• “When They Are Done with Us” has at its center a true Staten Island story that dominated the news for days. After a fire, the bodies of a mother and her four children were discovered. The throats of the mother and three of her children were slit, and near her thirteen-year-old son’s body was a razor and a note with the scrawled words am sorry. The assumption was that he had killed his family and then committed suicide by sliding a blade across his own throat. People were horrified; hastily penned editorials screeched about young black boys and their frightening dysfunctions. Later it was discovered that it was the mother who had written the note and effectively framed her son for the killings.
As a writer with a fierce curiosity about all the ways the world goes awry, I couldn’t push the story from my head. When I decided to write a piece for Staten Island Noir, I saw my chance to process the horror.
It happened in Port Richmond, a diverse but divided community, so this was initially a story about race: Jo, a white woman uncertain of her rooting, never quite sure how to respond or relate to her black and Latino neighbors, wrestles with feelings of disconnect and guilt when the tragedy occurs directly across the street from where she lives.
But once her teenage son, Charlie, walked in and opened his mouth, I immediately saw another direction for the story. He started as a bit player, a chalk outline, but he urged me to step back and see just how poisonous he could be. He allowed me to develop a tension created by those dueling levels of familiar violence and to make Jo’s options, her space in this world, smaller and smaller, until her horrible choice was inevitable. Charlie created the reason for the necessary bond between Jo and Leisa, the woman who’d murdered her children and killed herself.
Since I primarily identify as a poet and this was the first short story I’ve ever written, I chose poetry as Jo’s lifeline, her one shot at sanity and salvation. Having poetry be a part of the story linked the two genres and kept those voices (“Whatta ya think you’re doin’? You don’t know how to write a short story!”) at bay.
Ben Stroud is the author of the story collection Byzantium. His short stories have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, One Story, Electric Literature, the Boston Review, and the anthology New Stories from the South 2010. He lives in Ohio and teaches at the University of Toledo.
• I drafted this story over a cold January weekend in Michigan in 2007. While researching another story, I came across a rumor in a history of Havana about vagabonds who came to the city and started selling “French sausage” in the market—sausage that was eventually discovered to be made of slaves who’d been kidnapped and murdered. Whether this truly happened, I don’t know, but the rumor stuck with me for a few months (it was too good, too rich with thematic and dramatic possibility), until that cold weekend. I wanted to get as far from Michigan as possible and so decided it was time to write about Havana. I started with the rumor about the sausage and built the story out from there. How would the truth be discovered? I’d need a detective. Who would be the ideal detective? Someone who could pass through the different racial worlds of nineteenth-century Cuba. This is how I came up with the character of Burke, who appears in another of my stories as well. That he is an American rather than a Cuban is a result of my own ignorance. I didn’t know enough about Cuba to pull off inhabiting a Cuban, so I made him a newcomer to the city. He would mirror me, also a newcomer.
In writing the story, I ended up doing far more research than reading that initial history. I even tracked down a tourist’s map from the 1850s with fold-out views of the city (this I found in the University of Michigan Library’s Special Collections). The story became a novella. Then it became the first section of a novel. And then, after five years, it became a story again. I didn’t plan it that way—it was a blind search all the way through—but it took that long process of growing and cutting away and leaving the story aside and coming back to it for it to finally become what it needed to be.
Hannah Tinti’s story collection, Animal Crackers, has sold in sixteen countries and was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her best-selling novel, The Good Thief, is a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, recipient of the American Library Association’s Alex Award, winner of the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and winner of the Quality Paperback Book Club’s New Voices Award. Hannah is also cofounder and editor-in-chief of One Story magazine and received the PEN/Nora Magid Award for excellence in magazine editing. Recently she joined the Public Radio program Selected Shorts as its literary commentator.
• I based “Bullet Number Two” on an experience I had while driving through the Four Corners. I got caught in a dust storm, just as Hawley does in the story, and had to pull over at a strange motel run by Navajos. There wasn’t a shootout, but my room did have a hole punched through the wall. The storm was wild, and the sand and the colors and the light of the desert in the morning stayed with me. I’m grateful to Tin House for taking a chance and running this story, and to Best American Mystery Stories for giving it a second life.
Maurine Dallas Watkins (1896 –1969) wrote the 1926 play Chicago, on which the musical is based. Winner of six Tonys and a Best Picture Oscar for the 2002 film, Watkins based her Broadway-bound play on the newspaper articles that she wrote as a young crime reporter for the Chicago Tribune while covering the sensationalist murder trials that rocked 1920s Chicago. Her tongue-in-cheek features on the “beautiful murderesses” turned media darlings were the inspiration for Chicago’s Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly. Watkins wrote several other plays, including the long-lost Revelry, about the scandal-ridden White House of President Warren G. Harding, and the acidly cynical farce So Help Me God!, which received its first production in 2009, eighty years after its creation. She wrote or contributed to several films, including two Best Picture nominees, Libeled Lady and Up the River, as well as such screwball comedies as Professional Sweethearts, No Man of Her Own, and I Love You Again.
About this Book
These short stories are like shots of espresso — best downed in one go and guaranteed to leave the heart racing. Hand-picked by bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, they showcase the best of contemporary crime-writing, from masters of suspense and stars of the future alike. Whether ingenious detective story or hardboiled noir, action-packed thriller or stylish historical mystery, these twenty stand-out stories should form the cornerstone of any crime reader’s library.
Michael Connelly fans will be thrilled to find a Harry Bosch story, “A Fine Mist of Blood,” in which the LAPD detective tracks a cold case to a very warm conclusion.
Also in this Series
The Best American Mystery Stories: Volume 16
These short stories are like shots of espresso — best downed in one go and guaranteed to leave the heart racing. Hand-picked by bestselling author Robert Crais, they showcase the best of contemporary crime-writing, from masters of suspense and stars of the future alike. Whether ingenious detective story or hardboiled noir, action-packed thriller or stylish historical mystery, these twenty stand-out stories should form the cornerstone of any crime reader’s library.
Stories from: Tom Andes, Peter Beagle, K.L. Cook, Jason De Young, Joe Donnelly & Harry Shannon, Kathleen Ford, Mary Gaitskill, Jesse Goolsby, Katherine Hester, Thomas McGuane, Lou Manfredo, Nathan Oates, Gina Paoli, T. Jefferson Parker, Thomas J. Rice, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lones Seiber, Charles Todd, Tim L. Williams, Daniel Woodrell.
The Best American Mystery Stories: Volume 16 is available here.
Other Distinguished Mystery Stories of 2012
ALLYN, JIM
The Deer Woods. Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, February
APPEL, JACOB M.
Canvassing. SubTropics, Spring/Summer
ARVEDON, RICHARD
We Lived in Paradise. 13 Stories from the West Hartford Fiction Writers Group
BOHEN, LES
Poseidiana. Popcorn Fiction
BROWN, KAREN
The Philter. Crazyhorse, Spring
CHILD, LEE
CLEVELAND, JANE
Last Supper. Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, June
CONLEY, JEN
Finn’s Missing Sister. Needle, Winter
DANIEL, RAY
Driving Miss Rachel. Blood Moon: Best New England Crime Stories (Level Best)
DOAK, EMILY
Hatchlings. Crazyhorse, Spring
DONOGHUE, EMMA
The Widow’s Cruse. One Story, no. 168
ESTLEMAN, LOREN D.
Big Band. Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, January/February
FRIEND, TIMOTHY
Dog Night. Needle, Fall/Winter
HALL, PARNELL
Times Square Shuffle. Crime Square, ed. Robert J. Randisi (Vantage Point)
HELLER, GABRIEL
Fugitive. Inkwell Journal, Spring
HOFFMAN, ALICE
Conjure. Shadow Show, ed. Sam Weller and Mort Castle (William Morrow)
LAW, JANICE
The General. Vengeance, ed. Lee Child (Mulholland)
MACLEAN, MIKE
Just Like Maria. Thuglit, no. 2
MAKSIK, ALEXANDER
Snake River Gorge. Tin House, vol. 13, no. 4
MORAN, TERRIE FARLEY
Jake Says Hello. Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, December
OAK, B. B.
Death from a Bad Heart. Blood Moon: Best New England Crime Stories (Level Best)
PENNCAVAGE, MICHAEL
Mistakes. Staten Island Noir, ed. Patricia Smith (Akashic)
PHELAN, TWIST
The Fourteenth Juror. Vengeance, ed. Lee Child (Mulholland)
PRUFER, KEVIN
Cat in a Box. Kansas City Noir, ed. Steve Paul (Akashic)
SHANNON, JAMES
Shame the Devil. Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, July
SHEEHY, HUGH
Meat and Mouth. Kenyon Review, Summer
STEVENS, B. K.
Thea’s First Husband. Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, June
VAN DEN BERG, LAURA
Opa-Locka. Southern Review, Summer
WARTHMAN, DAN
Pansy Place. Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, January/February
WHITE, DAVID
Runaway. Lost Children Protectors, ed. Thomas Pluck (CreateSpace)
About the Editors
LISA SCOTTOLINE, the editor of this volume, is the New York Times best-selling writer and Edgar Award–winning author of more than twenty novels, including stand-alone works like Don’t Go and her most recent novel in the iconic Rosato & Associates crime series, Accused. Scottoline has served as president of the Mystery Writers of America. She also writes a weekly humor column, “Chick Wit,” with her daughter Francesca Serritella for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and these columns have been collected into a series of nonfiction books.
OTTO PENZLER, the series editor, lives in New York and is the proprietor of The Mysterious Press bookstore.
A Letter from the Publisher
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The story starts here.
First published in the US in 2013 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
First published in the UK in 2014 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2013
Introduction copyright © Lisa Scotttoline, 2013
The moral right of Lisa Scotttoline to be identified as the author of the introduction has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
The moral right of the contributing authors of this anthology to be identified as such has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
The list of individual titles and respective copyrights found on the following Permissions page constitutes an extension of this copyright page.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is an anthology of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781781858400
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Permissions
“Smothered and Covered” by Tom Barlow. First published in Needle, Vol. 1, No. 3, Winter 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Thomas J. Barlow. Reprinted by permission of Thomas J. Barlow.
“A Fine Mist of Blood” by Michael Connelly. First published in Vengeance, April 3, 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Michael Connelly. Reprinted by permission of Michael Connelly.
“Misprision of Felony” by O’Neil De Noux. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, December 2012. Copyright © 2012 by O’Neil De Noux. Reprinted by permission of the rights holder.
“The Sailor in the Picture” by Eileen Dreyer. First published in Crime Square, May 1, 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Eileen Dreyer. Reprinted by permission of M. Eileen Dreyer.
“The Devil to Pay” by David Edgerley Gates. First published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, April 2012. Copyright © 2012 by David Edgerley Gates. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Street Ends at the Cemetery” by Clark Howard. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, August 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Clark Howard. Reprinted by permission.
“Crossing” by Andre Kocsis. First published in The New Orphic Review, Spring 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Andre Kocsis. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Remora, IL” by Kevin Leahy. First published in The Briar Cliff Review, Vol. 24. Copyright © 2012 by Kevin Leahy. Reprinted by permission of Kevin M. Leahy.
“The Shiny Car in the Night” by Nick Mamatas. First published in Long Island Noir, April 30, 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Nick Mamatas. Reprinted by permission of Nick Mamatas.
“Drifter” by Emily St. John Mandel. First published in Venice Noir, May 29, 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Emily St. John Mandel. Reprinted by permission of Emily St. John Mandel.
“The Ring of Kerry” by Dennis McFadden. First published in New England Review, Vol. 33, No. 2. Copyright © 2012 by Dennis McFadden. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Quarry” by Micah Nathan. First published in Glimmer Train, Issue 82, Spring 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Micah Nathan. Reprinted by permission of Micah Nathan.
“So Near Any Time Always” by Joyce Carol Oates. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, March/April 2012. Copyright © 2013 by Ontario Review, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Joyce Carol Oates.
“Light Bulb” by Nancy Pickard. First published in Kansas City Noir, October 2, 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Nancy Pickard. Reprinted by permission of Nancy Pickard.
“Gunpowder Alley” by Bill Pronzini. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, August 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Bill Pronzini. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Indian” by Randall Silvis. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, March/April 2012. Copyright © 2011 by Randall Silvis. Re
printed by permission of Randall Silvis.
“When They Are Done with Us” by Patricia Smith. First published in Staten Island Noir, November 6, 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Akashic Books. Reprinted by permission of Akashic Books.
“The Don’s Cinnamon” from Byzantium by Ben Stroud. First published in Antioch Review, Summer 2012. Copyright © 2012, 2013 by Ben Stroud. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc. on behalf of Graywolf Press, www.graywolfpress.org.
“Bullet Number Two” by Hannah Tinti. First published in Tin House, Vol. 14, No. 1. Copyright © 2013 by Hannah Tinti. Reprinted by permission of Aragi, Inc.
“Bound” by Maurine Dallas Watkins. First published in The Strand Magazine, February–May 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Peter Brown, Sandra Hayes White and Paul Paskey, pursuant to powers-of-attorney from and on behalf of the successors-in-interest to Maurine Dallas Watkins. Reprinted by permission.
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