The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year 2025

The mystery genre’s two best-of-year anthologies—Steph Cha’s The Best American Mystery and Suspense and Otto Penzler’s The Best Mystery Stories of the Year—provide readers with excellent examples of some of the best short mystery fiction published each year. If you write in the genre, you should regularly read both anthologies, not only for the enjoyment of reading some of the best short fiction our genre produces, but also to learn about the wide range of publications where the selected stories were originally published.

However, because the series editors and guest editors of both anthologies select stories from the entire panoply of crime fiction subgenres, some subgenres are unrepresented or underrepresented among their selections. Cozies, for example.

Though private eye stories are neither overlooked nor underrepresented in the two best-ofs, there are many more excellent private eye stories published each year than can be included in anthologies that attempt to cover the entire field. To remedy that situation, I’m now the series editor of The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year, and the inaugural volume, with multiple-award-winning private eye writer Matt Coyle as guest editor, releases soon.

As series editor, I read every private eye short story published in 2024 that I could find. Using the Private Eye Writers of America’s definition of private eye—“a private citizen (not a member of the military, federal agency, or civic or state police force) who is paid to investigate crimes. A Private Investigator can be a traditional private eye, a TV or newspaper reporter, an insurance investigator, an employee of an investigative service or agency (think Pinkertons) or similar character”—I eliminated stories that missed the mark. I then selected what I felt were the thirty best private eye short stories published in 2024.

Just like Cha and Penzler do with their guest editors, I sent my selections to Matt. He selected twenty stories for inclusion in the anthology, with the remaining ten being listed in the back as “Also Walking the Mean Streets.”

The twenty selected stories were written by Tom Andes, Pete Barnstrom, Robert J. Binney, Alec Cizak, Libby Cudmore, O’Neil De Noux, Luke Deckard, BV Lawson, Andrew McAleer, Ron Miller, Bruce W. Most, Marcia Muller, Twist Phelan, Neil S. Plakcy, William Dylan Powell, M.E. Proctor, Mark Thielman, Vicki Weisfeld, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, and Sam Wiebe.

Additionally, Matt wrote the introduction and Kevin Burton Smith, the driving force behind Thrilling Detective, wrote “The Private Eye Year in Review,” which is exactly what it sounds like.

Also Walking the Means Streets includes stories by Ann Aptaker, John M. Floyd, James A. Hearn, R.T. Lawton, Josh Pachter, Michele Bazan Reed, Gary Ross, Jeff Soloway, Bev Vincent, and Dave Zeltserman.

The selected stories and those listed as Also Walking the Mean Streets were originally published in a variety of anthologies, magazines, and websites, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, Cowboy Jamboree: A Case of Kink, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Janie’s Got a Gun, Jerry Jazz Musician, Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir, Midsummer Mysteries, Mystery Magazine, New York State of Crime: Murder New York Style, Private Dicks and Disco Balls, Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Shamus & Anthony Commit Capers, Starlite Pulp Review, Strand Magazine, The Amber Waves of Autumn, The Killing Rain, and Yellow Mama.

So, keep your eyes open for the release of The Best Private Eye Stories of 2025, pick up a copy, and prepare yourself for a walk down the mean streets with some of today’s most interesting private eyes and their creators.

2026

SJ Rozan will be the guest editor for The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year 2026. If you had (or will have) a private eye short story published in 2025, follow the directions here to submit a copy of your published story.

And remember, if we don’t see your story, we can’t consider it.

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“All I Ever Wanted” was published today in Dark Yonder 11.

“Home for the Holidays” was published in KissMet Quarterly: The Greatest Holiday Romance Stories Ever Written.