The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2026

Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen selects and introduces the best short mystery fiction of the past year.

This anthology contains the best crime stories published last year, selected from a pool of over 3,000 by bestselling author of the Rizzoli & Isles series, Tess Gerritsen, under the auspices of New York City’s legendary crime fiction specialty store The Mysterious Bookshop.

Included herein, readers will find tales by giants of the genre Lee Child, Andrew Klavan, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lisa Unger, alongside lesser-known writers equally as deserving of attention. The stories have been pulled from a wide variety of sources, including The Strand Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, Dark Yonder, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. The collection is rounded off by a bonus story from the last century by Agatha Christie, sourced from the Mysterious Bookshop’s rare book room.

Wide-ranging… Because the stories vary so much, it’s a great bet for gifting to mystery and crime fiction readers.”
―NY Journal of Books on Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2025

A must-read for short story aficionados.”
―Booklist (starred review) on Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2025

Tess Gerritsen, the slightly feminized pseudonym of Terry Gerritsen, nee Terry Tom, is the internationally bestselling author of mysteries, suspense, thrillers, and detective fiction. While practicing medicine on Hawaii, she began to write romantic suspense novels and produced eight before turning her hand to medical thrillers, beginning with Harvest (1996), which landed on the New York Times bestseller list, as did her next three books. Switching sub-genres again, she began her series about homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, who soon paired with medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles for the next thirteen novels, inspiring the television series, Rizzoli & Isles, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander. Her historical stand-alone novel, The Bone Garden, features Oliver Wendell Holmes and is darker than Lady Macbeth. Gerritsen’s books have been published in forty countries, selling more than twenty-five million copies.