King by Dave Zeltserman

This is the current story at Beat to a Pulp. I'm not sure if it is truly a crime story (though there is a crime in it) but it is a nice piece of dark psychology. In it, Mary an elderly lady who may not have every one of her marbles readily at hand, likes to feed pigeons*. She has a nemesis who demands that she stop the practice. He scares her and with good reason. He's very mean. And he's willing to break the law to make sure he gets his way.

What makes the story is how Mary reacts to the man she knows as "The Evil Wizard." Can't say anything about that since I'd like you to go take a look at the story for yourself.

There is a fairytale element to the story (king, wizard, princess) that I could wish had been more fully developed. But that would have taken more pages and one of the downfalls of online publishing, I think, is that it's hard to get readers to read longer work on the screen. Ah well. Still a very worthy story.

"Julius Katz", by Dave Zeltserman

Available for download from Amazon.com.

Julius Katz is not Nero Wolfe.

Sure, there are similarities. The name, to begin with. The love of fine food. The indolence that means he only works when he has to. And an assistant named Archie, the narrator of the story, who women find utterly charming.

But Katz does not weigh an eighth of a ton; in fact, he keeps himself in excellent shape. He's witty, charming, and irresistible to women. He drinks wine, not beer. He lives in a Boston townhouse, not a New York brownstone, and he ventures out of it frequently. And Archie? He's an artificial intelligence housed in Katz's tie clip.

Likewise, "Julius Katz" is not a Nero Wolfe story, though it obviously draws inspiration from Wolfe, and shares some of the same rhythms. Katz is obliged to take a case from Norma Brewer, a woman in late middle age, and her sister Helen. Their mother is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and their brother Lawrence - her legal guardian - refuses to move her to a nursing home. Norma is afraid that through Lawrence's negligence some harm will come to her mother, especially since Lawrence himself stands to inherit a tidy sum.

So Katz visits their mother, and spends the next few days assiduously avoiding work, despite Archie's protestations. Then they get word of a new development: murder.

"Julius Katz" suffers somewhat from being an "origin" story. We spend almost as much time getting to know Katz as he does investigating the case. And the pacing can best be described as... langourous? Sedate? Fans of Nero Wolfe (as I am) will get the most enjoyment from this story, but anyone who enjoys an old-fashioned tale of pure detection will get their money's worth.

"A Long Time To Die" by Dave Zeltserman

Originally appeared in New Mystery Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2. (1992)

In honor of this year's longer February, a review of Dave Zeltserman's first published story. The protag, Nick, covered up his brother Brendon's role in a hit-and-run accident to save Brendon's promising law career. Sentenced to join the military, Nick was sent to Vietnam and returned a shell of himself. As the story begins, the brothers are reunited after Brendon hired a detective to find Nick. Brendon offers to get Nick back on the right track, but as one might expect from the noirish Zeltserman, that's not how things work out.

"A Long Time To Die" was recently made available as the MP3 podcast "A Long To Die", read by Alan Vogel of Lit103.3.

"Beauty" -- Ed Gorman

"Beauty" was published in Dave Zeltserman's fine webzine, Hardluck Stories, some time ago. I've been planning to mention it here for some time, and Ed's own mention of it tonight on his blog kicked me into gear. Ed gives away too much, so please don't read Ed's blog post about this story before you read the story itself.

The narrator of "Beauty" is a hit man. He's been hired by a beautiful woman, a former beauty queen, to kill a contestant in a contest that her daughter's entered because she believes the fix is in. To say more about the plot would be to say too much, but let me add that the story is written with Ed's usual skill and attention to detail. Jon Breen, in his column in the most recent issue of EQMM calls Ed "one of of our finest contemporary short story writers regardless of genre." And Jon's right on the money. This story will show you why.

Dave Stevens, I Presume? by Dave Zeltserman

Andy Lenscher has a problem - he looks and sounds just like Dave Stevens who he doesn't know from Adam, and Dave is not a nice guy. He apparently loves 'em, and leaves 'em in just about every city Andy, as a traveling salesman, has to work in. This leads to Andy getting slaps in the face and drinks thrown at him. Then he meets the most beautiful girl of them all and she also believes him to be Dave Stevens, but no slap, no drink in the face, just a look of fear. What gives is the rest of the story.

Andy is drawn to her, (perhaps because of her looks, perhaps because she didn't immediately try to hurt him) but he's also drawn to figuring out what that look of fear was about. A drive to the library and a trip to Topeka brings him more information, but maybe not enough wisdom to keep him from trouble. He meets with this woman later that night, and in a way I can't reveal, Dave Stevens helps Andy - for the first time - to get out of a spot of mess.

This story is suspenseful, the prose is crisp, and Andy quickly becomes a sympathetic character. After all, those of us who have been haunted by evil dopplegangers, love to see them overcome.

You can find this story in the March issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and it is worth the cover price.