I love a short story! And as a new mom, short stories are kind of all I can read right now. I love Jonathan Ames, and I just moved through The Double Life Is Twice as Good. And now I’m ready for more short crimey morsels that I can read in between feedings or with the baby in my arms. I’ve assembled a lot of newer short story collections, here, because we haven’t done a roundup of that kind of thing in a while.Article continues after advertisement
Some of the entries on this list are stone-cold crime collections, very classic. We’ve got books of whodunnits, locked room mysteries, puzzles… you name it Now, are there some collections on here that you might not technically call crime but still have atmospheric thrillery elements or genre-bending components? Yes. There’s some sci-fi stuff here, some literary fiction-ish stuff going on, even some magical realism afoot. I like a broad spectrum of themes! Some of these collections are by a single author, while others are edited anthologies. Some are written in English, while others are in translation.
I’ve kept this list to collections released within the last two years. Sound good?
Okay, away we go!
Megan Abbott (ed), The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2026
