As the fog of the Covid-19 pandemic lifts, some people are already calling 2020 a lost year—but not, it seems, in the world of crime fiction, which saw many of its best authors publishing stand-out stories during those long twelve months.Under the auspices of New York City’s The Mysterious Bookshop—which headquarters the Mysterious Press—Lee Child has selected twenty tales as the best of the year and, taken as a whole, they do indicate that, pandemic or no, 2020  was a boon year for the genre. Newcomers published excellent, well-received short works, as did household names—and you can find them all right here. Edgar Award-winning series editor Otto Penzler brings his decades of anthologist experience to this new annual from Mysterious Press, each of which will, going forward, feature a different bestselling author as guest editor. If you’re a fan of mystery short stories, you definitely won’t want to miss it.