I list the best fifteen mystery stories of the year today at SleuthSayers

"The Confidante," by Diana Dixon Healy, in Best New England Crime Stories 2014: Stone Cold, edited by Mark Ammons, Katherine F...

"Downhill Slide," by Jeff Howe, in Moon Shot, edited by J. Alan Hartman, Untreed Books, 2013. This book is a collection of scie...

"Full Moon," by Lauren Davis, in Dallas Noir, edited by David Hale Smith, Akashic Press, 2013. For those who came late, here...

"Hole-Man," by Matt Bondurant, in Dallas Noir, edited by David Hale Smith, Akashic Press, 2013. A nice, gloomy tale about the i...

"The Hotel des Muti lée s," by Jim Williams, in Knife Edge Anthology, Marble City Publishing, 2013. Earlier this week I read a...

"Acting Lessons," by Amanda Stern, in The Marijuana Chronicles, edited by Jonathan Santlofer, Akashic Press, 2013. So: what...

"The Waverley Knees," by Ray Banks, in Noir Nation 2, edited by Eddie Vega, 2013. What I like best about this story, I suppos...

"Saving Bessie's Worms," by Lynne Murphy, in Mesdames of Mayhem: Thirteen, edited by M.H. Callway, Donna Carrick, and Joan ...

"I Am Not Fluffy," by Liza Cody, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, December 2013. There's a lot going on in this o...

"Acknowledgments," by Christopher Coake, in Kwik Krimes, edited by Otto Penzler, Thomas and Mercer, 2013. Kwik Krimes is a co...

"The Psychic Investigator," by Janice Law, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, December 2013. I believe in full dis...

"Benign," by Caroline J. Orvis, in Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble, edited by Claire Toohey, Criminal Intent, 2013. When...

A Eye For A Eye," by Wenda Morrone, in All Hallows' Evil, edited by Sarah E. Glenn, Mystery and Horror, LLC, 2013. A ten-year-old...

"The Murderer At The Cabin," by Robert Holt, in All Hallow's Evil, edited by Sarah E. Glenn, Mystery and Horror, LLC. As I ...

"Dead and Buried Treasure," by Barb Goffman, in All Hallow's Evil, edited by Sarah E. Glenn, Mystery and Horror, LLC. Th...

"The Wentworth Letter," by Jeff Soloway, in Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble, edited by Clare Toohey. The folks at Crimi...

"The Queen of Yongju-gol," by Martin  Limón, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, November 2013. As I said last time ...

"Small Kingdoms," by Charlaine Harris, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, November 2013. On this particular spring Tuesda...

"The Sons of Tammany," by Mike Carey, in Beyond Rue Morgue, edited by Paul Kane and Charles Prepolec, Titan Books, 2013. Ever ...