# The Best American Mystery Stories 2003

The Best American Mystery Stories 2003, a volume in The Best American Mystery Stories series, was edited by Otto Penzler and by guest editor Michael Connelly.

## Short Stories included

| Author | Story | Where story previously appeared |
| Doug Allyn | "The Jukebox King" | Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine |
| Christopher Chambers | "Aardvark to Aztec" | Washington Square |
| Christopher Cook | "The Pickpocket" | Measures of Poison |
| John Peyton Cooke | "After You've Gone" | Stranger: Dark Tales of Eerie Encounters |
| James Crumley | "Hostages" | Measures of Poison |
| O'Neil De Noux | "Death on Denial" | Flesh and Blood: Dark Desires |
| Pete Dexter | "The Jeweler" | Esquire |
| Tyler Dilts | "Thug: Signification and the (De) Construction of Self" | Puerto del Sol |
| Mike Doogan | "War Can Be Murder" | The Mysterious North |
| Brendan DuBois | "Richard's Children" | Much Ado About Murder |
| Elmore Leonard | "When the Women Come Out to Dance" | When the Women Come Out to Dance |
| Robert McKee | "The Confession" | Eureka Literary Magazine |
| Walter Mosley | "Lavender" | Six Easy Pieces |
| Joyce Carol Oates | "The Skull" | Harper's Magazine |
| George P. Pelecanos | "The Dead Their Eyes Implore Us" | Measures of Poison |
| Scott Phillips | "Sockdolager" | Measures of Poison |
| Daniel Stashower | "The Adventure of the Agitated Actress" | Murder, My Dear Watson |
| Hannah Tinti | "Home Sweet Home" | Epoch |
| Scott Wolven | "Controlled Burn" | Harpur Palate |
| Monica Wood | "That One Autumn" | Glimmer Train Stories |

## Other distinguished mystery stories of 2002

Other distinguished mystery stories of 2002 honored in the volume included Derek Alger's "Remembering the Rain" (The Literary Review), Dwight Allen's "End of the Steam Age" (Greensboro Review), Lawrence Block's "The Ehrengraf Reverse" (The Mighty Johns), C. M. Chan's "The Body in the Boot" (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine), William Chretien's "The Worried Wife" (Futures), Robert Coover's "The Invisible Man" (Playboy), Bentley Dadmun's "Sisters" (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine), Edmund X. Dejesus's "Troublemaker" (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine), Justin Gustainis's "Bargain" (Futures), Colin Harrison's "Good Seats" (The Mighty Johns), Adrianne Harun's "Lost in the War of the Beautiful Lads" (The Sun), Joe Helgerson's "The Case of the Floating Pearl Diver" (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine), Tabitha King's "The Women's Room" (Stranger: Dark Tales of Eerie Encounters), Linda Lavid's "The Accident" (Southern Cross Review), Dennis Lehane's "Gone Down to Corpus" (The Mighty Johns), Laird Long's "Sioux City Express" (HandHeldCrime), Mike Lupica's "No Thing" (The Mighty Johns), Robert Garner McBrearty's "Transformations" (The Green Hills Literary Lantern), Peter Nathaniel Malae's "Turning Point" (The Cimarron Review), Ray Nayler's "The Bat House" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine), Carol O'Connell's "The Arcane Receiver" (The Mighty Johns), Kevin Stewart's "Red Dog" (Shenandoah), Marcia Talley's "Too Many Cooks" (Much Ado About Murder), Don Webb's "Our Novel" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction), John Weisman's "A Day in the Country" (Playboy), Julie Weston's "Hunter Moon" (River Styx), and David Zeltserman's "More Than a Scam" (Mysterical Bizland).