Best American Mystery Stories (2006)

[Most of] these stories are portraits in styles ranging from sly to harrowing of how crimes occurred ... If you like all your characters living at the end of a story this may not be the book for you. -- from the introduction by Scott Turow. Best-selling author Scott Turow takes the helm for the tenth edition of this annual featuring twenty-one of the past year''s most distinguished tales of mystery crime and suspense.. Elmore Leonard tells the tale of a young woman who''s fled home with a convicted bank robber. Walter Mosley describes an over-the-hill private detective and his new client a woman named Karma. C. J. Box explores the fate of two Czech immigrants stranded by the side of the road in Yellowstone Park. Ed McBain begins his story on role-playing with the line ''Why don''t we kill somebody?'' she suggested. Wendy Hornsby tells of a wild motorcycle chase through the canyons outside Las Vegas. Laura Lippman describes the Crack Cocaine Diet. And James Lee Burke writes of a young boy who may have been a close friend of Bugsy Siegel.. As Scott Turow notes in his introduction these stories are about crime -- its commission its aftermath its anxieties its effect on character. The Best American Mystery Stories 2006 is a powerful collection for all readers who enjoy fiction that deals with the extremes of human passion and its dark consequences.