, and played straight again by hundreds of writers over nearly a century - in Sayers’s day there were still twists that had never been seen, and machinations of crime that would shock even jaded Jazz Age fans.
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Lot of duds, some gems
- By Regina on 11-09-13
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The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022
- By: Jess Walter - editor, Steph Cha - series editor
- Narrated by: Desean Terry, Lindsey Dorcus, Max Meyers, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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A collection of the year’s best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by #1 New York Times bestselling author and guest editor Jess Walter and series editor Steph Cha.
By: Jess Walter - editor, and others
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The Adventure of the Seven Christmas Cards
- A Sherlock Holmes Christmas Story
- By: Anthony Horowitz
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
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As the year comes to a close, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson must set out through snow laden London to investigate the theft of a priceless clock and the receipt of seven macabre Christmas cards. Will they solve the murderous mystery before they too receive the unwanted 'compliments of the season'? Written by esteemed writer, Anthony Horowitz, and originally published in the Daily Mail, this short story is a festive treat for all fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective, Sherlock Holmes.
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57 minutes for one credit?
- By Sandramc on 03-31-25
By: Anthony Horowitz
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Becoming Sherlock - The Red Circle
- Becoming Sherlock, Book 1
- By: Sarah J. Naughton, Anthony Horowitz
- Narrated by: Alfred Enoch
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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We are 40 years into the future, and London is a city in decay. John Watson has returned from medical service in the war in Afghanistan and lives by himself in a run-down part of town. On his way home from work, he stumbles upon a beaten man in the street – unconscious and completely naked. His chances of survival are minimal. The same evening, a passenger plane crashes in Richmond Park. There are several hundred victims, and Watson and the mysterious man are left to their own devices.
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So creative!
- By Joshua B. Wager on 03-11-25
By: Sarah J. Naughton, and others
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The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps
- The Best Crime Stories from the Pulps During Their Golden Age - The '20s, '30s & '40s (Big Book Series)
- By: Otto Penzler
- Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May, Traci Odom, Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 73 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Containing over 47 stories and two novels, this book is big baby, bigger and more powerful than a freight train - a bullet couldn't pass through it. Here are the best stories and every major writer who ever appeared in celebrated Pulps like Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, and more. These are the classic tales that created the genre and gave birth to hard-hitting detectives who smoke criminals like packs of cigarettes.
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Such a great collection!!
- By Amazon Customer on 07-13-20
By: Otto Penzler
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The Best Short Stories 2023
- The O. Henry Prize Winners
- By: Lauren Groff - editor, Jenny Minton Quigley - editor
- Narrated by: Lauren Groff, full cast
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Continuing a century-long tradition of cutting-edge literary excellence, this year's edition contains twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest editor Lauren Groff has brought her own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and emerging voices and including several stories in translation.
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Every story is overwhelmingly melancholy.
- By Jane S. on 10-31-23
By: Lauren Groff - editor, and others
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Dead Man's Hand
- Crime Fiction at the Poker Table
- By: Otto Penzler - editor
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon, Keith Sellon-Wright, Gail Shalan
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Hit the jackpot with stories from Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, Walter Mosley, Alexander McCall Smith, and more superstars of mystery.
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Very good collection . Well read, overall.
- By Anonymous User on 01-02-25
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The Best Short Stories 2024
- The O. Henry Prize Winners
- By: Amor Towles - editor, Jenny Minton Quigley - editor
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Kristen DiMercurio, Blair Young, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The prestigious annual story anthology, featuring prize-winning stories by Kate DiCamillo, Jess Walter, Dave Eggers, Allegra Goodman, Jai Chakrabarti, Francisco Gonzalez, and more.
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First several are Bleak, downers
- By Otis Lake on 04-07-25
By: Amor Towles - editor, and others
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The Hunter and Other Stories
- By: Dashiell Hammett
- Narrated by: Ray Chase, Stephen Bowlby, Brian Holsopple, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Dashiell Hammett is best known as both pioneer and master of American hard-boiled detective fiction, but these dozen and a half stories both affirm that reputation and present him in a different light. Along with the full-length treatments On the Make and The Kiss-Off, this collection includes never before and rarely published stories that explore failed romance, courage in the face of uncertainty, hypocrisy, and crass opportunism.
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Not Just A Crime Writer
- By Joshua on 07-12-14
By: Dashiell Hammett
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The Big Book of Espionage
- Big Book Series
- By: Otto Penzler
- Narrated by: Piper Goodeve, Daniel Thomas May, Alex Wyndham
- Length: 47 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler is back with a new anthology that has gathered the intel on the world's greatest secret agents, declassified here for the first time.
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What a great bunch of stories.
- By Kay on 01-15-22
By: Otto Penzler
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Deadly Anniversaries
- A Collection of Stories from Crime Fiction's Top Authors
- By: Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay, Emily Woo Zeller, Billie Fulford-Brown, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Mystery Writers of America is proud to present Deadly Anniversaries, a collection of crime and mystery stories from some of the best contemporary authors, all of whom have been invited to put their own unique spin on what it means to recognize a certain day or event every year. An anniversary can take many forms, and by the time this group of best sellers and award winners is through, none of us will ever look at anniversaries the same way again. Edited by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini, this collection features original stories from 20 industry giants.
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Thank you narrators for telling us these stories.
- By Jennifer Baratta She/Her on 09-13-23
By: Marcia Muller, and others
Excellent Collection
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In Night Kill oh oh my phone won’t turn on. At least they avoided the no signal trope. Call 911 and do t finish call. Pleasssssssseeeeeee!!!!
Enough stumbling and phone won’t work
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Lots of kudos in the intro to each story making the actual stories a bigger disappointment. Save your credit.
What a Disappointment!
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