The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025

City in Ruins author Winslow selects 20 splendid shorts for the latest volume of this long-running anthology series. Many of the most memorable entries reflect contemporary political and social tensions. In Tom Andes’s “Never Mind in Two Thousand,” a bitter ex-cop gets fired up when his new neighbors temporarily block his driveway. Eventually, neighborly frictions—including the protagonist’s sense that the public no longer respects police—escalate to violence. “Eat My Moose” by Erika Krouse tackles assisted suicide, focusing on a protagonist who’s helped more than 200 people end their lives. Krouse’s lyrical prose enhances the poignant plot; her lead describes a newly dead client as “the stillest thing I had ever known, like outer space must be, like the point between exhale and inhale, like the eternal present moment, like love.” Other stories update California noir for the Adderall generation (Tod Goldberg’s “A Dog’s Year”), trace the details of a murder through a series of grisly tattoos (Ivy Pochoda’s “Jackrabbit Skin”), and offer tantalizing twists on the classic PI story (Gary Phillips’s “The Darklight Gizmo Matter”). Fans of crime fiction will be thrilled. Agent: Shane Salerno, Story Factory. (Oct.)