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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nYesterday\u2019s post delved into the steamy politics surrounding this collection and its new editor\u2019s highly successful efforts to make the selection more representative of the breadth of American crime and mystery writing. Here are some of my favorites from the new collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A good example of how criminals paint themselves into tight corners\u2014which once again proves the validity of Murphy\u2019s Law\u2014is E. Gabriel Flores\u2019s story, \u201cMala Suerte<\/em>.\u201d In it, Carmelita wonders whether bad luck runs in families. A recounting of her family history suggests it may. But she\u2019s plucky and talks her way into a pretty good job. Now, if only she would leave well enough alone. But she\u2019s one of those people who cannot recognize when she\u2019s about as well off as she has any right to expect, and you know she won\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s hard to say much about Ravi Howard\u2019s suspense story, \u201cThe Good Thief,\u201d without giving away the clever plot twist. A conscientious cook at a small-town luncheonette is asked to prepare a prisoner\u2019s last meal, actually a cake the young man once ate in her establishment. Alone in the kitchen of the prison\u2019s new wing\u2014the biggest kitchen she has ever seen\u2014you are alone with her thoughts, as she talks briefly with the warden and methodically goes about preparing the cake. So little action, so much happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aya de Le\u00f3n\u2019s touching \u201cFrederick Douglass Elementary\u201d delves into the crimes a mother will commit in order to get her son into a decent elementary school, when all manner of bureaucracy is set against her. Keisha\u2019s not a serial killer or a bank robber, or someone at the very fringes of society. She\u2019s just a working single mom. Her crimes may seem trivial, but in the lives of her and her son, they are hugely consequential. (You could be forgiven for believing that the real crime is the condition of the schools that tempted her into law-breaking.) Any parent will recognize the stomach-dropping uncertainty that hits Keisha throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In \u201cThe Killer,\u201d by Delia C. Pitts, you return to familiar crime-story territory. A mother and small child are on the run from New York to Tampa, with a gangster hot on their heels. The story\u2019s told from the point of view of their driver and bodyguard, who believes every stop along the way risks bringing their pursuer closer and every encounter risks betrayal. They stop at the kind of rural Virginia diner where the manager and cook have never met up with anyone as dangerous as their pursuer, and even that naivete presents a potential risk. First published in the literary magazine, the Chicago Quarterly Review<\/em>, it\u2019s a nail-biter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d read \u201cOne Bullet. One Vote,\u201d by Faye Snowden in the Low Down Dirty Vote<\/em> collection, liked it then and on repeat. In the mid-1960s, a young Black man from up north has arrived in small-town Louisiana determined to convince his new wife\u2019s relations to register to vote. \u201cWhat you trying to do? Get us all killed?\u201d His wife\u2019s elderly grandmother is the only one who takes him up on it. Bureaucracy repeatedly thwarts her, but she\u2019s dealt with that before. The author not only created an engaging story of people pushed to extremes, she provides a powerful demonstration of what’s meant by \u201csystemic racism.\u201d Not one, but two true heroes in this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the other authors included are Jenny Bhatt, Gar Anthony Haywood, Alison Gaylin, and Laura Lippman. If you\u2019re puzzled by the title to the second story in the collection, SWAJ by Christopher Bollen\u2014it\u2019s the logo to the movie \u2018Jaws,\u2019 read backward. In some circles, that\u2019s a thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the whole, the selections were excellent, and you may find yourself returning to several of them for the issues and social truths they reveal. In this era of social media bubbles, when we hear mostly from people who share our beliefs and outlooks, seeing the world through the eyes of some of these characters is enormously valuable. If this collection presages what Cha will manage in future editions, they will be well worth looking forward to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yesterday<\/em>: the controversy over editorial direction<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday\u2019s post delved into the steamy politics surrounding this collection and its new editor\u2019s highly successful efforts to make the selection more representative of the breadth of American crime and mystery writing. Here are some of my favorites from the … Continue reading