Best of 2024

At SleuthSayers today I list the best stories of 2024, as chosen by yours truly.

 

Internal Monologue of a Creative Writing Professor, by Richie Narvaez

 "Internal Monologue of a Creative Writing Professor," by Richie Narvaez, in Kings River Life, December 18, 2024.

Internal monologue is the key here. We are following the thoughts of a creative writing professor so it is not surprising that he is constantly editing himself, correcting his description, adding background and detail, as he goes.

His mind is an interesting place to be.  (Old joke: What's the last thing to go through a mosquito's mind? A windshield.)

What makes this particular monologue  so interesting is that, well, here is how it starts:

There is a school shooter in the building.

Wait, let me set the scene.

See? Already revising.

He describes the classroom in which they are hiding.  ("Today's lesson is creating a sense of place.") He describes the students. (Is one of them a future victim?  Perhaps the shooter?)

Witty, suspenseful, and satisfying.

 

Murder in the Kitchen, by Alan Orloff

 "Murder in the Kitchen," by Alan  Orloff, in Agatha and Derringer Get Cozy, Down and Out Books, 2024.

I have a story in this book.

This is the second appearance in this column for Orloff. 

The trick when writing about something trendy is to pick one that will still be trendy when the tale is finally published.  In this case, the author chose well.  The scene is a pickleball tournament for seniors:

This year had proven to be more successful than last year's event, mirroring the explosive growth of pickleball around the world. The players liked it, the spectators liked it, and the area orthopedists liked it, too, because their business had increased right along with the sport's popularity. 

From that you may deduce that this is not a terribly serious story.  In fact, wit is its main charm.

Our hero is Morty Weissbaum, program director of the community's 55+ group.  His problems start when one of the finalists for the doubles match is found dead on the court.  Looks like a heart attack ("I think his cardiologist was on speed dial"), but anyone who reads crime fiction knows better.

Morty investigates, meeting with the dead man's enemies and acquaintances (he doesn't seem to have any friends). For example, there is the community bookie: "I even got a pool going to predict the next resident to fall and break a hip.  You want to put some money on that?"

A witty story with a clever solution. 

"Shots," by Claire Booth

"Shots,"  by Claire Booth, in Lost and Loaded: A Gun's Tale, edited by Colin Conway, Original Ink Press, 2024.

I have a story in the book.

Raina's friend Tina is getting married and she and all the bridesmaids are out with a limousine for a night in the town.  Something goes disastrously wrong.  But Raina is also aware of something else that is going much more subtly wrong...

It is interesting how one author's work can remind you of someone else's, even though they are completely different.

Booth's story of a girl's night out makes me think of Richard Stark, the hardboiled alter ego of Donald Westlake, and his novels about a hardboiled burglar named Parker.  In terms of subject matter and character these two works have little in common.  But there is  a style connection.

One trick of Stark's I have always admired is this: He will give detailed descriptions of something, like the planning of a crime, and then when you get to what you think is the climax he tosses it off like an afterthought.  In one book, having gotten his hands on his enemy, Parker breaks "three bones, all fairly important."   End of description.

Booth does something like that here, leaving the reader to work out exactly what happens, and why.  Editor Chantelle Aimee Osman once advised "Don't steal the reader's crayons." In this clever tale Booth leaves you plenty to color in.

Do You See the Light? by James D.F. Hannah

 

"Do You See the Light?" by James D.F. Hannah, in Lost and Loaded: A Gun's Tale, edited by Colin Conway, Original Ink Press, 2024.

I have a story in this book. The premise of the anthology is that in each story, all set in Spokane, the protagonist finds a gun, uses it in a crime, and discards it.  That actually is a very minor part of the plot in this one, which doesn't matter in terms of the story's quality.

This is the third story by Hannah to make my Best of the Week column, and the second this year.

Can a noir story be funny and still be noir? Wit and disaster are not a natural pair.  Certainly a really farcical story is not a good candidate. But this story is truly noir and still caused me to laugh out loud a few times, or the way to the Required Bleakness.

John owns a record shop, selling vintage discs to fanatical collectors.  His friend Danny makes his living as a clown at children's parties, which doesn't really match his personality: "You oughta be able to hunt five-year-olds for sport."

They find something that leads them to believe a very valuable album (five figures!) might be in a wealthy home in town, and decide to try a short career as burglars.

"They should be wearing masks.  Of course, what's a mask matter when your accomplice is in a clown costume?"

Well-written and delightful. 

Burned, by Hugh Lessig

 "Burned," by Hugh Lessig, in Mickey Finn 5, edited by Michael Bracken,  Down & Out Books, 2025.

This is Lessig's second appearance in this column.  That's not so unusual, but it is also his second visit here this month. That''s pretty rare.

Being a single mom can be tough.  Now imagine if your only child is  a teenage boy determined to run off to find his father who vanished years before.  That's the situation Jenna finds herself in.

A new neighbor moves into the apartment complex.  "Brooks Badger. That sounds like a cartoon character, but it really is my name." For a while he seems like a good influence on Jenna's son, Henry.  But she is suspicious (and honestly, so are you, right?)  

Turns out Brooks has a secret or two in his past.  Turns out Jenna does too.  Don't underestimate her.  A nice suspense story with its twists slowly revealed.

Eight Very Bad Nights, by Tod Goldberg

"Eight Very Bad Nights," by Tod Goldberg,  in Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir, edited by Tod Goldberg, Soho Crime, 2024.

This is the fourth appearance in this space by Tod Goldberg.  A short story? I think it's a novelette, but that counts.

Jack Katz runs his late father's furniture business, which was a sinking ship long before he took the helm.  Now it's Hanukkah and he doesn't have the money to met payroll.  This leads to him making a series of increasingly worse decisions as the nights of the holiday pass.

How bad? Well, there's confronting gangsters, drugs, theft, more drugs, sex, arson...   It's a satisfying roller coaster ride.

Johnny Christmas, by Ivy Pochoda

 "Johnny Christmas," by Ivy Pochoda, in Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection og Hanukkah Noir, edited by Tod Goldberg, Soho Crime, 2024.

This story is essentially a character study, and a very good one.

The narrator, Davo, recently got out of the army and decides to get a tattoo.  He gets linked up to an artist named Johnny Christmas and immediately recognizes him as Mike Goldfarb, who he had known many years before at the Brooklyn House of Detention. Goldfarb was awaiting trial for running over his grandmother's landlord. Twice.  

Lovers and relatives of the prisoners stood outside the House of D in the cold, shouting at their loved ones.  One of them was Goldfarb's grandmother, holding a chanukiah.  Goldfarb refuses to come up to see the old woman, baffling and infuriating the other prisoners.  What is it with this guy?  He is cold and emotionless with sudden shifts to violence.     

Davo eventually finds out a lot about the man, as do we. This is one of those stories that didn't make my best list until after I read it, thought about it, and read it again.

Hole in my Soul, by John M. Floyd

  "Hole in my Soul," by John M. Floyd, in Janie's Got a Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Aerosmith, edited by Michael Bracken, White City Press, 2024.

 This is the fourth appearance here by my friend and fellow SleuthSayer.

What can I say about this terrific story? Not much without giving things away.  So let's talk about two different stories I read decades ago.  I don't recall the authors or titles.

The first tale I think I read in Queen or Hitchcock, probably the latter.  We follow a man walking through a city street, doing petty, nasty things.  It was my first encounter with the concept of keying a car.  He meets a young couple with their newborn baby and tells them "He doesn't look like either of you," leaving them in a shouting match.  Then he gets to his office and we realize that he works for the manufacturer of a  headache remedy and we have just seen him doing his job.

I believe I heard a high school teacher read the second story aloud.  I long thought it was by James Thurber, but I have never found it in his work.  We follow a man down a city street as he does minor good deeds, making everyone's life just a little nicer.  He gets home and his wife cheerfully tells him about her day, keying cars, and otherwise making people's lives slightly worse.  They agree that the next day they will change roles.

Okay, now on to Floyd's story.  We follow a man, the narrator, as he strolls down a city street, but first he saves a child from dying in a horrible accident...  And I won't tell you about the rest of his day.

These tales are all variations on what I have named the Unknown Narrator story in which the reader knows nothing about the main character except what he does or what people say about him.  The fun is finding out what he is up to.  And this one was a lot of fun.

Retro Rhapsody by Hugh Lessig

 

"Retro Rhapsody," by Hugh Lessig,   in Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House, edited by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson, Down and Out Books, 2024.

Judy manages a diner.  Her problem employee is a fifty-something guy, twice her age, named Doutree who, wrongly, thinks he has a chance with her.

Her new employee is a cook named Army who is dependable, good-looking, and maybe has a secret.  Or a whole lot of secrets. 

Maybe one of these guys can help with the other. Or maybe he can make things much worse.

This is one of those stories where new layers are revealed every few pages.  I enjoyed uncovering them.