The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024    by S.A. Cosby & Steph Cha Order:  USA  Can Mariner, 2024 (2024)     Reviewed by Rheta Van Winkle This collection of short stories contains several kinds of mysteries as well as a couple of true horror stories. There isn't a murder in many of them, but someone usually dies, and there are frequently interesting twists at the end. Many have protagonists who are still in their teens or not much older, and there is an occasional, possible ghost. Reading them right before going to bed isn't a good idea. Our heroine in The Body Farm has lived with her wife for ten years when an ex-boyfriend finds them and resumes stalking Beatrice. His physical strength and mental manipulation overwhelm her, making her increasingly distraught, and there seems to be no solution that would permanently free her from his unwanted attention. In With the Right Bait, we meet Reggie who is trapped in a hospital room waiting for surgery which his wife and doctors have told him will save his life. He is an old man, but his much younger wife has been tenderly caring for him for several years, which he resents, since in his mind he should be the strong one who takes care of her. He has now decided that she only married him for his money and has been putting on a good show of caring for him while waiting for him to die, and enlists his nephew to kill her. When a woman's husband dies leaving her his house in Baby Trap, she hesitates to move into it because it's close to where her awful mother-in-law lives. She posts her concerns on Reddit and finds help from a clever woman who solves her problem in a unique way. Tiara in Just a Girl also gets help from people online but isn't as lucky about what she has to endure during the months leading up to that help. Two of the stories are historical and both have unsavory characters and delightful endings. Pat Boyle saves Johnny Dunn's speakeasy in Lovely and Useless Things when he figures out with the help of his friends who it is who wants Dunn to fail. Mean old Cullen comes to town every year on his birthday in The Funeral Suit and kills men who challenge his fast gun-slinging ability. He's old and doesn't expect to live much longer but is still faster than any of the young men who challenge him. As he sits in a bar eating his birthday cake, two concerned citizens try to talk him into retiring and going home. There is never a dull moment in these stories. We meet a wide range of people with realistic complicated lives whose solutions aren't necessarily what we would expect as well as situations we might never have imagined. Killing someone is never the best solution. Or is it? Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Mystery books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews