The Best American Crime Writing: 2003 Edition: The Year's Best True Crime Reporting

By Thomas H. Cook and Otto Penzler

Book Overview

This year's worth of the most powerful, the most startling, the smartest and most astute, in short, the best crime journalism. Scouring hundreds of publications, Otto Penzler and Thomas H. Cook have created a remarkable compilation containing the best examples of the most current and vibrant of our literary traditions: crime reporting. Included in this volume are Maximillian Potter's "The Body Farm" from GQ , a portrait of Murray Marks, who collects dead bodies and strews them around two acres of the University of Tennessee campus to study their decomposition in order to help solve crime; Jay Kirk's "My Undertaker, My Pimp," from Harper's , in which Mack Moore and his wife, Angel, switch from run-ning crooked funeral parlors to establishing a brothel; Skip Hollandsworth's "The Day Treva Throneberry Disappeared" from Texas Monthly , about the sudden disappearence of a teenager and the strange place she turned up; Lawrence Wright's "The Counterterrorist" from The New Yorker , the story of John O'Neill, the FBI agent who tracked Osama bin Laden for a decade--until he was killed when the World Trade Center collapsed. Intriguing, entertaining, and compelling reading, Best American Crime Writing has established itself as a much-anticipated annual.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375713018
• ISBN13: 9780375713019
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Best Short Story True Crime

These books are all excellent if you are a true crime reader and in between books. They go through an extensive selection process to get the best stories of the year. From 2002 through 2007, I have loved every one of them.

A Mixed Bag of True Crime

This book is a compilation of a number of true crime articles written during 2002. The influence of 9/11 and terrorism is abundant. But many of the other stories delve into a more "bizarre" area of crime and the criminal mind. While none of the articles blew me away, all were solid and interesting. Anyone looking for true crime from a slightly different angle should look here.

This Collection is Hard to Put Down

Simply stated, the "Best American" series is a national treasure. This is only the second volume of the Crime Writing entry, and it is already up there with Best American Mystery Stories and Best American Sports Writing in terms of quality. All of the Best American books feature great use of the written word, regardless of subject matter. In that sense, this book is a home run.The book starts out with "Big Shot," the tragic tale of former NBA star Jayson Williams, and of the less famous man he unfortunately killed while showing off a gun in his home. "The Counterterroist" is about a wourld renowned FBI counterterrorism expert who retired to become head of security at the World Trasde Center, only to die in the attacks two weeks later. "The Last Ride of Jesse James Hollywood" is a disturbing spectacle of bored modern youth. "The Enron Wars" provide a great insiders view of that scandal. "How Two Lives Met in Death" is a heartbreaking tale of an Israeli and Palestinian teenager, one of whom killed the other in a senseless suicide bombing. And "The Bully of Toulon" describes how a psychotic resident of a small town instituded an atmosphere of fear among his neighbors until it exploded into violence.These great tales and much more await those who decide to sit down with the 2003 edoition of Best American Crime Writing.