The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021

The most memorable of the 20 short stories in the strong 2021 edition of this annual anthology don’t involve traditional wrongdoing. Aya de León’s gripping “Frederick Douglass Elementary” features the machinations of a devoted Black California mother, whose seven-year-old son has been the victim of relentless bullying; she’s desperate to get her son into a better school, but she needs to create multiple forged documents to prove that they reside in the right district. Brian Silverman provides an engrossing prequel to his Len Buonfiglio series in “Land of Promise,” which gradually reveals the truth behind an apparently altruistic act. Preston Lang’s “Potato Sandwich Days” is a grim tale of obsession with a bitter ending, premised on a botched promotion by the executives of fast-food franchise Fat Lad, who seriously underestimate the demand for “a nasty mash of potatoes and gloppy white sauce inside a stale roll.” Lang integrates social commentary about American consumerism into an account of the error’s impact on a Fat Lad employee. This is a winning showcase for authors who aren’t household names. (Oct.)