Steph Cha, a rising star who brings a fresh perspective as series editor, takes the helm of the new The Best American Mystery and Suspense, with best-selling crime novelist Alafair Burke joining her as the first guest editor."Crime writers, forgive the pun, are killing it right now creatively," writes guest editor Alafair Burke in her introduction. "It was difficult--painful even--to narrow this year's Best American Mystery and Suspense to only twenty stories." Spanning from a mediocre spa in Florida, to New York's gritty East Village, to death row in Alabama, this collection reveals boundless suspense in small, quiet moments, offering startling twists in the least likely of places. From a powerful response to hateful bullying, to a fight for health care, to a gripping desperation to vote, these stories are equal parts shocking, devastating, and enthralling, revealing the tension pulsing through our everyday lives and affirming that mystery and suspense writing is better than ever before. The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021includes JENNY BHATT- GAR ANTHONY HAYWOOD- GABINO IGLESIAS- AYA DE LEON- LAURA LIPPMAN DELIA C. PITTS- ALEX SEGURA- FAYE SNOWDEN- LISA UNGER and others

'Compelling from first to last page.' DENISE MINA Meet Juniper Song, an under employed, twenty-something, Raymond-Chandler-loving, Korean American woman from downtown LA. When a friend asks Song to carry out surveillance on his father, she figures she doesn't have anything better to do - plus she gets to indulge her Philip Marlowe fantasies. But barely half a day into playing private eye someone has knocked her unconscious and left a dead body in the trunk of her car.

A collection of the year’s best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger and series editor Steph Cha. Master of the thriller Lisa Unger selects twenty mystery and suspense short stories that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.

Two families. One desperate to remember, the other to forget. Winner of the LA Times Book Prize, Best Mystery/Thriller Winner of the California Book Awards' Gold Medal for Fiction Shortlisted for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Shortlisted for the Macavity Awards, Best Mystery Novel Shortlisted for the Anthony Awards, Best Novel Finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award 'Masterful.' Ruth Ware 'A searing examination of racial and family politics that is also an immaculately constructed whodunit.' Daily Telegraph, Summer Reads 'Writing a page-turner about racial politics in the U.S. is a delicate enterprise fraught with pitfalls, but Cha manages it superbly in this thought-provoking family saga.' Daily Mail, Summer Reads Grace Park and Shawn Mathews share a city, but seemingly little else. Coming from different generations and very different communities, their paths wouldn't normally cross at all. As Grace battles confusion over her elder sister's estrangement from their Korean-immigrant parents, Shawn tries to help his cousin Ray readjust to life on the outside after years spent in prison. But something in their past links these two families. As the city around them threatens to spark into violence, echoing events from their past, the lives of Grace and Shawn are set to collide in ways which will change them all forever. Beautifully written, and marked by its aching humanity as much as its growing sense of dread, Your House Will Pay is a powerful and moving family story, perfect for readers of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere and Paul Beatty's The Sellout. What readers are saying: 'Simultaneously thrilling and thoughtful... a terrific, fast-moving story of two characters trying to live with the truth.' 'A must-read.' 'This novel is wonderful... it will stick with you.' 'Sensitive and astute, it's a book we need right now, and it's a book that lingers, offering plenty to think about.' 'A smart, powerful, fully-engaged book that never once blinks or backs down or takes an easy out, and then nails one of the best endings I've ever read.'

'A gritty, politically charged mystery.' LA Times Juniper Song - private detective - has a talent for surveillance, and for knowing when a client isn't telling her the whole story. Rubina Gasparian, Song's latest client, is worried about her cousin, who just happens to be carrying her baby as a surrogate. Something tells Song she's been hired to do more than just follow a heavily pregnant twenty-six-year-old around LA, and soon enough, she finds herself caught in the dangerous underbelly of one of LA's biggest immigrant communities.

'Nathanael West and Raymond Chandler would be proud.' LA Times Juniper Song has a new gig: apprenticed to a private investigation firm in downtown LA, she's racking up hours following cheating spouses. When a NY artist hires Song to keep an eye on her long-distance boyfriend in LA, Song has no problem tailing the guy - until a panicked late-night phone call has her racing to the iconic Roosevelt Hotel. There, in the aftermath of a wild party in its top-floor suite, she finds only two people left: the boyfriend and a Hollywood legend. Only one of them is still alive.

Two families.
One desperate to remember, the other to forget.
Will the truth burn them both?

'A writer with something to say.' MICHAEL CONNELLY
'Fresh, thoughtful, thrilling.' IAN RANKIN

Grace Park and Shawn Mathews share a city - Los Angeles - but seemingly little else. Coming from different generations and very different communities, their paths wouldn't normally cross at all. As Grace battles confusion over her elder sister's estrangement from their Korean-immigrant parents, Shawn tries to help his cousin Ray readjust to city life after years spent in prison.

But something in their past links these two families. As the city around them threatens to erupt into violence, echoing the worst days of the early 1990s, the lives of Grace and Shawn are set to collide in ways which will change them all forever.

Beautifully written, and marked by its aching humanity as much as its growing sense of dread, Your House Will Pay is a powerful and urgent novel for today.

A stunning, edgy debut introducing Juniper Song, an amateur sleuth taking on the darkness in the veins of L.A. with razor-sharp wit and a breaking heart.

Juniper Song knows secrets-how to keep them and how to search them out. As a girl, noir fiction was her favorite escape, and Philip Marlowe has always been her literary idol. So when her friend Luke asks her to investigate a possible affair between his father and a young employee, Juniper (or "Song" as her friends call her) finds an opportunity to play detective. Driving through L.A.'s side streets, following leads, tailing suspects-it all appeals to Song's romantic ideal of the noir hero. But when she's knocked out while investigating a mysterious car and finds a body in her own trunk, Song lurches back to the real L.A., becoming embroiled in a crime that goes far beyond role play. What's more, this isn't the first time Song has stuck her nose in other people's business. As she fights to discover the truth about her friend's family, Song reveals one of her own deeply hidden secrets, something dark and damaging, urging her to see the current mystery through, to rectify the mistakes of her past life.
A dazzling debut from fresh new talent Steph Cha, featuring a strong, modern, sharply observant heroine with an unforgettable voice, "Follow Her Home" takes readers through dangerous twists and turns, beyond the glittering high-rises and freeways of L.A. on a case that will stay with them long after the final page.

Praise for "Follow Her Home"

" Song] is a compelling and original protagonist... One only hopes that Cha and her driven, neo-noir detective have more opportunities to explore those troubling intersections over many books to come." -"LA Times"

"Stephanie Cha's brilliant debut is as Noir as Old Nick's sense of humour. Compelling from first to last page, she takes on contemporary L.A., sweeping the reader through Chandler's twilight, heartbroken city from mansions to faux K-town hostess bars. L.A. Noir at its finest." -- Denise Mina, author of "The Dead Hour"

""Follow Her Home" takes a fresh trip down the sunny, dark streets of Los Angeles, and Juniper Song is a great guide - young, sharp, and worldly-wise. Keenly observed and deeply felt, the story slowly got under my skin. I couldn't put it down." - Meg Gardiner, Edgar Award-winning author of "Ransom River"

"In a glittery L.A. of pretty, privileged twentysomethings, Stephanie Cha's "Follow Her Home" opens like a playful homage to Raymond Chandler but deepens into something darker: an utterly 21st-century ode to sisterhood in the face of crime. A fast-paced thriller told in smart, sparkling prose, "Follow Her Home" is a moving exploration of mothers and daughters, men and women, immigrant history, loss, and hope." -Joy Castro, author of "Hell or High Water"