NBS Special Report: 2014 MWA Edgar Awards

Mystery Writers of America today announced the nominees for the 2014 Edgar Allan Poe Award nominees, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television, published or produced in 2013. Here are the nominees for Best Short Story:

• "The Terminal" – Kwik Krimes by Reed Farrel Coleman (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
• "So Long, Chief" – Strand Magazine by Max Allan Collins & Mickey Spillane (The Strand)
• "The Caxton Lending Library & Book Depository” – Bibliomysteries by John Connolly (Mysterious)
• "There are Roads in the Water" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Tina Corey (Dell Magazines)
• "Where That Morning Sun Goes Down" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Tim L. Williams (Dell Magazines)

and the winner of the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for Best First Short Story by an American Author:

• "The Wentworth Letter" – Criminal Element's Malfeasance Occasional by Jeff Soloway (St. Martin's Press)

Congratulations and good luck to all. Awards will be presented to the winners at the 68th Edgar® Awards Banquet on May 1, 2014.

NBS Special Report: Plainclothes - A Tribute Site to the Original Crimestopper

Recently assembled by Max Allan Collins, Bruce Dettman, Jim Doherty, Tracy Kazaleh, Kim McFarland, Shelley Pleger, Joe Staton, and Mike Curtis, Plainclothes pays tribute to Chester Gould's iconic police detective, Dick Tracy. The site—featuring web comics, serialized fiction, and feature articles—will be up for a limited time. Check it out while you can.

NBS Special Report: 2009 Shamus Award Nominees

Announced by the Private Eye Writers of America:

For Best Short Story:

“Family Values,” by Mitch Alderman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine [AHMM], June 2008)
“Last Island South,” by John C. Boland (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], September/October 2008)
“The Blonde Tigress,” by Max Allan Collins (EQMM, June 2008)
“Discovery,” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (AHMM, November 2008)
“Panic on Portage Path,” by Dick Stodghill (AHMM, January/February 2008)

There's a Killer Loose! by Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins

This story marks Mickey Spillane's first appearance in EQMM. It was originally a radio script, but it's been recast into story form by Spillane's posthumous collaborator, Max Allan Collins.

The story opens with Terry Devlin, a hospitalized war vet, trapped by the cops in an abandoned building. You can almost hear the voice-over narration before we get the flashback. Devlin has been having periodic blackouts. And people are being murdered. Lots of people believe Terry's the killer. He doesn't know if he is or not. A former girlfriend has gotten him released and taken him in. He's lived peacefully with her and her brother, but now there's been another murder. Devlin is on the run, and the cops are closing in.

Typical Spillane twists and a fine Old-Time Radio flavor make this one a nice entry in EQMM's new Black Mask section.

Bill Crider

"Scrap" by Max Allan Collins

Originally appeared in The Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction ed. Ed Gorman, 1987.

Reprinted in Chicago Blues ed. Libby Fischer Hellman. Bleak House Books, 2007.

In honor of Collins's 60th birthday, this review of a Nate Heller story. In 1939 Chicago, Nate is hired by the treasurer of a garbage workers union to shadow a former union member who may be a spy for the mob. Heller picks up the man's trail in time to hear him shot by the union president.

In the aftermath, Nate is asked to play along as the union and the victim concoct a story to give the police. Heller is the classic, smooth, tough-guy P.I. and like all of Collins's stories, "Scrap" is well researched and period pitch-perfect.

"Easy as Pie" by Arthur Winfield Knight

From: Private Eyes ed. Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins. Signet, 1998.

A retired San Francisco P.I. visits his old friend Karl, wanted by police for killing a black man in a case of road rage. After hearing Karl's side of things, that the man was beating on Karl's car, that Karl feared for his life, the P.I. doesn't believe a jury would convict him. However, Karl, dying from cancer, doesn't think he could stand a trial. He doesn't like the idea of dying in jail, either, so he's asked the P.I. to bring him an untraceable pistol.

In a short space, Knight poignantly parallels the two friends' lives. Steeped in despair, the story ends with the the P.I. walking away, listening for a gunshot.

Reviewer's Note on "The Night I Died" by Mickey Spillane

While searching for my next story to review, I read Max Allan Collins' introduction to the anthology Private Eyes, wherein he explains that "The Night I Died" (which I'd previously reviewed) was originally an unpublished 1953 radio play that Spillane consented to have reset as a short story for the 1998 anthology. I've revised my review to include these details.