A review by vasha
The Best American Mystery Stories 1997 by Otto Penzler, Robert B. Parker

2.0

Is it unfair of me to think that this selection of the "best" is remarkably conservative, even stale? I know that Otto Penzler has been in the business for a very long time, which might explain his choices; but, by reputation, it's not what I'd have expected from Parker -- but it makes more sense when I find that Parker devoted his introduction to rehashing for the 400,000th time Chandler's essay on the American private eye. These crime stories (not mystery, for the most part -- very little uncertainty) contain social analyses, regional flavor, character studies, etc., but mostly in watered-down form. A few that stood out to my eyes: Elmore Leonard as snappy as ever, and Doug Allyn's moody "Blind Lemon". Monica Wood's "Unlawful Contact" is successfully startling, but could be even better. I'm not really grumbling; when I read "The Mark", I found myself enjoying it even though every sentence seemed familiar.