"My Hero" by Patricia Abbott

From: DZ Allen's Muzzle Flash ed. DZ Allen. August 2007.

Patricia Abbott's Derringer-winning flash story features Superman scooping up an abusive husband before he can choke his wife. Unfortunately the rescue hits a snag, and only The Man of Steel can get up, up, and away.

NBS Special Report: 2008 Derringer Awards

As voted by the Short Mystery Fiction Society:

BEST STORY, 1000 or LESS:
"My Hero" by Patricia Abbott
Published in DZ Allen's Muzzle Flash

BEST STORY, 1001 to 4000 WORDS:
"In the Shadows of Wrigley Field" by John Weagly
Published in The Back Alley

BEST STORY, 4001 to 8000 WORDS:
"The Gospel According to Gordon Black" by Richard Helms
Published in The Thrilling Detective

BEST STORY, 8001 to 17500 WORDS:
"Paper Walls/Glass Houses" by Eric Shane
Published in The Back Alley

Congratulations to the winners.

NBS Special Report: 2008 Best Short Story Edgar

As blogged by Sarah Weinman, Susan Straight has won for "The Golden Gopher" in Los Angeles Noir.

"Contact and Cover" by Greg Rucka

From: The Blue Religion ed. Michael Connelly. Little Brown and Company, 2008.

Novelist and comic book writer Rucka delivers his trademark authenticity and white-knuckle action in this story of three female Portland, Oregon police officers who serve their own justice on a misogynistic partner after the system fails them. From a brand new collection of nineteen stories on "cops, criminals, and the chase."

NBS Special: Jen Jordan Chat Transcript

In my capacity as DetecToday moderator, I chatted with Expletive Deleted editor Jen Jordan. Author Sean Chercover also attended.

NBS Special Report: This Day in History

On April 20, 1841, the first detective story was published, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe. Many of the story's elements would be adopted by later authors as the genre developed: the genius detective, the first-person narrating sidekick, the red herring... "Rue Morgue" is also known as the first "locked room" mystery.

The story's opening paragraphs, distinguishing analysis from ingenuity, are still inspiring.

More background from Wikipedia. The full text of the story is available here.

"Find Me" by Anthony Neil Smith

From: Expletive Deleted. Ed. Jen Jordan. Bleak House Books, 2007.

After picking up a college girl at a bar, Louisiana P.I. Hopper Garland agrees to look for her missing roommate, Cynthia. Garland goes on to have sex with multiple partners in the course of his investigation, and the act of sex goes from being something Garland uses to a way he is used and humiliated. Like all of Smith's crime fiction, this is a dark, no-nonsense tale of substance.

"Souls Burning" by Bill Pronzini

Available in Spadework by Bill Pronzini, Crippen and Landru, 1996.

For Pronzini's birthday, a review of one of his darker Nameless Detective stories. Nameless agrees to meet Eddie Quinlan, a small-time crook six months out of Folsom prison, at the seedy Hotel Majestic in a bad neighborhood. Eddie is fed up with the state of the world, visible right outside his window, and itching to do something about it. Nameless can't begin to tell him what that might be. Tiring of Eddie's ruminations, Nameless takes his leave. Eddie ends up committing a horrific crime, and Nameless must come to grips with the fact he could have done nothing to stop it. A master of the pared-down, efficient mystery story, Pronzini is equally adept at image-rich stories like this one.

"Nobody's Ring" by Terence Faherty

From: The Shamus Game ed. Robert J. Randisi. Signet, 2000.

In 1951 Hollywood, P.I. Scott Elliott finds an ostentatious sapphire ring left in the bathroom during a dinner party. No one at the party claims the ring, so Elliott visits local jewelers until one identifies the ring as his handiwork and tells Elliott who ordered it.

Elliott calls the jeweler's client to give the ring back, and the client requests they meet at a more private location. Soon after Elliott arrives there, he finds the client shot dead and is brought in by the police. Faherty keeps this long short story moving with many more twists. Well worth a read.

NBS Special Report: 2008 SMFS Derringer Finalists

As posted to Shortmystery today:

Best Story 1,000 words or less:

Keri Clark, "Saved" (Mysterical-E, Fall 2007)

BV Lawson, "Dreaming of a Spite Christmas" (Mouth Full of Bullets, Winter 2007)

Jillian Berg, "A Woman Scorned" (Mouth Full of Bullets, Autumn 2007)

Keri Clark, "Your New Fan" (Mouth Full of Bullets, Winter 2007)

Patricia Abbott, "My Hero" (D Z Allen's Muzzle Flash, 2007)


Best Story 1,001 to 4,000 words:

Beverle Graves Myers, "Brimstone P.I." (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May 2007)

Hugh Lessig, "We All Come From Splattertown" (Thuglit, Issue 17, July 2007)

Rick Noetzel, "Joyride" (Shred of Evidence, Dec., 2007)

Jack Hardway, "Handful of Stars" (Mouth Full of Bullets, Issue 5, Autumn 2007)

John Weagly, "In the Shadows of Wrigley Field" (The Back Alley, Vol. I, Nov 2007)

Camille LaGuire, "The Promise" (Future's Mysterious Anthology Magazine, March-April 2007)


Best Story 4,001 to 8,000 words:

Twist Phelan, "A Trader's Lot" (Wall Street Noir, Akashic Books, June, 2007)

John Schroeder, "Devil's Lake" (Futures Anthology Magazine, Jan/Feb 2007)

Herschel Cozine, "A Private Hanging" (Mysterical-E, Summer, 2007)

Kate Flora, "Mr. McGregor's Garden" (Still Waters, Level Best Books, 2007)

Rosemary Harris, "Growing Up is For Losers" (Still Waters, Level Best Books, 2007)

Richard Helms, "The Gospel According to Gordon Black" (The Thrilling Detective, Fall 2007)


Best Story 8,001 to 17,500 words:

Beverle Graves Myers, "The Bookworm's Demise"(Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Dec. 2007)

Eric Shane, "Paper Walls / Glass Houses" (The Back Alley Vol. 1, June 2007)

John Burdett, "The Enlightenment of Magnus McKay" (Wall Street Noir, June 2007)

Mike Wiecek, "Wasting Assets" (Alfred Hitchcock Sept., 2007)

Clifford Royal Johns, "Forget Me Not" (Mysterical-E, Fall 2007)


The finalists are put before Short Mystery Fiction Society members voting April 1-30 to determine the winner in each category. Congrats and good luck to all.

"Hardly Knew Her" by Laura Lippman

From: Dead Man's Hand: Crime Fiction at the Poker Table, ed. Otto Penzler. Harcourt, 2007.

This Edgar-nominated story set in 1975 suburban Maryland effectively portrays a father's gambling addiction as he heartlessly sells his children's presents and pets to cover his debts. When he cuts the strings on his daughter's guitar to get at the heirloom necklace hidden inside, she resolves to follow him and do whatever it takes to get the necklace back.

While the father's inability to change dooms him, his daughter's embrace of change leads her from fear to confidence.

"Cookies" by Molly MacRae and Stephen Johnston

From: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 2008.

Co-written by the current vice president and president of The Short Mystery Fiction Society, this story opens with Sam, an FBI computer tech, lamenting his wife Claire's suicide. In her suicide note, Claire alleged that Sam no longer loved her, that he was having an affair with Delia, a handwriting expert working out of the same headquarters as Sam. Within weeks of Claire's death, Delia's husband Carmichael also commits suicide.

For his part, Sam says he just fixed Delia's computer, that had lunch a few times, but nothing beyond that until after Claire's and Carmichael's deaths. Sam's tone made me wonder for much of the story whether he was really innocent. Readers may see one twist coming, but MacRae and Johnston play it up for added suspense.

A good mix of high technology and old-fashioned seduction.

"Fluff" by Otis Twelve

From: Expletive Deleted. Ed. Jen Jordan. Bleak House Books, 2007.

From the first sentence to the last, this story is difficult yet compelling and definitely noir. Ginny is an HIV-positive ex-porn industry worker struggling to do right by her ill infant son. Hopeless as she is, Ginny's narrative voice is engaging and funny without going into parody. Cutting briskly between scenes of Ginny watching over her son and the actions she takes to help him, Otis Twelve sets up a satisfying twist ending as well.

"One Serving of Bad Luck" by Sean Chercover

From: Killer Year ed. Lee Child. St. Martin's, 2008.

Ray Dudgeon, the P.I. from Chercover's debut novel, Big City, Bad Blood, is hired by the lawyer for Sarah Shipman, who lost her legs in a car accident shortly after having her tires rotated at an auto repair chain. With the chain offering to settle for $600,000, Sarah's lawyer wants to pad that figure, but he needs a statement from George Garcia, the man who worked on Sarah's car, a man who's conveniently disappeared.

In his introduction to the story, Ken Bruen praises Ray Dudgeon's humanity. I was most impressed with Chercover's handling of the secondary characters. Instead of feeling forced to establish Dudgeon's voice, Chercover allowed the other characters' voices to come through. As Dudgeon felt for them, so did I.

"Prodigal Me" by JT Ellison

From: Killer Year ed. Lee Child. St. Martin's, 2008.

This is the story of a husband and wife who've come to accept long periods of silence between them. The wife narrates with enough wry wit to keep readers engaged but all the while wondering, Where's the crime?

The reveal is subtle but, having bought into the setup fully, I appreciated it.

"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.

"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.

"Thoroughly Yours" by Kieran Shea

From: Plots with Guns 1 (February 2008).

After a three-plus-year absence, Neil Smith's respected contemporary noir ezine relaunched last week. The first sentence of Kieran Shea's story reads, "On his 42nd birthday, Boris Rugova jackhammered into Skip Matthews' loaded $72,000 Sport Coup Lexus at twenty-one miles per hour."

Rugova politely offers to pay the damages, but irate lawyer Matthews threatens to sue him. Rugova leaves multiple messages at Matthews' firm, visits the firm trying to make amends, but Matthews will have none of it.

Finally, Rugova approaches Matthews away from the office and gets down on his knees begging Matthews to let him work off the repairs, and Matthews says he'll think about it.

You might have guessed this is a setup for more. Shea drops enough clues and keeps a brisk pace while leaving enough in the dark to maintain surprise. The requisite gun appears, and fans of unvarnished violence get the whack of a hammer against bone.

The new PWG website features easily readable text paired with eye-grabbing photography by Peter Kim.

What Friends Are For by Russel McLean

The current issue of AHMM carries a literary treat. "What Friends Are For" is a story in Russel McLean's series of shorts concerning a Dundee PI named Sam. Sam used to be part of the police force, but now he fights for justice...literally. The series is one of my favorite short story series, ranking up there for me with G. Miki Hayden's Miriam and IJ Parker's Akitada series. Russel's stories are filled with rounded, human characters - no cartoon characters, just people who love and hate and care. It's what I love about the stories. This story does not disappoint.

In it, Sam's friend from his time on the police force has been arrested - a witness says he beat someone up, but the story doesn't convince Sam. He thinks his friend is being framed and he prowls about town trying to find the truth of the matter...and if it means stepping on someone's crotch to get the info he needs, he's the man to do it. But can he figure out the truth before his friend is brought before a judge, kicked off the force, sent to prison? In short, before the friend's life is ruined which is the apparent goal of someone in the shadows?

Take a look at the story. It is worth the price of the AHMM issue which, by the way, seems to have gone up a full dollar to $4.99. I'm hoping this is a special price to offset the huge rush of demand for an issue with a Russel McLean story and the price will go back down in the next issue...

NBS Special - Love Hurts: A Valentine's Blog Event

On January 17, Patricia Abbott invited readers of her blog to write stories 750 words or less on the theme of love and crime, to be posted today.

Sixteen writers responded, including Graham and myself. Enjoy.

Patricia Abbott, "Tongues"

Stephen Allan, "The Many Forms of Love"

Patrick Shawn Bagley, "Leaving Rachel"

Cormac Brown, "Warmer"

Aldo Calcagno, "Love on the Rocks"

Clair Dickson, "Cupid's Bullet"

Sophie Littlefield, "Rival Passions"

Todd Mason, "Afterward"

John McAuley, "Since I've Been Loving You"

Christa M. Miller, "Beautiful Trouble"

Graham Powell, "The Last Time"

Bryon Quertermous, "Stand Up on Blow Pops"

r2, "Doctor, Doctor"

Sandra Seamans, "Bye, Bye Love"

Gerald So, "Connect the Dots"

WellesFan, "A Day Late"

"Cherish" by Alison Gaylin

From: A Hell of a Woman: An Anthology of Female Noir. Ed. Megan Abbott. Busted Flush Press, 2007.

25-year-old movie theater usher Myra Jane Wurtz is so infatuated with leading man Deacon Blaine, she believes he speaks to her through the silver screen. This secret communication grows into dream-like visits from Deacon, and soon Myra believes Deacon wants her to kill his mistress, Grace Ryan.

An engrossing, darkly funny story from the author of Hide Your Eyes, You Kill Me, and Trashed.

"Slice of Pie" by Bill Cameron

From: Killer Year ed. Lee Child. St. Martin's, 2008.

Not long after his father's death, Raymond is in the bathroom at his parents' house when he overhears a man ask his mother for money. His mother explains that the rumpled-looking man, Mr. Franklin, locked himself out of his car and needs $20 for a blacksmith, but Ray is convinced the man is conning her.

Using the confines of first person to their best effect, Cameron lets readers feel Ray's frustration dealing with a strong-willed mother who still treats him like a child. Ray drives by his mother's neighborhood the next few days, subconsciously looking for Mr. Franklin. He remains convinced Franklin is a conman, tempting readers to believe the same, keeping them on the hook until the final word.

In her introduction to the story, Anne Frasier remarks on the realism of Cameron's work. As a fan of realism, I concur.

"Part Light, Part Memory" by Bonnie Hearn Hill

From: Death Do Us Part, ed. Harlan Coben. Little, Brown, and Company, 2006.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, before word of Emancipation has spread through the South, fifteen-year-old Little Mary's father John William is hanged for the crime of looking at his master's wife. Little Mary swears to kill her mistress Miz Bessie. Hatred and thoughts of revenge threaten to consume her, but after overhearing a fight between Miz Bessie and her husband, Mary turns her wrath against him.

As a child of the 1970s, it's difficult for me to read about people being treated as property. Nonetheless, this story is vividly and compellingly told, and I know if minorities before me didn't fight for equality, I would have no place in America.

"Hit and Run" by Glenville Lovell

From: Hard Boiled Brooklyn ed. Reed Farrel Coleman. Bleak House Books, 2006.

Carla's cousin Martha recommends her when a man with a Caribbean accent offers $15,000 to anyone who will marry him so he can get his green card. At first, Carla isn't interested at all, but Martha and her own money problems convince her. Meeting the man, Carla talks him up to $100,000. As they go through the motions of marriage and commitment, Carla finds herself willing to kill her new husband to collect on a $1,000,000 life insurance policy. In making her plans, Carla learns the man is not who he seems.

A fast-moving story with nuanced dialogue and selfish characters. The ending comes out of nowhere, just like a hit-and-run.

"The Golden Gopher" by Susan Straight

From: Los Angeles Noir ed. Denise Hamilton. Akashic Books, 2007.

Straight's Edgar-nominated story follows successful travel writer FX Antoine searching downtown L.A. for Grady Jackson. As a teenager, FX stowed away in Grady's car to make it to Los Angeles. Now she feels a duty to tell him him his old flame Glorette—FX's best childhood friend—has been killed in their old neighborhood of Rio Seco.

Highlighting local color, socioeconomic and racial divides, "The Golden Gopher" is literary as well as noir.

"Blue Note" by Stuart M. Kaminsky

From: Chicago Blues ed. Libby Fischer Hellman. Bleak House Books, 2007.

In late 1950s Chicago, blues aficionado and notoriously bad gambler Pitch Noles is forced into a latenight game of poker. Loan shark Terrance "Dusk" Oliver threatens to hurt Pitch's blues singer mother unless Pitch wins at least $40,000 from three men who have previously beaten Oliver at poker.

Readers feel Pitch's nerves and desperation as he reads the three strangers for tells. Playing the game of his life, he manages to meet Oliver's price, but one final surprise turns this noir story on its head.

"Uncle" by Daniel Woodrell

From: A Hell of a Woman: An Anthology of Female Noir. Ed. Megan Abbott. Busted Flush Press, 2007.

Woodrell's Edgar-nominated story is told by a young woman who's lived for years under the thumb of her serial rapist uncle. One day she rescues a particularly feisty girl and, in the aftermath, attacks her uncle with a mattocks, leaving him brain-damaged the rest of his life.

Now forced to look after her uncle, the narrator wonders if, in his debilitated state, he is still evil.

A fine nominee, "Uncle" is an example of how to use voice and description to their best effect in five pages.

NBS Special Report: 2008 Edgar Nominees

BEST SHORT STORY

"The Catch" – Still Waters by Mark Ammons (Level Best Books)
"Blue Note" – Chicago Blues by Stuart M. Kaminsky (Bleak House Books)
"Hardly Knew Her" – Dead Man's Hand by Laura Lippman (Harcourt Trade Publishers)
"The Golden Gopher" – Los Angeles Noir by Susan Straight (Akashic Books
"Uncle" – A Hell of a Woman by Daniel Woodrell (Busted Flush Press)

Congrats and good luck to all.

"Messenger From Hades" by Edward D. Hoch

From: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, April 2008.

The mystery community is saddened today by the passing of the prolific Edward D. Hoch. In tribute to Hoch, a review of his story in the latest AHMM.

In 1842, approaching his thirtieth birthday, Charles Dickens, his wife Kate, her maid Anne Brown, and his traveling secretary George Putnam tour America aboard the steamboat Messenger. One of Dickens's card-playing companions is murdered aboard ship, and an observant Dickens helps flush out the killer.

A clever mystery cloaked in period detail, I'm sure this exemplifies but a fraction of Hoch's talent. He will be missed.

"The Hard Case" by Robert Lopresti

From: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, April 2008.

Having served twenty-five years at Longman State Penitentiary, Ray Keegan has just finished breakfast at a diner when the town sheriff arrives. The nephew of a jewelry store owner is accusing Keegan of the owner's murder. Keegan says he didn't do it, but who will the sheriff believe?

The title refers to Keegan, but at first glance, it seems to belie the story's brevity. Clever and compelling, "The Hard Case" inspired AHMM's April cover.

"Tourist Trade" by James O. Born

From: Dublin Noir ed. Ken Bruen. Akashic Books, 2006.

Born's contribution to this memorable anthology follows a serial-killing Irishman with an otherwise idyllic life and a surprising, darkly comic motivation.

"Pain Management" by Tyler Dilts

From: Crimespree #16 (January/February 2007).

One year after a knife attack, the homicide detective protag of this story has recovered most of the feeling in his hand. Unfortunately he's left in chronic pain, reliant on a plethora of painkillers and doctors. The detective's first case back is a bloody double-murder. His narrative voice is no-nonsense, and the story alternates between his investigation and his attempts to cope with his pain.

"Skull and Cross Examination" by Toni Kelner

From Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, February 2008

Pirates were and nasty and brutish, right? And some of them were probably short. So this story is certainly appropriate for the venue.

I don't believe I've ever seen a pirate story in EQMM before, and it's been a while since I read one anywhere. So it was a pleasure to run across this one. It's told in the form of a long letter home from a young man on his way to Jamaica where he hopes to establish himself as a lawyer. His father doesn't have a very high opinion of him or his chances.

Along the way, the ship he's on is attacked by pirates, and the crew and passengers are taken captive. That night, there's a murder, and the young man is called upon to be the lawyer for the accused at a trail to be held on shipboard.

This is an amusing, well-told tale, one I recommend for anybody who likes pirates, murder, or courtroom drama. This one has it all.

"Guarding Lacey" by Kris Nelscott

From: Chicago Blues. Ed. Libby Fischer Hellman,

Set in January 1970, this story is from the viewpoint of Jim, a boy rescued by Nelscott's series P.I. Smokey Dalton after witnessing the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now twelve years old and masquerading as Dalton's son, Jim recounts watching his thirteen-year-old cousin Lacey go through puberty and begin to attract undue attention.

As in the previously reviewed "Johnny Seven", the world of children is shown as disparate from that of adults, and because of this, Jim is reluctant to report his suspicions to Dalton. All the same, readers know along with Jim that Lacey is bound for trouble, and when things go wrong, Jim wishes he could have done more.

Excellent period and cross-gender writing.

"Chainsaw Nativity" by S.W. Hubbard

From: Alfred Hitchock Mystery Magazine, January/February 2008.

I couldn't resist the title. Hubbard's series protagonist Frank Bennett, police chief of the upstate New York town of Trout Run, investigates when the statue of Joseph is stolen from a Presbyterian church's Nativity scene.

Not especially violent, the story's title alludes to the fact that the scene is carved entirely with a chainsaw. The story itself has some funny moments as well as some poignant ones as it explores Joseph's often overlooked role in faith history. Bennett finds the statue playing a similar role for the story's culprit.

"Sanity Clause" by Steve Brewer

From: The Last Noel. Worldwide, 2004

With his reporter wife wanting a new laptop for Christmas, Santa-phobic New Mexico P.I. Bubba Mabry takes a $3000/week job watching Santa's Workshop at a local mall, making sure none of the Santas brings bad publicity down on the mall as in the past. The task proves impossible when Daniel Gooch, a former famous inventor-cum-the mall's best Santa, is found dead minutes before starting his shift.

Bubba hadn't seen anyone enter the locker room from the front, and the security chief who hired Bubba says no one entered from the back. Fired by the mall, Bubba is hired by the head of Joyous Noises, a Christmas charity that stands to inherit Gooch's patents.

Opposing Joyous Noises are Gooch's former business partner and his sister, who want to have Gooch declared mentally incompetent in light of his switch from CEO to Santa.

Bubba has a take on Santa and Christmas I can almost guarantee you haven't heard before. From an anthology of longer Christmas stories, the multi-chapter format allows for deeper character development.

"The Road to the Airport" by Donna Thorland

From: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, March 2008.

Thorland's first story for AHMM is the suspenseful, scary tale of a woman late for a flight and her domineering husband Frank, to whose will the world seems to bend. He gets her to the airport by a seemingly impossible shortcut, just in time to hear about the crash of the plane she would have boarded.

"Interrogation B" by Charlie Huston

From: A Hell of a Woman: An Anthology of Female Noir. Ed. Megan Abbott. Busted Flush Press, 2007.

One of a handful of male-authored stories in this female-themed anthology, "Interrogation B" follows Borden, a former Army MP-turned-police detective, as she questions a foul-mouthed, uncooperative suspect who gives her name as "Betty Crocker" on the standard interrogation form. After Betty spits on a male cop, sending him off in a huff, Borden bonds with her over frustration with others, getting her to confess to two killings.

In the final scene, a precinct poker game, we see a hint of how much Borden keeps close to the vest.

"Just Another Job" by Brett Battles

Recently made available on Authorlink free-of-charge, this story from the author of The Cleaner is a prequel to the book's events, showing professional "cleaner" Jonathan Quinn and his mentor Durrie in the aftermath of a deal for software secrets.

As the story opens, the buyer has already been killed by an operations team. Quinn and Durrie's job is to make the scene look as innocent as possible, which includes dousing the blood with paint. Durrie is prepared to kill the seller, too, but Quinn rationalizes that only the buyer had put up a fight, only he deserved to die. With this relative morality, Quinn tries to separate working in the aftermath of violence from the act of violence. This shred of decency distinguishes him from others in the business, making readers care about him.

If you've read The Cleaner as I have, this story is a treat. If you haven't, it's a good introduction to Quinn's world.

A Killing in Midtown by G. Miki Hayden

My admiration for G. Miki Hayden's stories is well known and well founded. There is a lot to do in a short story, and even more that needs to be done if the short story is a mystery. Hayden consistently excels. "A Killing in Midtown" is in the current AHMM and it features Miriam Obadah, an immigrant from Ghana living with her husband and her co-wife, the much younger, Nana. In this series, Miriam solves various crimes while trying to make a living selling her handicrafts in Harlem and keeping an eye on Nana much as a mother might.

In this particular story, Nana has gotten a job in a Midtown hotel, and it isn't long before she reports that one of the other staff members died a suspicious death on the premises. She asks Miriam to go to work for the hotel to see if she can ferret out the killer - after all, it would be a shame for the woman to have died unnoticed. Miriam takes the case, and it isn't long before she uncovers more than one type of injustice happening at the hotel.

One of the treats of the series is Miriam's keen eyed appreciation of the people and happenings around her. She may have been taken out of Ghana (in fact, since her husband handles all the paperwork, she isn't sure she's in the U.S. legally), but Ghana has not been taken out of her. New Yorkers are a strange breed when seen through her eyes, and the sympathy she evokes is worth the price of admission, which, since it's a double-issue, is $5.99.

"Johnny Seven" by David Bowker

From: Expletive Deleted. Ed. Jen Jordan. Bleak House Books, 2007.

In this story from a just-released profanity-based anthology, New Jersey eighth-grader Garrett Newton tells of the arrival of a new kid, Johnny Severn, who quickly lands in trouble when he lies about his family being killed in a library bombing. Johnny has some insane-sounding notions about children's rights against adults, but Garrett and his friend KC soon witness Johnny being beaten by his father, and go out of their way to befriend him.

I could summarize the plot further, but the story's strong point is its depiction of the adolescent mindset. Though some of the Americanisms are off, the characters are engaging enough I was drawn into their world.

"Everybody Loves Somebody" by Sandra Scoppettone

From: A Hell of a Woman: An Anthology of Female Noir. Ed. Megan Abbott. Busted Flush Press, 2007.

Bored teenager Deb runs away from home and gets mixed up with a succession of wrong men—manipulative, abusive, paranoid—fleeing all of them afraid for her life.

One day while attached to a drug-dealing diner owner named Randy, Deb meets Bobby Mazard, hired by Randy as a short-order cook. An affair begins between Deb and Bobby, and it's the best sex Deb has ever had. This, she realizes, is how it's supposed to be. As the story climaxes, Deb and Bobby plan to steal Randy's closely guarded money and start a new life together.

Until the final paragraphs I was asking, "How will Bobby be different from all the other men Deb has known?"

Even if you've guessed the answer, the story is worth reading for its execution.

NBS Special Report: Spinetingler Awards

Spinetingler Magazine announced its inaugural award nominees, including the following for Best Short Story On The Web:

The Leap by Charles Ardai - Hardluck Stories
Breaking in the New Guy by Stephen Blackmoore - Demolition
Amphetamine Logic by Nathan Cain - Thuglit
The Switch by Lyman Feero - Thuglit
Seven Days of Rain by Chris F. Holm - Demolition
Shared Losses by Gerri Leen - Shred of Evidence
The Living Dead by Amra Pajalic - Spinetingler
Convivum by Kelli Stanley - Hardluck Stories

Good luck to all.

"Red Wind", by Raymond Chandler

From: The Black Lizard Big Book of the Pulps, ed. Otto Penzler. Vintage Crime / Black Lizard, 2007.

Philip Marlowe was sitting in a bar across the street from his apartment building, having a beer and listening to the hot Santa Ana wind beating against the windows, when a small snappily-dressed man comes in. "Seen a lady in here, buddy?" asks the man. "Tall, pretty, in a print bolero jacket over a blue crepe silk dress?"

At which point the drunk at the end of the bar rouses himself and plugs the little guy twice through the heart. "So long ,Waldo," he says. Then he's gone.

It's hours before the cops are done with Marlowe. Finally they cut him loose and he heads for home. And when the apartment house elevator reaches his floor, the doors slide open to reveal a beautiful woman in a print bolero jacket over a blue crepe silk dress.

In my opinion, "Red Wind" is the finest of Chandler's short stories, the one most similar to the style he used in his novels. Published only a year before The Big Sleep came out, it has the romanticism, the languid style, the same stock characters, and the same yearning for some sort of honest human contact.

I first read this story when I was only 19, and at the time I didn't understand the ending. Only when I reread it a couple of years later did I fully grasp why Marlowe did what he did. I have to guess that "Red Wind" was influenced by Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness. At the end of that book, the narrator (also named Marlowe) has a choice to make, and like Chandler's Marlowe, he chooses humanity over the truth.

"Postcards from Another Country" by Zoë Sharp

Published in the U.S. paperback edition of Sharp's novel, First Drop (August 2007), this story has Charlie Fox bodyguarding the spoiled rich Dempsey family a week after an attempt on Mr. Dempsey's life. One of Charlie's protection team alerts her when wild child Amanda Dempsey is caught trying to sneak out of the house.

This could have been just a brisk tale of the haves and have-nots except that Amanda's break for freedom masks a second attempt on her father's life.

"Wilson's Man" by Doug Levin

From EQMM, January 2008.

Ben is a free-lance graphic designer, hanging out at the monthly meeting of the Ad Federation in hopes of landing some work, when the boorish Sidney Alstead attaches himself to him. Later Sidney rescues Ben from a potentially dangerous situation and assumes that he and Ben are pals.

Ben hates Sidney, and he hates it even more that Sidney seems to be getting jobs while Ben is going nowhere. Worse, Sidney gets jobs with someone to whom Ben introduced him.

You might know where this story is going, but I didn't. It's a very well-told tale of two men, neither of whom is either admirable or likable. Well, you do have to admire how well Ben can adjust to certain situations. A lot of people are going to read this issue of EQMM because of the return of Black Mask, but if you're one of those, don't miss this little gem.

"The Missing Actor", by Fredric Brown

From: Before She Kills: Fredric Brown in the Detective Pulps, Vol. 2. Dennis MacMillan, 1984.

Floyd Nielson's son is missing. Neilson is a Wisconsin farmer who has decided to sell is place and buy a smaller farm somewhere warm, Florida or California. Before he does, he's come down to Chicago to find out what happened to his son, Albee.

Albee was a clerk in a bookstore, lived in a "padded pad" (no furniture, just cushions and futons), dated a black girl (daring for 1963), and was variously described as a "hipster" or "beatnik". He also liked to gamble a bit, and ended up $800 in the hole to the local bookie. Nielson gave him the money, but instead of paying his debts he dropped out of site. His father think's he's used it as a stake to get out of town, but he'd really like to know for sure.

Fortunately private detectives Ed Hunter and his uncle Ambrose are there to help. Ed, being close to the young man's age and therefore able to move easily among his acquaintances, does most of the legwork. In short order he finds a few things that don't add up.

"The Missing Actor" is sort of a little brother to the Ed and Am Hunter story "Before She Kills", which has been widely anthologized, and both are unusual for Fredric Brown: they play it straight, no carnivals or madhouses, no sense of dread or whimsy. The result, unfortunately, is a little bland, notable mainly for Ed's narrative voice. Not a bad story at all, but not one that stands out compared to his better work.

"On Slay Down", by Michael Gilbert

From: Game Without Rules. Harper & Row, 1967.

"There's a woman. She has to be killed."

Anyone slightly familiar with tallish Mr. Behrens and plumplish Mr. Calder, two retired country gentlemen, would be shocked to hear them discussing the murder of a foreign spy. Their closest associates, however, would know that they had been agents for British intelligence since before the Second World War - more than twenty years.

This particular job falls to Calder. The woman, a typist at the Air Ministry, has acquired some very sensitive documents and has requested an immediate meeting to pass them along. Fortunately this message was intercepted, and Mr. Calder will be keeping the appointment.

The woman appears right on time at a small barn in the remote countryside. Calder is already there, on a small rise above her, armed with a small caliber rifle. He's preparing to complete the assignment when a complication arises - a young Army officer in an adjacent field, out hunting for rabbits. So Calder makes a quick change of plan.

Michael Gilbert's stories about Mr. Behrens and Mr. Calder fall squarely in the old tradition of British spy stories, very reminiscent of the espionage thrillers of Geoffrey Household. There's a certain tidyness to the plots that also shows the influence of Golden Age mystery storytelling. The style is somewhat dated, but these stories are a lot of fun and always come to a satisfying conclusion.

"Rude Awakening" by Lawrence Block

From: Bronx Noir ed. S.J. Rozan. Akashic Books, 2007.

A young woman wakes up after a night of binge drinking with no idea where she is or how she got there. Slowly her senses, the last of which is sight, help her deduce she is in the Bronx. Finally the man beside her stirs awake, and she goes through the awkward, ominous process of getting to know him again.

As changeable as Block's voice is, it's distinctly New York, and his facility with prose made me want to keep reading about the characters and forget this was a noir story. The twist here might be predictable if not well covered in the uncertainty of a morning after.

"Amphetamine Logic" by Nathan Cain

From: Thuglit 17. July 2007.

The protagonist of this story manufactures and sells speed. Feeling too entrenched, he looks to move his operation and start working for himself again. To make this happen, he sets up two of his clients, each for the other's murder, but there's one person in the mix he doesn't suspect.

Journalist-turned-crime fiction-blogger Cain spins a bleak tale wherein the taint of drugs touches everyone. Even so, his prose and pacing kept me reading until the satisfyingly nasty end.

In August 2007, Cain announced he had sold film rights to "Amphetamine Logic".

"The Emerson, 1950" by Scott Phillips

From: Murdaland,Issue 2.

Some might find life in small-town Kansas in 1950 dull,but not the narrator of this story. He's a newspaper photographer on the local crime beat, so it's his job to run around town taking pictures of killers and their victims.

He enjoys that job a lot more than his unofficial one: helping out his great aunt Ivy and her husband Pell. When Ivy has to leave town for a funeral, the job of taking care of the elderly, cranky, alchoholic Pell falls to him. And speaking of falls, that's about the first thing Pell does when he's on his own, landing him in the local Veteran's hospital.

Once the nurses get tired of Pell and give him the boot, and Ivy gets home, reuniting the happy family, Ivy discovers that her candlesticks - jealously guarded, and the only thing she owns of any value - have disappeared. At the top of her shrill voice she lets her great nephew and the rest of the block know that she think's it's those rotten neighbors of hers that took it. And things go downhill from there.

It's tough to explain the appeal of this fine story. Like much of Phillips' work, especially his first novel The Ice Harvest, the plot just seems to amble along from scene to scene, not building up much momentum, but by the end you can't stop reading. The Kansas town and its inhabitants are sketched in quickly but vividly, and each vignette has enough packed into it for its own story.

The narrator, like the narrator of Phillips' earlier story "Sockdolager", seems like a nice guy, and has some wit and keen senses of humor and irony, but in some ways he's scarier than the noirest villain. Because when it gets right down to it, he doesn't care what happens.

"Thief" by Christina Chiu

From: Troublemaker and Other Saints by Christina Chiu. Berkley, 2001.

Pulling one last job to buy his girlfriend Laurel an engagement ring, professional thief Seymour breaks into the home of wealthy Hong Kong businessman Philip Sheng. Stirring Sheng and his wife from sleep, he forces Sheng to open his safe and retrieve, among other things, a necklace reportedly worth $2 million. In the course of the job, the scent of Sheng's wife gets to Seymour, staying with him him days afterward.

Meeting his fence, Seymour notices one of the pieces from the safe, a plastic ring resembling one he gave his mother before she disappeared. His fence inspects the necklace and offers $100,000, with another $100,000 to follow on final authentication.

The thought that Sheng's wife could be his mother haunts Seymour until, on the cusp of a new life with Laurel, he learns the necklace was the highest quality fake jade. Worse, Sheng's wife has given the police an excellent description of Seymour. "Got you better than if she'd been your own mother," his fence says,

A sharply detailed, deftly twisted Oedipal tale hitting all the right notes.

Community Property -- Pearce Hansen

"Community Property" is one of the stories from Thuglit #21, and it's by Pearce Hansen, author of Street Raised, a book I liked. The protagonist is a man named Gordon, whose wife is divorcing him and who's just found out that he has maybe four months to live, thanks to a cancer growing in his abdomen.

So what would you do in those circumstances? Gordon gets in his soon-to-be-ex-wife's Mercedes, and then . . . . And then he does what he does. Put yourself in your position and ask yourself if you'd do the same.

"The Bridal Bed" by John Connolly

From: Nocturnes by John Connolly. Atria Books, 2006.

For Halloween, a story from Connolly's dark, supernatural-tinged collection. Engaged for a year, a man's fiancee is murdered two weeks before their wedding. Enthralled with her in life, the man is haunted after her death—seeing her ghostly form, hearing her call to him. On what would have been their wedding night, their first night together, he decides to exhume her body.

"No One" by Marcus Sakey

From: Chicago Blues ed. Libby Fischer Hellman. Bleak House Books, 2007.

Reprinted from Thirteen is this confessional from the author of The Blade Itself. The narrator is a shy, depressed college student who at first appears to be emoting to a nonexistent e-mail address about the woman who got away. His voice shifts subtly from regret to anger until readers are hanging, wondering just what the narrator has done and how hard its revelation will hit.

"My Father's Gun" by Dave White

From: Damn Near Dead: An Anthology of Geezer Noir. Ed. Duane Swierczynski. Busted Flush Press, 2006.

On the fiftieth anniversary of his sister's death, Leonard Baker, the man who would be Jackson Donne's father-in-law, goes missing along with a gun. Leonard's wife Sarah asks Donne to search for him. Finding Leonard at the cemetery where his sister is buried, Donne interrupts his attempt to commit suicide.

This story's turning point is not that Jackson saves Leonard's life, but that Leonard helps Jackson deal with a completely unexpected tragedy. "My Father's Gun" doesn't stand alone as well as other stories in Damn Near Dead, but it's fine reading for fans of White's series P.I.

"Breakfast Anytime", by Bryon Quertermous

From: SHOTS Magazine, Summer 2005

"There are very few clean places in Detroit, but way down Gratiot Avenue, near Detroit City Airport, is a whole different level of dirty."

And that's where Detective Atkins and Detective Birney from Internal Affairs wait for their informant in a dingy diner. When the snitch shows up they barely have time to exchange pleasantries before a masked man pumps two shots into his back.

Atkins gives chase but could only watch helplessly as the shooter jumps into a car that speeds off down the street. Directly into the path of a tractor-trailer, which crumples it like a used beer can.

And that's where it gets weird.

A brief review can't do it justice, but this story rocks. Quertermous uses a nonlinear narrative structure to jump around in time, showing us both what led up to the murder as well as Atkins and Birney trying to piece together what happened. Most stories with flashbacks end up as dismal failures, but not this one - the time frame may move around but the story plunges ahead.

And that's what I liked best about "Breakfast Anytime" - it races along with gleeful abandon, the pedal flat on the floor. It's obvious that Bryon had a lot of fun writing it, and I expect you'll have fun reading it.

"Good and Dead" by Evan Hunter

From: Learning to Kill by Ed McBain. Harcourt, 2006.

To commemorate Hunter's birthday (October 15), a review of one of his Matt Cordell stories originally published in Manhunt in July 1953.

In "Good and Dead," alcoholic former P.I. Cordell looks into the death of his drinking buddy Joey, crossing culture barriers into New York's Chinatown.

Later deciding "cops were the only people who had any right to be sticking their noses in murder investigations," Hunter gave up writing private eyes, but "Good and Dead" has what readers came to expect from the author: palpable atmosphere, crackling dialog, and the right tinge of noir.

NBS Special Report: One Year Later

Nasty. Brutish. Short. debuted in the Blogosphere with Graham Powell's review of "Dr. Ralph" by James R. Winter. One year later, Graham, Bill, John, Steven, and I have reviewed more than 120 stories from Web zines, print zines, collections, and anthologies.

Thanks to my fellow reviewers, and thank you, our readers and visitors. We hope we've done our part to showcase the short story in general and the crime story in particular.

"The Maltese Cat" by Sara Paretsky

From: Most Wanted ed. Robert J. Randisi. Signet, 2002.

A very reticent client hires V.I. Warshawski to convince her teenage sister to return home. After some digging, V.I. discovers the woman may be more interested in the return of her rare cat than of her sister.

Paretsky doesn't supply many details to start, but gives each character depth and emotional investment as the story proceeds. This is equally true for V.I. Once again, we see believable sympathy beneath her hardboiled exterior.

Gold Mountain by Terrence Cheng

This is the story (Bronx Noir, edited by SJ Rozan for Akashic Books)of a chinese food delivery man. No ordinary delivery man to be sure. He's a recent immigrant to New York and works near Lehman College in the Bronx - a college I myself went to as a student for the first couple of years in my undergraduate education.

He suffers all the little and large indignities that a newcomer to New York faces and others that most newcomers don't face. His immigration wasn't quite legal and even within the chinese community it seems that his dialect sets him apart as a minority. In fact, he was a survivor of one of the more in/famous NYC moments - the "Golden Venture", a ship that ran aground with 286 illegal immigrants, ten of whom died. The delivery man escaped, even made off with something valuable, but what will he need to do to keep it and will he ever be able to catch hold of the unedited version of the American Dream?

The story grows to a crescendo and the ending will make you do a double take as you reexamine the events that led up to it and the unassuming delivery man himself. Enjoy.

Oh, and by the way, I have an extra copy of the book if anyone's interested - free, postage paid, but let me know in the comments. I'll choose a winner if there's more than one request when I get back home on Monday.

"Marley's Woman" by John C. Boland

From: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, September 2007.

Retired CIA field agent Charles Marley is asked to shadow a current Agency analyst suspected of selling intelligence to the highest bidder. Author Boland effectively takes on the persona of a former Cold Warrior, providing an understated, realistic tale of espionage with a twist of blackmail. Marley ends up intercepting a plot no one needs to know about, and he's just the man to cover it up.

"White Trash" by Jerome Charyn

From: Bronx Noir ed. SJ Rozan. Akashic Books, 2007.

Escaping from a women's prison in Georgia, Prudence Miller, robber and murderer across several states, makes her way to the Bronx on the advice of her cellmate. Connecting with a charismatic, yet oddly chaste man named Omar Kaplan, Pru plans to get lost in a sea of ethnicity.

Charyn's long descriptive passages capture the diversity of the Bronx while tracking Pru's pragmatic, suspicious nature. A fine, fast, dark story.

NBS Awards Report

As announced at Bouchercon 2007 from Anchorage, Alaska:

"The Right Call" by Brendan DuBois won the Barry Award, jointly presented by Mystery News and Deadly Pleasures.

"Till Death Do Us Part" by Tim Maleeny won the Macavity Award, as chosen by members of Mystery Readers International.

"The Heart Has Reasons" by O'Neil De Noux won the Shamus Award, presented by the Private Eye Writers of America.

“My Father’s Secret” by Simon Wood won the Anthony Award, as voted on by attendees of this year's Bouchercon.

Full coverage from The Rap Sheet.

"October", by Scott Wolven

From: Demolition, Fall 2007.

John Thorn and his partner Greg are driving south through Idaho, on the track of a missing girl with only her journal for a guide. As they drive, John thinks back to another time when he searched for clues in the journal of a young woman, hoping to find out why she'd disappeared.

He was much younger then, living in upstate New York, and his uncle Jim had been an officer with the Department of Environmental Protection, responsible for keeping the peace in East Catskill Park. That fall a young woman named Jennifer Flint disappeared. The state cops had given up, and since she'd been known to stay at her parent's vacation home in the park, they turned all their evidence over to Jim.

He and John used dogs, flyers, and shoe leather, but after a couple of months with no leads they moved on.

A month later, Patricia Fineman disappeared. She left a diary, too. And Jim and John went looking for her.

In a just world, Scott Wolven would be rich and famous. He tells stories that cover a lot of traditional noir ground, but he avoids the posturing that so many writers in the feel seem to think makes their stuff deep. Instead, his writing is full of genuine feelings of despair and regret. His stories don't always have a neat arc; they tend to be messy, like real life. And they're not always about what you think they're about. Read "October" and consider the last few lines, and ask yourself whose story this is.

As an aspiring writer, Wolven always makes me feel like a piker. I read one of his stories and think to myself, "No need to write about that, then," because he's already covered it. At the same time it's hard not to be inspired by the possibilities he shows you. If you like great writing, I urge you to read his collection Controlled Burn. You won't be disappointed.

"Freddie Prinze is My Guardian Angel" by Liz Martínez

From: Manhattan Noir ed. Lawrence Block. Akashic Books, 2006.

Freddie Prinze first appears to the narrator while she's praying the Rosary on the fourth anniversary of his death. "You're supposed to join the NYPD," he says.

Already infatuated with Prinze, the narrator follows his cryptic, counterintuitive advice in smaller things, persisting even when it turns out badly for her. Prinze appears unpredictably throughout her teens and early twenties, and finally she agrees to apply to the NYPD.

A morbidly funny story highlighted by the narrator's engaging voice and blind faith in Prinze.

"The Erstwhile Groom" by Laura Benedict

This was a nice, creepy little story in the September double issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Kurt and his wife Livia share a house and a quiet life. Their daughter is thinking of marriage, but is the young man in her life any good for her?

Well, Kurt is pretty sure the young man isn't a good match. Maybe it has something to do with his abusive behavior. But what is a father to do if his daughter defends a bum? Of course, there is a little hidden room in the basement of the house that isn't getting too much use and which no one but him knows about. Could be handy, no?

But if you think you know how this story is going to go, then you're just wrong...Unless, of course, you've read it already, in which case you will not have forgotten it.

Public Immunity by Eve Fisher

The problem with small town policing is that everyone knows you and your business and sometimes that business takes you into the houses of dead people you knew...knew and had reason to want dead. So it is when Grant (not sure we're given a full name) goes to the home of Neil Inveig. Now, Neil had a lot of people who might want him dead. He had people from town on video tape doing naughty things...with others. And hadn't Neil taken Grant's girlfriend away? And wasn't Grant's not so quick witted brother Barry a little too friendly with Neil?

Grant, of course, knows he did nothing wrong. In fact, he knows he did nothing at all to cause Neil's untimely demise, but who in the small town would believe that? Apparently not many, and this gnaws at Grant. Still, how some of his supporters decide to make sure there is never official suspicion will surprise you. The steady voice that tells the story will draw you in and hold onto you till the final twist.

"Needle" by Loren D. Estleman

From: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, October 2007.

For Estleman's 55th birthday, a review of his latest Amos Walker story. Walker's septuagenarian neighbor Doto, a Polish Holocaust survivor with whom Walker has only shared the occasional courtesy, stops by for coffee, invites Walker back to his house, and shows him a dead body.

It's clear that Doto fired his shotgun at the man, but he claims not to remember doing it, only recognizing the man as an intruder, noticing a Swastika tattoo on his cheek.

Walker calls the police, and Doto's story seems to hold up. At trial, Walker testifies to what he witnessed, and the jury determines Doto was within his rights to defend himself in his own home.

Once again sharing coffee, however, Walker discovers something about Doto's past that turns the story nicely on its head.

"The Guardians" by Jim Fusilli

From: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, September 2007.

Fusilli fleshes out Luther Addison, the straight-arrow cop from his Terry Orr novels, with a story set in 1982. Addison finds himself under IA investigation for his suspected role in the shooting of low-level mobster. To clear his name, Luther must conduct an off-the-books investigation with the help of two of his stepfather's retired cop friends.

Featuring Fusilli's trademark vivid New York, the racial tension of the time is equally palpable in "The Guardians".

"Tennis, Anyone?" by Kinky Friedman

From: Murder is My Racquet, ed. Otto Penzler. Mysterious Press, 2005.

A review of a tennis-themed story seems appropriate for Jimmy Connors's 55th birthday (which falls in the middle of the U.S. Open).

The engaging narrator of this story begins by saying he hasn't played tennis in years, but how he played the game revealed a lot about his character. A chess prodigy, he brought craft and deception to his tennis game, beating more athletic opponents with trickery.

He goes on to describe his first wife and how she pushed him to be a doctor. He describes falling out of love with his wife and being attracted to a nurse. Finally he describes his wife's "tragic" death from an incurable disease. All the while, readers come to realize how crafty, deceptive, indeed unreliable, the narrator is.

"The Recipe" by Carolina Garcia-Aguilera

From: Miami Noir ed. Les Standiford

This story by real-life P.I. Garcia-Aguilera opens with an out-of-work, fitness-obsessed husband threatening to kill his wife's aging dog. The wife, an investigator for a law firm, is forced to put off the argument to interview a client at the Dade County Jail.

According to the arrest report, the client, a Mr. Campos, killed his neighbor. Campos says he actually intended to kill his neighbor's loud-barking, free-pooping dog by means of a poisoned barbecued steak. After preparing the steak, Campos left it unattended for thirty minutes and returned to discover his neighbor sprawled by the barbecue.

Sickened at first, Campos became angry when he spotted steak juice around his neighbor's mouth. With his wife away on a trip, Campos decided to chop up the body and bury it as he would have the dog. The neighbor's gym-toned body proved tough to cut, however, so Campos decided to marinate it before finishing the job.

Repulsed as she is by Campos's graphic account, the P.I. comes away with a plan to resolve her situation at home.

This story seems long on exposition at times, but a final noir twist ties things together nicely.

"Account Closed" by William Link

From: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, November 2007.

Despite the clear-cut sound of its title, this shortest story in the November 2007 AHMM is one of the most mysterious I've read. Police Lt. Meltzer fears Martin Herwitt, dying of cancer, may finally make good on threats of revenge against his daughter's murderer. Said murderer, Neal Bevans, has served his time and apparently reformed, now a born-again Christian running a successful restaurant.

Meltzer warns Bevans to look out for Herwitt, going so far as to put himself between the two men. Within minutes of leaving the restaurant, Meltzer is called back. It seems Herwitt has collapsed at his table. An autopsy shows Herwitt died of arsenic sprinkled on his spaghetti and meatballs. Witnesses say Bevans prepared the meal himself.

A year later, Bevans is convicted of Herwitt's murder, but Meltzer's questions and guilt over what more he could've done remain. Why would Bevans kill Herwitt in his own restaurant in front of witnesses? Did Herwitt poison his own meal at the table, looking to frame Bevans? The truth can never be confirmed.

"The Burdened Man" by Grace Paley

From: The Collected Stories by Grace Paley. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1994.

Feeling financially strapped, a man lashes out at his neighbor when she asks for $5.95 to replace a torn pair of pants his son borrowed from her son. The man throws the money at his neighbor and chases her back to her house. The police arrive, and both parties apologize and actually start a friendship.

The man begins to entertain thoughts of an affair. One afternoon at the woman's house, just as he's about to proposition her, he spots her police sergeant husband lurking outside. Having gone from decorated officer to suspicious drunk, her husband shoots up the kitchen, hitting his wife, the man, and himself, before being arrested by his fellow officers.

The man spends three days in the hospital with a shoulder wound, after which he moves away and changes his outlook, grateful for every heartbeat.

I discovered Grace Paley's fiction in grad school. Her voice and characters, seemingly without pretense, engage readers immediately. Paley, 84, died apparently of breast cancer on August 22. I'll miss her.

"Fly Away Home" by Rob Kantner

Originally appeared in: Mean Streets ed. Robert J. Randisi. Mysterious Press, 1986.

Also available in: Trouble is What I Do by Rob Kantner, PointBlank Press, 2005.

This is the only Ben Perkins story to date to show Perkins from someone else's viewpoint—that of a businessman interviewed by Carole Somers and Perkins to build a defense for Carole's client against the charge of murdering her roommate.

The businessman's narration begins innocently enough. The reader is privy to his psyche, which is not clearly disturbed enough for murder until Kantner wants it to be. The businessman underestimates Perkins throughout, believing to the end that he's "beaten" him.

I'm always intrigued when authors show familiar protags from new perspectives. Though this story isn't in Ben's engaging voice, Kantner still shows enough of Parkins gathering clues to make a satisfying mystery.

"Wings Over Khabarovsk" by Louis L'Amour

From: Night Over the Solomons by Louis L'Amour. Bantam, 1986.

In this story from a collection of aviator tales, Grumman Goose pilot Turk Madden is sent to locate a Russian comrade's plane, lost in the mountains of Siberia. Madden finds the wreckage and theorizes the plane was shot down, the pilot murdered as he fled from the crash.

The morning after reporting to his Russian superior, Madden finds himself accused of his friend's murder. Boldly escaping from his cell, Madden tries to find the real traitor. A fine, twisty yarn from an old-fashioned storyteller.

"North West 33rd Court" by Dan A. Sproul

From: Mystery Street, ed. Robert J. Randisi. Signet, 2001.

Interviewed by an attractive reporter from Detective Digest, Miami P.I. and horseracing aficionado Joe Standard is asked about his most bizarre case. He recounts the story of Abel Dexter, a manure hauler's helper who hired Standard to look into the disappearance of his wife Janie.

It turns out Janie's only been missing thirteen hours. Either kidnappers entered the house and took Janie without Abel's notice or she decided to leave him while she was washing the dishes and he stepped away to the bedroom. Standard decides either Abel is really shaken by Janie's disappearance or he is lying.

It's not until later that night, conferring with one friend who was a bank robber and another who's a reporter, that Standard begins to learn the truth of an intricate case that takes on more madcap charm when told as an anecdote to a pretty woman.

Robert J. Randisi recently passed along news that Dan A. Sproul died two years ago after a long illness. I regret Sproul won't be producing more stories with engaging prose and sharp local color.

"Going, Going, Gone" by Peter Blauner

From: Hard Boiled Brooklyn, ed. Reed Farrel Coleman. Bleak House Books, 2006.

After glancing at an attractive woman on a subway platform, divorced father Sussman looks back to see his six-year-old son speeding away on a Coney Island-bound F train.

Woefully out of sorts and out of shape, Sussman darts about in search of a phone to call 911. As fear consumes him, Sussman tangles with a younger, stronger man who refuses to yield a pay phone to him.

This is a nightmare scenario worsened by a character who has almost no chance of handling it. Nicely noir.

Apples and Trees by Sara Joan Berniker

The problem with this story by Sara Joan Berniker is that I can't tell you too much without spoiling it. Here's what I can say. It is a great mood piece and a look into a very dark mind. A delivery man, Jerry, is bringing his child with him because it's take your kid to work day. He's none too happy - doesn't like any part of his life including his wife and the kid that's sitting in the passenger seat of the truck. In fact, he's brutally unhappy.

But, will things turn around when he is in a building making a delivery and the child, Paul, follows him though he's been told to stay in the truck? What will happen when Paul learns what it is his daddy really delivers for a living. Let me just say, it ain't appliances.

Anyway, take a look. It's free and part of the great material that SHRED is putting out once again.

"Clicker Training", by Parnell Hall

From: Canine Christmas, ed. Jeffrey Marks, Ballantine Books, 1999
(also available at ParnellHall.com.)

With their son away on a school trip to France, Stanley Hastings and his better half, Alice, have Christmas to themselves for the first time in years. Rather than sit around their apartment in New York, they decide on a trip to a bed-and-breakfast in the scenic Vermont countryside, and they take along their other child, Zelda.

Did I mention Zelda is a dog?

And not only a dog, but a Portugese water dog, and a well-trained one at that, as she and Alice demonstrated to the guests. As it happened, Zelda soon turned out to have the same detetecting instincts as her private eye "father", Stanley.

Because the next morning she stumbled over a corpse.

This slight but entertaining story is more a traditional puzzle than most of the Stanley Hastings mysteries, which mix elements of the whodunit and PI genres (along with a healthy dose of humor). Stanley fumbles through in his usual manner, helped along by his intelligent and perceptive wife Alice.

"Two-Eleven All Around" by Chris Offutt

From: Out of the Woods by Chris Offutt. Simon & Shuster, 1999.

When a self-described drunk is locked out of the house, he assumes his recovering-alcholic girlfriend has become fed up with him. After walking the streets of Casper, Wyoming for an hour, pondering the dismal state of his life, he decides to throw a chunk of rubble through a plate glass window to get the attention of a passing patrol car as well as that of his girlfriend, who listens obsessively to a police scanner.

A native of Kentucky currently teaching at the Iowa Writers Workshop, Offutt's stories are terse, compelling, and marked by an unflinching bleak outlook.

"Continental Grip" by David Morrell

From: Murder is My Racquet, ed. Otto Penzler. Mysterious Press, 2005.

This tennis-themed story from veteran thriller writer Morrell recounts the investigation into a New Mexico club pro's death, bludgeoned by a Prince racquet. The story is told in a wryly detached voice, played for more humor than I'd previously seen from Morrell.

Imported from Africa by G. Miki Hayden

If you've read my own blog with care...Go ahead, take your time. I'll still be here... Then you know there are few short mystery fiction writers whose work I admire more than G. Miki Hayden. Her current series character, Miriam Obadah an immigrant to NYC's Harlem from Ghana (is she here legally? she doesn't know. Her husband would never involve her in the male world of legal formalities like that) is a character designed to tug at your heartstrings. Even after living in the US for 35 years, there are many things she can't quite understand about the Americans she meets. Her much younger co-wife, Nana, needs to be looked after, and there is plenty of work to be done around the house and in preparing goods to be sold - she weaves baskets among other things.

In this particular adventure, Miriam retrieves a box from the post office only to find that it has two statues in it - Nothing charming or useful but she isn't sure who sent them to her or why. No difference. When she finds that the artifacts have a tainted provenance, she sets about sleuthing. It is not too long before she has found the intended smuggler, but finding the person and capturing them proves to be two entirely different matters.

As in all the Miriam stories I've had the pleasure to read so far, Miriam's simple view of life and her fear of the giant maw that is NYC adds to her charm. Her humility and her observations on America make her so interesting, I'd read about her even if there were no mystery to solve.

Anyway, enough praise. This story can be found in the September 2007 AHMM. Well worth the read.

NBS Special Report: Anthony Award Nominees

This year's Anthony Award nominees have been announced. Attendees of Bouchercon in Anchorage, Alaska will choose the winners.

BEST SHORT STORY

“After the Fall,” Elaine Viets, Alfred Hitchcock Mag
“Cranked,” Bill Crider, DAMN NEAR DEAD, Busted Flush Press
“The Lords of Misrule,” Dana Cameron, SUGARPLUMS AND SCANDAL, Avon
“My Father’s Secret,”Simon Wood, Crime Spree Magazine, Bcon Spec Issue
“Policy,”Megan Abbott, DAMN NEAR DEAD, Busted Flush Press
“Sleeping with the Plush,” Toni Kelner, Alfred Hitchcock Mag

Congrats again and good luck, Bill.

"Trouble is My Business" by Raymond Chandler

Available in: Raymond Chandler: Collected Stories. Knopf, 2002.

Slated to be adapted by Frank Miller for a Philip Marlowe movie starring Clive Owen, the novella "Trouble is My Business" has Marlowe working for a fledgling detective agency, digging up dirt on a woman who's got her claws into a rich man's son. He begins by calling another P.I. who's worked the case, but when Marlowe goes to meet him, he finds the P.I. dead.

"Trouble is My Business" is full of men entering with guns and eerily discovered deaths. Marlowe gets to the truth by sheer persistence. For me, this story was a reminder of how refined Chandler's prose was, how truly inimitable Marlowe was. The Everyman's Library edition is certainly worth the price.

"The Feel of the Trigger", by Donald Westlake

From: Games Killers Play, ed. "Alfred Hitchcock", Dell Books, 1967.

It was after midnight on the graveyard shift and Brooklyn detective Abe Levine was at the precinct house, listening to his heart skip every tenth beat or so, when a call came in. A stickup in a small convenience store, the elderly proprietor shot four times. The man's wife had witnessed the attack and was able to identify the attacker, a local teenager.

So Levine and his partner Crawley head over to the teen's home, where his parents swear he was there all night. With his bad heart, Levine spends all his time staring into the void, the empty pit of death. How can he make these people understand what their son has done, what he's taken away from another human being?

"The Feel of the Trigger" dates from 1961, making it one of Westlake's earliest stories. It's a police procedural in tone and detail, but at its heart this and the other Levine stories are meditations about life and death, what it means to take a life, and what it means to give one up.

By sheer luck, when I was barely in high school I read "After I'm Gone", the last story in the Levine cycle. My parents had been on a trip, and my mother brought home a copy of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, which she'd either read on the way or picked up as a "What'd ya bring me?" gift. In that story, Levine faces his fear of death, accepts his own mortality, and does what he has to do - a fitting end to the series. All of the Levine stories are available in a single volume, called simply Levine.

"A Saving Grace", by Patricia Abbott

From: The Thrilling Detective.

Jim could have taken the Interstate to get to work every day, but instead he liked driving the back roads, seeing the farms, the little roadside stores here and there, just taking it easy instead of racing along with his foot on the gas.

He'd taken that same route in his career, trading in the stressful life of a police detective and then a private investigator for the simplicity of life as a mechanic. After a while he settled into a peaceful routine, his existence taking a winding path that never varied.

That's how he'd met Louise. He had seen her standing by the mailbox at the edge of the road on four Tuesdays in a row, until he'd finally asked her if she needed a ride. Jim wasn't attracted to her, and she was already married with a pair of kids, but he needed some human contact, some companionship.

Jim couldn't shut off the sixth sense he'd had as a detective, and over time he noticed things - bruises, finger marks, little cuts - but when he saw these injuries on Louise's little daughter, he decided to take action.

This moody little short story moves along with great economy. All the characters are sketched in with the briefest of descriptions, but their words and actions ring true, which makes the twist at the end more surprising.

NBS Special Report: 2007 Shamus Award Nominees

The 2007 Shamus Award nominees were announced Friday, July 13.

Best Short Story:

“Sudden Stop,” by Mitch Alderman (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine [AHMM], November 2006)
“The Heart Has Reasons,” by O’Neil De Noux (AHMM, September 2006)
“Square One,” by Loren D. Estleman (AHMM, November 2006)
“Devil’s Brew,” by Bill Pronzini (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, December 2006)
“Smoke Got in My Eyes,” by Bruce Rubenstein (from Twin Cities Noir, edited by Julie Schaper; Akashic Books)

Congrats to all.

"Mulholland Drive" by Michael Connelly

From: Los Angeles Noir ed. Denise Hamilton, Akashic Books, 2007.

Police reconstructionist Clewiston is called in when a multi-millionaire's Porsche swerves over the side of Mulholland Drive. Using a combination of computer calculations and educated guesses, Clewiston determines the crash was caused by coyote.

On the way to file his report, Clewiston calls the dead man's wife, and we learn he orchestrated the accident so the wife could take the insurance payout. While he is filling her in, however, Clewiston gets into an "accident" of his own.

Sharp detail and solid pace as expected from Connelly, with some unexpected humor thrown into the final act.

"Henry and the Idiots" by Robert J. Randisi

From: High Stakes ed. Robert J. Randisi. Signet, 2003.

For 7/7/07, a story of luck. After hitting a jackpot in excess of $250,000, compulsive gambler and talker Henry Simon decides to leave his shrewish wife Mildred and her two dimwitted brothers.

The narrative cuts between Henry in Nevada recounting his travels to a gambling buddy and Mildred in St. Louis plotting to get back "her money". The characters' voices and the momentum of the chase carry this rambling. funny, enjoyable tale.

"Proof of Guilt" by Bill Pronzini

From: The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries, ed. Mike Ashley. Carroll & Graf, 2007.

One summer morning, the police are called to the offices of lawyer Adam Chillingham's offices for what seems like an open-and-shut case. At 10:30, a young man named George Dillon had entered Chillington's private office; a few minutes later, the staff heard a gunshot. A few minutes later Dillon opened the door and told the staff that Chillington had been murdered. Then he calmly sat down across from Chillington's body and was locked in by the law clerk.

Dillon's father had been a wealthy businessman before his death a couple of years before. Chillington was the executor of his estate, and according to Dillon had stolen $350,000 dollars. So Dillon had not only the opportunity but a strong motive for Chillington's death.

One problem: nowhere in that office, high on the sixteenth floor, with a single door and a single unbroken window, could the police find a murder weapon.

In spite of his penchant for realistic characters and plots, Pronzini also has a love of locked-room mysteries, and this is one of his best. I guarantee that the ultimate resolution of this case will leave you with your mouth hanging open, or I'll eat my keyboard.

"The Village" by James Lee Burke

This is not exactly a crime story in the traditional sense though there is violence and murder. It is more a war crime story. It is about soldiers (presumably American, but are they regular army or mercenaries, I'm not sure) bringing retribution to a village. There isn't much violence on the page, but enough of it and directed at civilians so we know this is criminal. Then there is a witness, a nun. She needs to be dealt with, silenced. Perhaps she can be frightened into keeping her mouth shut. After all, how hard could that be? If she doesn't fear for her own safety, she might fear for the safety of others...

The story is hard to write about. It is short (maybe eight pages) even for a short story and told through the voice of one of the soldiers, a man who seems to have had more than his fill of killing. And he does the only thing he can do to make things as close to good as you're going to get in a hot zone. The final words shook me to the core.

The story is apparently excerpted from one of Burke's novels. No difference. The collection it's in now is called Jesus Out to Sea. Strong stories, if you can take it.

"Aftermath" by Jeremiah Healy

From: Most Wanted, ed. Robert J. Randisi. Signet, 2002.

Fort Lauderdale-based tennis pro/P.I. Rory Calhoun is hired by a woman who believed herself widowed in the September 11 attacks until she found her husband's credit card statement showing a transaction posted over two weeks after the attacks.

Like Healy's more famous P.I. John Cuddy, Rory Calhoun is a conscientious and compassionate investigator, letting the author feature two twists, the second of which is truly unexpected.

"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.

"Change of Life" by Lawrence Block

Available in: Enough Rope. William Morrow, 2002.

Royce Arnsletter believes he'll live to 76. On the eve of his thirty-eigth birthday, his frustration boils over at having done "not a damned thing" in half his life. The next day he plans to hold up the local bank with a shotgun, but the bank manager believes he's going hunting. When Royce asks for "every damned cent," the manager thinks he wants to withdraw all his own money. Royce backs off his plans, not even withdrawing all his own money.

The following day, even more frustrated, he decides to give himself no recourse but to rob the bank. So single-minded, he shoots his wife and shoots a bank teller to prove he is serious. Not having the foresight to bring extra shells, however, he is arrested and sentenced to 33 years in prison. What will he do with the five years after he gets out?

This story's noir undertones are somewhat lightened by Block's first-person parenthetical comments.

"Till Death Do Us Part" by Tim Maleeny

From: Death Do Us Part, ed. Harlan Coben. Little, Brown, and Company, 2006.

Recently nominated for a Macavity Award, this darkly comic story focuses on a chemist and botanist married sixty years. Theirs is not an ideal union. Each is fully aware of the other's indiscretions, yet divorce is unthinkable. Instead, they celebrate each anniversary by preparing innocuous-looking, yet truly deadly dishes for a multi-course meal. Up to now, the husband and wife have each managed to deduce the forms of poison before taking that fatal bite.

"Breathe Deep" by Donald E. Westlake

From: High Stakes ed. Robert J. Randisi. Signet, 2003.

This 1985 story rounds out Randisi's collection of gambling-themed stories. Vegas dealer Chuck encounters an old man who tells of his "fatal attraction" to casinos on the Strip. Something about the man seems off to Chuck, and he presses a silent alarm.

Security is slow to respond, and the old man goes on to describe the night he was removed from a casino and roughed up to the point of getting buried under green tanks out back. While in the hospital, he is told those green tanks contain oxygen. and he suspects oxygen is pumped in to keep people awake and playing.

Chuck tells the man, "They don't do that with the oxygen." Unconvinced, the man spills lighter fluid on the table and begins to strike a match against the felt...

The old man's voice and mannerisms, expertly handled by Westlake, sell the story.

"Carrera's Woman" by Richard Marsten

From: Learning to Kill by Ed McBain. Harcourt, 2006.

From a collection of Evan Hunter's early magazine stories, "Carrera's Woman" concerns American rogue Jeff MacCauley, locked in a standoff with Mexican bandit Jose Carrera high in the Sierra Madres. Carrera has stolen MacCauley's money belt, containing $10,000. MacCauley has kidnapped Carrera's woman Linda.

In a twist on the woman-in-jeopardy theme, Linda seduces Jeff, keeping readers guessing about her true loyalties and who will prevail.

"The Laughing Man" by J.D. Salinger

From: Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger. Little, Brown and Company, 1953.

The Laughing Man is a larger-than-life rogue whose tall tales are told by John Gedsudski, a twenty-two-year-old law student known as the Chief to twenty-five boys he drives to afterschool sports, the Comanches. Salinger's story covers the course of Gedsudski's romance with Mary Hudson as seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old narrator.

The narrator describes Mary's insinuation into the Comanches' exclusively male environment, first through a picture the Chief displays on their bus, then joining in their baseball games. The narrator's animosity toward Mary evolves into a crush, but he is unable to relay Mary's interaction with John beyond describing their most obvious actions. And though readers are more aware the romance isn't going well, we never learn exactly why.

In The Laughing Man's penultimate adventure, Gedsudski leaves him shot by his lawman nemesis. Finally, The Laughing Man manages to kill his enemies by spitting their bullets back at them, but not before losing his faithful pet wolf. Without his beloved pet, The Laughing Man loses the will to live, leaving the boys for whom he was so real shaken.

"Tainted Goods" by Charlie Stella

From: Dublin Noir ed. Ken Bruen. Akashic Books, 2006.

Full of beer, liquor, and himself Jack Dugan talks too much to twin thugs sitting in a New York pub. Not only does he hire the twins to do a little muscle work on his behalf, he also tells them about two women and the bar with whom they can have their way.

Six days later, Jack wakes up in Dublin to find the twins brutally killed and himself tied to a chair, awaiting the wrath of the pub's bouncer, cousin to one of women he went on about.

Stella has an economic prose style and a great feel for dialog. We know Jack's talk is bound to catch up to him. The interest is in when and how.