"The Reindeer Clue" by Edward D. Hoch

The Misadventures of Ellery Queen ed. Josh Pachter and Dale C. Andrews, p. 73–77

Two days before Christmas, Ellery Queen and his father, Inspector Richard Queen, are visiting the Children's Zoo when they are asked to help find out who murdered gossip columnist-turned-blackmailer Casey Sturgess, whose body is found in the reindeer pen.

With one woman and two men present as suspects, Ellery identifies the killer from dabs of Sturgess's blood left on a placard containing lines from Clement Clarke Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas".

Carla Coupe of publisher Wildside Press sent me a review copy of this March 2018 anthology of Queen pastiches and parodies. First published in The National Inquirer in 1975 with Ellery Queen's byline, "The Reindeer Clue" was for years thought to be the last story written by the original authors, a feat I'm not surprised master Ed Hoch pulled off.

"The Public Hero" by Robert S. Levinson

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January-February 2018, p. 168-177

Linda Landrigan of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Janet Rudolph of Mystery Readers International spread the word that Los Angeles reporter, public relations executive, producer, and crime fiction writer Robert S. Levinson died March 13 from pneumonia.

Having enjoyed Bob's Neil Gulliver & Stevie Marriner novels, I got to know him as a fellow member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, where his stories received three Derringer Award nominations and one win.

His most recent EQMM story follows 1979 Hollywood P.I. Rufus Reed, his quick shooting having foiled a bank robbery. Notoriety gets him hired as security for Sky Diver and the Sky Dwellers. He's with the band when an armed intruder gets to them, charging plagiarism. Though that incident lands Rufus in the hospital, he's approached by a man who offers to make him the subject of a movie.

Like much of Bob's fiction, "The Public Hero" is steeped in Hollywood lore. Its outcome particularly shows that even the savviest person can be taken with such glamorous promise.

"The Lighthouse and the Lamp" by William Dylan Powell

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January-February 2018, p. 31–42

William Dylan Powell

Unlicensed Corpus Christi, Texas P.I. Billy is intrigued when his elderly friend Clarabelle Mayhew claims to have a true-to-legend, wish-granting magic lamp. Despite Clarabelle's certainty her wishes came true by magic—including $1 million cash on her doorstep—Billy remains skeptical. He talks Clarabelle into letting him observe covertly when she makes her next wish.

Though, as Billy suspects, there's no magic involved, "The Lighthouse and the Lamp" stands out to me because there's no crime, either, but quite a mystery.

"The Avenging Angel" by John Lantigua

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March-April 2018, p. 91–100

Remembering journalist Lantigua's Willie Cuesta P.I. novels, I'm pleased to see Willie in the pages of EQMM. In this case, he's hired by Carlos Miranda, a former El Salvadoran gang member who has fled to Miami's Little Havana to reform, but who is paranoid the gang has sent an "avenging angel" to kill him.

Finding that Carlos's suspect also claims he only wants to reform, Willie brokers a meeting between them, but remains wary of trusting either, as must readers.

"Victory Garden" by G.M. Malliet

G.M. Malliet
photo by Joe Henson

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March-April 2018, p. 69-72

The current issue of EQMM includes a number of very short stories that pack surprising punch.

For much of this one, set in the middle of World War II, protagonist Carol presents herself the type of woman who would never divorce overweight, overbearing Silas, despite years of mistreatment.

Her veil of concern for the societal norms of the time obscures Carol's feelings and plans from other characters and readers alike until the very last word.

"Cleopatran Cocktails" by William Burton McCormick

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March-April 2018, p. 88-91

In two-and-a-quarter pages of first-person present tense narration, author McCormick gets into the mind of a woman obsessed with world records as she works up the nerve to break a museum display case and steal a pearl necklace worth $30 million.

Her goal, though, isn't to keep the prize but to dissolve the pearls in vinegar and drink them—surpassing Cleopatra VII of Egypt's drinking a single $15 million pearl, which the narrator calls "the world's most expensive breakfast."

"Double Deck the Halls" by Gretchen Archer

Henery Press, 2017

The annual Bethesda, Maryland convention Malice Domestic has announced its 2017 nominees for the Agatha Awards, honoring traditional mysteries as typified by the works of Agatha Christie, containing no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence. An April 2018 vote of Malice attendees will determine the winners. In the meantime, as part of the announcement, the Best Short Story nominees are freely available online.

Gretchen Archer's nominated story takes place in the world of her Davis Way series. Davis is the lead undercover investigator for a Mississippi resort and casino, but this particular story is told by Davis's grandmother, Dee, who finds herself captured by a Santa's elf who has strapped a bomb to Davis's friend, Bianca.

Archer's previous short stories have gone into the viewpoints of various characters in Davis's circle, and Granny proves quite the character, resourcefully trying to save Bianca while a captive herself.

Bill Crider (1941-2018)

Our own Bill Crider died yesterday, having battled cancer since July 2016. From his brother, Bob, who's been updating his Facebook friends:

My brother, Bill Crider, passed away this evening at 6:52 PM CST, Monday February 12, 2018. It was a peaceful end to a strong body and intellectual mind. Services pending and will be announced later.

I chatted briefly with Bill at Bouchercon 2017 in Toronto, where he was his usual good-natured self on panels. We met in person at my first Bouchercon, 2008 in Baltimore. Meanwhile, virtually, he always commented on my birthday blog posts. The smallest gestures can be the kindest.

I regret we won't share another con, but his wisdom, wit, and friendship will remain with me and all of us here at Nasty. Brutish. Short.

"The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie's Place" by Debra H. Goldstein

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, May-June 2017

The annual Bethesda, Maryland convention Malice Domestic has announced its 2017 nominees for the Agatha Awards, honoring traditional mysteries as typified by the works of Agatha Christie, containing no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence. An April 2018 vote of Malice attendees will determine the winners. In the meantime, as part of the announcement, the Best Short Story nominees are freely available online.

The narrator of Debra H. Goldstein's nominated story was a nine-year-old boy when his mother found "Mr. Johnnie, [a] bigwig at one of the banks and a friend of most of the city's politicians," stabbed to death in a bedroom she was meant to clean. From the boy's innocent perspective, readers infer where his mother worked and why it burned down, an engaging approach.

"The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn" by Gigi Pandian

Henery Press, 2017

The annual Bethesda, Maryland convention Malice Domestic has announced its 2017 nominees for the Agatha Awards, honoring traditional mysteries as typified by the works of Agatha Christie, containing no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence. An April 2018 vote of Malice attendees will determine the winners. In the meantime, as part of the announcement, the Best Short Story nominees are freely available online.

Gigi Pandian's nominated story balances homage to Christie, "locked room" tradition, and contemporary sensibilities. Fresh off the events of her fifth series novel, The Ninja's Illusion, treasure-hunting historian Jaya Jones and her friend Tamarind Ortega are snowbound in Denver. They share a taxi with famous—and infamous—thriller author Simon Quinn to the driver's recommended lodgings, the "haunted" Tanglewood Inn.

The owner, Rosalyn, tells of a Mr. Underhill, driven mad by a now-collector's edition of Murder on the Orient Express, still in the inn's library, locked under glass. In the middle of the night, Simon cries out and is found dead in the library. With no outward signs of trauma, he appears to have died in similar fashion to Mr. Underhill. With no outside help available until morning, it's up to Jaya to investigate.

"Whose Wine is It Anyway?" by Barb Goffman

50 Shades of Cabernet: An Anthology of Wine Mysteries ed. Joe Coccaro, Köehler Books, 2017

The annual Bethesda, Maryland convention Malice Domestic has announced its 2017 nominees for the Agatha Awards, honoring traditional mysteries as typified by the works of Agatha Christie, containing no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence. An April 2018 vote of Malice attendees will determine the winners. In the meantime, as part of the announcement, the Best Short Story nominees are freely available online.

In Barb Goffman's nominated story, Myra, retiring after forty years as a legal secretary, is frustrated training her attractive, flighty replacement Jessica. Myra goes from passive-aggressive to actively aggressive when her friend and boss, Douglas McPherson, asks her to put on her own retirement party, having forgotten himself.

Myra changes a memo she'd been writing to Jessica, deemphasizing a note about Douglas's wine allergy. She assumes Jessica will miss the note and give Douglas a mild breakout. However, Douglas's allergy is more severe and Jessica more competent than they seem.

"A Necessary Ingredient" by Art Taylor

Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea ed. Andrew McAleer and Paul D. Marks, Down and Out Books, 2017, p. 208-239

Last week, the annual Bethesda, Maryland convention Malice Domestic announced its 2017 nominees for the Agatha Awards, honoring traditional mysteries as typified by the works of Agatha Christie, containing no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence. An April 2018 vote of Malice attendees will determine the winners. In the meantime, as part of the announcement, the Best Short Story nominees are freely available online.

At the outset of Art Taylor's nominated story, narrator Ambrose Thornton declares he is not a detective. Pressured by his wealthy, locally influential father to do something with his time, he's taken a correspondence course in investigation and set up an office, but the case in this story is his first.

Esmé, owner of a new eponymous restaurant down the street from Thornton's office, hires him on the rumor someone in town is growing tonka beans, aromatic South American beans banned by the FDA for their deleterious effect on the liver. Esmé, however, asserts one would have to consume a preposterous amount to bring on said effect. She wants in on the source to use the beans in her recipes.

I had read a few of Taylor's Del & Louise stories, about a convenience store clerk who runs off with a criminal she senses has nobler ambitions. "A Necessary Ingredient" is told in a similarly pleasant, conversational style so its well-placed plot twists sneak up.

"Child's Play" by Bill Moody

Murder...and All That Jazz, ed. Robert J. Randisi, Signet, 2004, p. 95–108

From a newspaper article, tenor sax jazz musician Wilson Childs discovers his old friend, pianist Quincy Simmons, missing twenty-five years since skipping bail, has been found living at a homeless shelter. Haunted by the night he and Simmons were pulled over and Quincy took the fall for Childs' weed and his own gun, Childs tracks down the reporter, hoping to reunite with his friend.

Jazz drummer and author Bill Moody died last month, aged 76. This story stands out to me in that it's more hopeful than much of the genre. The initial report of Simmons alive was better news than I expected to get.

"Half-Life" by Kate Ellis

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January-February 2018, p. 95–105

An "incident" at a nuclear power station brings PC George Jenkins to Primrose Cottage to evacuate elderly Rosa Cage. Jenkins has a personal reason to visit, too: the chance to gain insight into his father, who disappeared before George was born.

From Jenkins' viewpoint, we read letters his father wrote his mother while staying at the cottage in 1965, helping to build the power station, and we follow the present questioning of potential witnesses to his father's stay. Ellis also lets us into Rosa Cage's patchy mental state, which effectively deepens the mystery, and a third and final viewpoint, PC Karen Dawson, who arrives to back up Jenkins when Cage proves a challenge.

"Remembering Tally" by John M. Floyd

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, January-February 2009, p. 102–109

At what his campaign calls their "blue-collar" office, short and shady gubernatorial frontrunner J. Talmadge "Tally" Byrd takes a phone call that turns out to be a bomb threat. The bomber gives Tally a character-defining choice—tell everyone in the office about the bomb, or save only himself—saying he has three minutes left.

Real politicians are seldom this starkly put to the test, and their bad decisions don't come back to bite them quickly enough for my taste, so I'm grateful all that does happen in this story.

Multiple Derringer Award winner John M. Floyd currently blogs at SleuthSayers.

"Murder on Rue Royal" by Angela Crider Neary

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January-February 2018, p. 67–75

The staff of New Orleans' Cafe Alcide is eager to impress important—and self-important—food critic Niles Breaux and make up for his previous negative review. They do impress Breaux, only to see him gasp to death minutes after complimenting chef-owner Jean-Claude Alcide.

Our own Bill Crider's daughter makes her EQMM debut with a twist on the multi-culprit "perfect" crime. Neary goes into many characters' viewpoints, showing three had grudges against Alcide. NOPD Det. Charles Rousseau arrests these three, citing evidence they conspired to frame Alcide for Breaux's murder, but—I'll just say Rousseau is no Poirot.

"A Poison That Leaves No Trace" by Sue Grafton

Kinsey and Me: Stories, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2013, p. 127-146

The pioneering and prolific author of the Kinsey Millhone P.I. series died December 28, 2017 aged 77. First appearing in Sisters in Crime 2 (Berkley, 1990), "A Poison That Leaves No Trace" was one of her favorites, reprinted in at least two later anthologies at her request.

After giving the impression she thought Kinsey would be a man and suggesting her fee of $30 an hour is too steep, Shirese "Sis" Dunaway hires Kinsey to investigate her estranged sister Marge's death. Not believing the official finding Marge's death was without foul play heart-related, Sis casts suspicion on Marge's daughter, Justine.

Confirming the official finding with the hall of records and the funeral director, Kinsey then visits Justine on the pretense of owing Marge $600. Justine's eagerness to claim the money makes Kinsey suspect she's lying about something.

When you get to the twist that Sis and Justine both lie to Kinsey, you have to admire how convincing Sis is, her skepticism teasing out Kinsey's desire to prove herself.

"Haven't Seen You Since the Funeral" by Ernest B. and Alice A. Brown

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, December 2008, p. 25–41

Out jogging, Boston P.I. Valerie Dymond gets a cell phone call from a stranger apparently watching her. Dealing with her fear, Val goes about tracking down the stranger through her open cases and a car she spots.

Created by husband-and-wife team Ernest B. and Alice A Brown, Val is tough enough, but she's introspective enough to explore why this stranger gets to her more than a simple prank caller might.

The mention of a funeral brings to mind "Grave Trouble" from the same issue. While that story quickly sets a humorous tone, the cover story just as quickly sets a chilling one.

"Grave Trouble" by R.T. Lawton

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, December 2008, p. 60–73

With a nod to Lawrence Block and a dash of Donald E. Westlake, this comedic caper finds claustrophobic, cash-strapped Yarnell going along with his partner Beaumont's plan to rob a jewelry store through the sewer system the night before Halloween. Due to a forgotten tape measure, however, Beaumont misjudges the distance underground, and they wind up tunneling into a funeral home.

Retired federal law enforcement agent Lawton currently blogs at SleuthSayers.

"Dysperception" by Larry Light

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January-February 2018, p. 85–94

I admit up front this story caught my eye for its protagonist, Gerald, father of college-aged daughter, Ashley, to whom he breaks the news her mother, Jenna, wants a divorce. To Ashley's protests, Gerald pleads Jenna's habit of "dysperception," seeing things incorrectly to bad ends.

The coined term fits the story overall in that Gerald—a popular athlete back in school who's taken to living off Jenna's money—has a rather inflated image of himself. That overconfidence compels him to manipulate not only Ashley but also neighbors Tim and Mindy Heston in an elaborate plot to kill Jenna, a plot largely foiled by the same overconfidence.

A well-conceived, well-told EQMM debut for Larry Light.

"Farewell Cruise" by Martin Edwards

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January-February 2018, p. 43–49

This is an atmospheric tale from the viewpoint of a pianist observing three Caribbean cruise guests. Visiting the ship's lounge each night, new divorcée Wanda Thomson appears to be seducing her lawyer, Justin Lemaitre, as Justin's wife Millie looks on, increasingly humiliated.

The pianist comes to sympathize with Millie, and she tells him she's given Justin an ultimatum: her or Wanda. Justin appears to choose Millie, and Wanda appears to commit suicide, but Edwards reminds us throughout that the pianist is not a professional detective and we must keep asking how close his perspective is to the truth.

"Wake Me When It's Over" by Robert Garner McBrearty

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January-February 2018, p. 137–38

Avid fiction readers want to buy into everything writers do in telling stories. The late writer and teacher John C. Gardner described the writer's task as creating a vivid, continuous dream. Revealing sections or whole stories to be dreams, though, can make readers feel cheated, rudely awakened.

In twenty-two paragraphs across two pages, Robert Garner McBrearty uses dreams to present protagonist Samuels' suspicion his wife is having an affair. Along with Samuels, though, we become unable to tell dream from reality, not waking us, but locking us in.

"Stick" by Doug Allyn

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January-February 2018, p. 17–30

Doug Allyn's latest EQMM story turns on deceptive appearances. Elderly "Stick" Shefer fends off assault by a knife-wielding meth addict, but a security camera records the incident, drawing the attention of inquisitive police detective Chantelle Robinson.

Though Shefer has nothing to fear from his encounter with the meth addict, Chantelle's interest relates to the thirty-year-old unsolved homicide of her mother, Rita. At the time, Shefer was romantically involved with Rita's mother, Velvet Dunbar, and Rita's body was found in his car.

Reluctant as he is out of respect for Velvet, Stick's involvement in the story goes well beyond telling Chantelle what he remembers of the night of the murder. The more Stick is drawn in, the more readers are, until a satisfyingly full picture of that night develops.

e-Golem by SJ Rozan

Okay, so SJ is known to all mystery readers and has won every prize for mystery writing available except, ironically, The Rozan*. But this story is really good. I mean it takes place in a used bookstore - what more dangerous setting for a writer can there be? Every cliche is primed and ready for use. See also: writers writing about writer's block.There is also the Book of Ancient Wisdom trope.

So you might start to wonder if the story is merely a pile of dusty cliches. It's not... Unless you think a pile of dust is always a pile of dust. And to think that, you'd need to forget your Genesis story... The Bible one, not the Star Trek one.

The story starts with the dust of the bookstore and ends with the dust of the bookstore. What happens in between, well, let's just say you'll like it.

Find it in the current Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.



* She was a lock for it earlier this year when I made it up, but she missed a filing deadline. Ah well, there's always next year...

"Come Back Paddy Reilly" by Con Lehane

You read Con Lehane novels for the poetry of language and for the completely human characters. You read this short story in the current Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine for the same reasons.

Paddy Reilly is a Bronx-Irish cop working undercover when he comes into contact with Nancy, a woman who used to be a girl he knew way back when. As in other Lehane stories, when two people collide, a heart has to break somewhere. The fact that it's a "Black Mask" entry for EQMM should also tell you something about how this one will play out.

As a writer, I'm in awe of Con's ability to quickly draw a character who appears to be every bit human.

If you're looking for longer form work from Lehane, try his "Murder at the 42nd Street Library."  

"A Real Work of Art" by Gwenda Bond

Yesterday via Twitter, I learned Gwenda Bond was writing YA novels with DC Comics' legendary Lois Lane as protagonist. The concept alone was enough to convince me, but Gwenda also happens to have two short stories available for free right now on Amazon Kindle, so I downloaded and read both. The one I'm choosing to review involves the more clear-cut crime.

At her latest of many schools as an Army brat, sixteen-year-old Lois takes an elective art class. Around the studio are reproductions of masterpieces, and the teacher, Mr. Jacques, only instructs his students to pick a masterpiece and try to imitate it. Lois happens to recognize Mr. Jacques' signature on the reproductions as belonging to a fugitive forger. With a little help from an online friend she knows only as SmallvilleGuy, but largely on her own, Lois investigates and ultimately alerts the police.

Bond's writing reminds me fondly of Erica Durance's supporting performance as teenage Lois on TV's Smallville. Here, though, Lois is the unmistakably the lead.

"A Perfectly Ordinary Case of Blackmail", by A.A. Milne

A.A. Milne is, of course, best known as the creator of Winnie the Pooh and the other inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood, but he dabbled in mystery fiction from time to time. His novel The Red House Mystery is well-written, thought the plot is somewhat pedestrian. (Alexander Woollcott famously called it one the of the three best mysteries of all time, which suggests to me that Woollcott only read three mysteries.)

As "A Perfectly Ordinary Case of Blackmail" opens, Sir Vernon Filmer, a politician of long service and some repute, as well as a rather superior manner, arrives at the office of his very proper solicitor, Cedric Watherston. Filmer has a problem - as the title of the story indicates, he's being blackmailed. Watherston, quite naturally, wants to know none of the particulars. He does know a man who specializes in such cases, another solicitor whose morals are rather more flexible than Watherston's own.

(Watherston would normally never have associated with such an individual, but he'd been very useful when they were both prisoners of the Kaiser in 1917.)

Scroope was, in fact, a very useful indivdual, and soon he had the story out of Sir Vernon. Many years before, before the Great War even, a man had mistaken Sir Vernon for his wife's lover and viciously attacked him. Sir Vernon fought back and had killed the man, after which he and the man's body were discovered by Sir Vernon's friend. It looked damning. The fight had been brutal, and the wounds inflicted on the dead man could easily have been interpreted as deliberate murder.

Being a professional in such matters, Scroope cheerfully begins making his preparations, and with the clever way he works it, the guilty party - or parties - are guaranteed to get what they deserve.

This was a delightful comic story. Milne sketches the characters quickly but clearly, and his light touch lends an air of humor to the whole enterprise. The ending may not be strictly legal, but Scroope (and the reader) will no doubt find it just and proper.

I read this story in Masterpieces of Mystery: The Golden Age, Part 1, edited by Ellery Queen. I've read a couple of other volumes in the series (out of 20), and I'm working my way through The Golden Age, Part 2 right now. They're all excellent, and generally can be found at reasonable prices.

Bill Crider Update

Last week, along with the mystery community, we learned our fellow blogger Bill Crider was diagnosed with an aggressive form of carcinoma. Next week, Bill will try to get into M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Bill's few, occasional reviews here are a small sample of what a great fan and supporter of short stories he is. The mystery genre and the short form are lucky to have him, and he will continue to inspire as much as his work does.

"Death of a Feminist" by Sarah Weinman

From Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, June 2016

This short story showed up in my current Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and I admit I read it first because I've met Sarah at Bouchercons, other conventions, book launches, etc. Not to mention her huge internet presence. I suspect she's reviewed one of my books, and I don't doubt "mildly entertaining" was in there somewhere (possibly after "could have been..."). But enough about me...

The story features a main character who is very much connected to all things internet. And that character's mother. A mother who, it appears, is in a wheelchair and never leaves the building. If there's any legwork to do, the narrator does it. So, echoes of Nero Wolfe, no?

In this case, a famous feminist is being cyber-stalked. Vicious and anonymous attacks via the internet, texts, etc. This is a part I would have liked to hear more of - it seems to me that the cyber-bully is a new and improved bully: you don't have to be on the same continent to drive someone insane with threats, slanders, etc. The schoolyard bully at least risks getting punched in the nose (though their calculations about who to pick on help them avoid this outcome), and they risked being ostracized if the bullying backfired in any way.

Still, the relationship between the narrator and her boss, Ms. Gallant, is the main draw here. That and, when you get to the end, (which I don't intend to spoil) the, possibly, psychopathic reasons for the "death of a feminist". And how much her death was motivated (if that's the right word - don't want to blame the victim at all) by her attempt to live her life and to change and grow as a person.

Anyway, go read it, then we'll talk... Then I'm sure Ms. Weinman will have another story to talk about featuring the lead characters - they deserve a series, I think...

NBS Special Report: Flash and Bang: A Short Mystery Fiction Society Anthology

Cover ©2015 Untreed Reads Publishing
Cover design by Ginny Glass

The Short Mystery Fiction Society formed in 1996 to promote mystery & crime short fiction. Graham, Bill, Steven, and I are members.

On October 8, Untreed Reads published the Society's first member anthology, Flash and Bang, in paperback and ebook.

SMFS member and Untreed Reads editor-in-chief Jay Hartman called for unpublished mystery, suspense, or thriller stories containing either a "flash" or a "bang".

Limiting submissions to one flash (300–1,000 words) and one short (1,500–3,000 words) per member, Jay received more than 300.

His selection of 19 stories ranges from historical to contemporary, cozy to hardboiled, amateur and animal sleuth to police and private detective:

• "The Conflagration at the Nameless Cotton Gin" by Bobbi A. Chukran
• "The Perfect Crime" by Herschel Cozine
• "Don't Let the Cop into the House" by O'Neil De Noux
• "Fireworks" by P.A. De Voe
• "Rosie's Choice" by John M. Floyd
• "The Wrong Girl" by Barb Goffman
• "Murder on Elm Street" by Su Kopil
• "Silent Measures" by B.V. Lawson
• "Don't Be Cruel" by JoAnne Lucas
• "A Simple Job" by Andrew MacRae
• "Arthur" by Sandra Murphy
• "Thor's Breath" by Suzanne Berube Rorhus
• "Beautiful Killer" by Judy Penz Sheluk
• "A Day Like No Other" by Walter A.P. Soethoudt (translated by Willem Verhulst)
• "The Raymond Chandler Con" by Earl Staggs
• "The Bag Lady" by Laurie Stevens
• "Fractured Memories" by Julie Tollefson
• "The Fruit of Thy Loins" by Albert Tucher
• "Sierra Noir" by Tim Wohlforth

Through October 31, Flash and Bang is part of Untreed Reads 30% Off sale on mystery and horror titles.

"The Napoli Express", by Randall Garrett

The Napoli Express makes the run from Paris to Naples only twice a week. In the first-class cabin there are eight cabins, with room for sixteen passengers total, though on this run one of the cabins has only a single occupant. Two of the passengers on board for this trip are Lord Darcy, chief criminal investigator for the Duke of Normandy, and his assistant, master sorcerer Sean O Lochlainn, both with suitable aliases.

As the train makes its way down through Lyon to Marseille on the Mediterranean coast, and then along the coast to the duchies of Italy. Very late during the second night of the journey, Sean and Darcy hear the other occupants trooping along the corridor, one at a time, to the compartment containing only a single traveler, a man named John Peabody.

In the morning, Peabody is found dead, bludgeoned to death. A dozen blows to the head; a dozen visitors in the night. Coincidence?

Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy stories are set in an alternate history where English King Richard II did not die of a crossbow wound, but lived to found a Plantagenet dynasty that survived to modern times, and in which magic has been codified and is used in place of science in our own. Despite this, they are fair-play detective stories in which a rational solution can always be found - no magic required.

Garrett was also fond of seeking inspiration from the classics of the mystery genre. The most famous instance was his novel Too Many Magicians, in which a main character resembled Nero Wolfe and has a smart-aleck assistant named Bontriomphe ("good win"). The title of that one is quite similar those of Rex Stout's novels Too Many Cooks, Too Many Women, and Too Many Men.

In this case, of course, he's taking on Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. His solution is ingenious, and he even slips in some subtle criticism of the original.

You really can't go wrong with the Lord Darcy tales, which are available in a collection simply called Lord Darcy, which is out of print but easily found.

"Shambleau" by C.L. Moore

Available in Northwest of Earth, Paizo Publishing, 2007

I became interested in C.L. Moore's Northwest Smith stories upon learning Smith was an inspiration for Star Wars' Han Solo. The first and most famous Smith story, "Shambleau", was also Moore's first professional sale (Weird Tales, November 1933). It establishes Smith as a tough-minded man visiting a colony on Mars for shady business the details of which are left cryptic. Spotting a young woman being chased by a mob, Smith manages to save her and avoid bloodshed simply by saying she is his, a twist that strikes even Smith as odd.

Letting the woman stay with him, Smith realizes she is not quite human, but cannot say definitively what she is. After a day out on business, Smith returns to his lodgings and acts on his attraction to his guest and her palpable willingness to have him. Before things go too far, Smith finds himself suddenly revolted. This, however, is not enough to save him a perilous second encounter with her.

I found Moore's style evocative yet easily readable, particularly in its depiction of Smith's conflicting attraction and horror at what he discovers the woman to be.

"Heat Death" by Bill Cameron

On Twitter, Bill Cameron offered copies of the July/August 2015 AHMM, featuring this Skin Kadash story, and I was lucky enough to get one. Kadash is a cop in Cameron's loose series of novels, but "Heat Death" serves to introduce him to new readers while on a road trip to Canada with his only friend, Tommy, in the summer of 1971.

Expecting to be drafted into the U.S. Army, Tommy's motivation for the trip is to rendezvous with a woman he's fallen for, named Instance. Skin goes along to keep Tommy out of trouble, and only narrowly does so. As he sketches a younger Kadash, Cameron evokes the freedom of a road trip and the tension of the times equally well.

"A Visit to the One-Eyed Man" by Bill Crider

From NoirCon and Out of the Gutter Present Noir Riot, Volume 1 (September 2014)

Fellow NBS reviewer Bill Crider and I have work published in the inaugural issue of Noir Riot, the print journal of Philadelphia's biennial noir convention, NoirCon.

Bill's story opens with the narrator surprised by his homicidal brother, Don, at a cafe. Don and two thugs force him out of the cafe into a car for the proverbial drive into the country where they plan to kill him. Don explains that the narrator has been seen in the company of a crime boss's wife, and said boss, The One-Eyed Man, can't abide that.

Bill peppers the drive with bits of the brothers' history. For instance, this isn't the first attempt Don has made on the narrator's life. That was a a car accident that resulted in the insertion of a metal plate in the narrator's skull and talk of brain damage that the narrator dismisses, but that led me to be careful believing his side of the story.

Buckle up for a twisty ride.

The Very Old Man by Jenny Milchman

Creepy. Let's start with that.

"The man looked older than God or the Devil."

Okay so you're in a supermarket and this old man shambles over to your cart where your 9 month old baby is holding herself steady in the seat, but just barely. He gives the girl a dirty old quarter, gives her leg a shake, mumbles a few words. Creeped out? Or do you think the whole episode is harmless? Assume creeped out since your daughter doesn't look/act quite the same afterwards. What next? Are there steps to take to ward off bad old man juju?

I won't tell you what the mother, Denise, ultimately does. That would break the #1 rule of reviewing. But I can say the story is a very nice bit of character development hinging on Denise's reaction to that initial encounter in the supermarket.

This story is in the latest issue (July 2014) of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and if you like it, you might want to look up her latest novel: RUIN FALLS from Ballantine Books. Or visit the author at her website.

"The Courier" by Dan Fesperman

In Agents of Treachery, ed. Otto Penzler, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2010.

In 1958, former B-17 gunner and spy Bill Tobin is working at the Federal Records Center, tasked with deciding which documents from World War II get burned, declassified, or locked away, when he comes across the file on Lieutenant Seymour Parker. Shot down during his first mission, Parker was captured by the Swiss and recruited by Tobin because he seemed the sort who would crack if interrogated by the Germans. Allen Dulles and the OSS intended to use Parker to pass bad intelligence to the Germans about U.S. troop movements.

I was drawn into the story as Tobin read the file and recalled his own recruitment by Dulles, and his part in setting Parker up as bait for the Germans. I learned along with Tobin what became of Parker after he was handed over to the Germans in a prisoner exchange fourteen years earlier. Fesperman makes good use of the file to frame this story, and of Tobin's current position to bring about some closure.

NBS Special Report: 2014 SMFS Derringer Finalists

The Short Mystery Fiction Society has announced the finalists for its 2014 Derringer Awards as determined by SMFS member volunteer judges:

For Best Flash (Up to 1,000 words)

• "Final Statement" by Robert Bailey (The Flash Fiction Offensive, July 18, 2013)
• "Not My Day" by Stephen Buehler (Last Exit to Murder, Down & Out Books, June 2013)
• "The Needle and the Spoon" by Allan Leverone (Shotgun Honey, November 15, 2013)
• "Luck is What You Make" by Stephen D. Rogers (Crime Factory, May 2013)
• "Terry Tenderloin and the Pig Thief" by John Weagly (Shotgun Honey, June 21, 2013)

For Best Short Story (1,001–4,000 words)

• "Pretty Little Things" by Chris F. Holm (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July 2013)
• "The Present" by Robert Lopresti (The Strand Magazine, February-May 2013)
• "The Sweetheart Scamster" by Rosemary McCracken (Thirteen by the Mesdames of Mayhem, August 2013)
• "The Little Outlaw" by Mike Miner (Plan B Magazine, August 9, 2013)
• "The Cemetery Man" by Bill Pronzini (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July 2013)

For Best Long Story (4,001–8,000 words)

• "Myrna!" by John Bubar (Best New England Crime Stories 2014: Stone Cold, Level Best Books, September 2013)
• "Bloody Signorina" by Joseph D'Agnese (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, September 2013)
• "Give Me a Dollar" by Ray Daniel (Best New England Crime Stories 2014: Stone Cold, Level Best Books, September 2013)
• "Dance Man" by Andrew Jetarski (Last Exit to Murder, Down & Out Books, June 2013)
• "A Dangerous Life" by Adam Purple (Best New England Crime Stories 2014: Stone Cold, Level Best Books, September 2013)

For Best Novelette (8,001–20,000 words)

• "The Serpent Beneath the Flower" by Jack Bates (Mind Wings Audio, April 2013)
• "The Goddaughter's Revenge" by Melodie Campbell (Orca Rapid Reads, October 2013)
• "For Love's Sake" by O'Neil De Noux (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, July/August 2013)
• "The Antiquary's Wife" by William Burton McCormick (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, March 2013)
• "Last Night in Cannes" by James L. Ross (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, November 2013)

Finalists may obtain certificates of achievement by emailing SMFS Vice President Gerald So (G_SO at YAHOO dot COM).

SMFS members in good standing since December 31, 2013 vote to determine the winner in each category March 1–30, 2014. The winners will be announced Monday, March 31, 2014.

"Class Reunion" by Robb White

This week's story at BEAT to a PULP is told from the viewpoint of "Pig" Piglowski attending his twenty-year high school reunion in East Palestine, Ohio. White sets a dark tone from the second paragraph as Pig remembers his best friend from high school, Joey Soliday. The poorest of the poor in East Palestine, Joey's father was blinded in a glass factory explosion. His sister's life mysteriously went off the rails until she died of an apparent overdose.

"Class Reunion" stands out to me because Pig doesn't drive the action. He remembers unreliably or hears information secondhand months or years later. While it made me feel helpless, this conceit also kept me intrigued and in suspense.

Having first read Robb White's work years ago, submitted under the name Terry White to Thrilling Detective, I'm happy to be reunited.

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: 2013 PWA Shamus Awards

This past week, the Private Eye Writers of America released its list of finalists for the 2013 Shamus Awards. Below are the Best P.I. Short Story nominees:

"The Sequel" by Jeffrey Deaver in The Strand
"After Cana" by Terence Faherty in EQMM
"O'Nelligan and the Lost Fates" by Michael Nethercott in AHMM
"Illegitimati Non Carborundum" by Stephen D. Rogers in Crimespree
"Ghost Negligence" by John Shepphird in AHMM

NBS Special Report: 2013 SMFS Derringer Winners

As announced March 31, 2013. Winners in bold

BEST FLASH STORY (Up to 1,000 words):

• "An Old-Fashioned Villain" by Nick Andreychuk (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, May 2012)
• "The Cable Job" by Randy DeWitt (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, September 2012)
• "Dead Man" by A.J. Hayes (Off The Record 2: At The Movies, September 2012)
• "Daddy's Girl" by Nicola Kennington (The Flash Fiction Offensive, July 22, 2012)
• "Twas the Knife Before Christmas" by Allan Leverone (Shotgun Honey, December 24, 2012)

BEST SHORT STORY (1,001 - 4,000 words):

• "Getting Out of the Box" by Michael Bracken (Crime Square, Vantage Point, 2012)
• "A Special Kind of Hell" by Hilary Davidson (BEAT to a PULP: Round Two, May 2012)
• "Dead Weight" by Allan Leverone (Burning Bridges: A Renegade Fiction Anthology, April 2012)
• "Nain Rouge" by Barbara Nadel (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 2012)
• "Baby Boy" by Todd Robinson (Protectors: Stories to Benefit PROTECT, September 2012)

BEST LONG STORY (4,001 - 8,000 words):

• "The Pot Hunters" by David Hagerty (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, June 2012)
• "A Regular Story" by Peggy McFarland (Best New England Crime Stories 2013: Blood Moon, Level Best Books, November 2012)
• "Peaches" by Todd Robinson (Grift #1, April 2012)
• "When Duty Calls" by Art Taylor (Chesapeake Crimes: This Job Is Murder, 2012)
• "Double Wedding" Mo Walsh (Best New England Crime Stories 2013: Blood Moon, Level Best Books, November 2012)

BEST NOVELETTE (8,001 - 20,000 words):

• "Wood-Smoke Boys" by Doug Allyn (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2012)
• "Iphigenia in Aulis" by Mike Carey (An Apple for the Creature, September 2012)
• "Mariel" by David Dean (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, December 2012)
• "Pirate Dave and the Captain's Ghost" by Toni L.P. Kelner (An Apple for the Creature, September 2012)
• "The Sunny South" by Chris Muessig (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2012)

EDWARD D. HOCH MEMORIAL GOLDEN DERRINGER FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

• Loren D. Estleman

NBS Special Report: 2013 Derringer Finalists

As determined by volunteer judges from the Short Mystery Fiction Society and announced by SMFS Awards Coordinator Anthony Rudzki:

BEST FLASH STORY (Up to 1,000 words):

• "An Old-Fashioned Villain" by Nick Andreychuk (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, May 2012)
• "The Cable Job" by Randy DeWitt (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, September 2012)
• "Dead Man" by A.J. Hayes (Off The Record 2: At The Movies, September 2012)
• "Daddy's Girl" by Nicola Kennington (The Flash Fiction Offensive, July 22, 2012)
• "Twas the Knife Before Christmas" by Allan Leverone (Shotgun Honey, December 24, 2012)

BEST SHORT STORY (1,001 - 4,000 words):

• "Getting Out of the Box" by Michael Bracken (Crime Square, Vantage Point, 2012)
• "A Special Kind of Hell" by Hilary Davidson (BEAT to a PULP: Round Two, May 2012)
• "Dead Weight" by Allan Leverone (Burning Bridges: A Renegade Fiction Anthology, April 2012)
• "Nain Rouge" by Barbara Nadel (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 2012)
• "Baby Boy" by Todd Robinson (Protectors: Stories to Benefit PROTECT, September 2012)

BEST LONG STORY (4,001 - 8,000 words):

• "The Pot Hunters" by David Hagerty (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, June 2012)
• "A Regular Story" by Peggy McFarland (Best New England Crime Stories 2013: Blood Moon, Level Best Books, November 2012)
• "Peaches" by Todd Robinson (Grift #1, April 2012)
• "When Duty Calls" by Art Taylor (Chesapeake Crimes: This Job Is Murder, 2012)
• "Double Wedding" Mo Walsh (Best New England Crime Stories 2013: Blood Moon, Level Best Books, November 2012)

BEST NOVELETTE (8,001 - 20,000 words):

• "Wood-Smoke Boys" by Doug Allyn (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2012)
• "Iphigenia in Aulis" by Mike Carey (An Apple for the Creature, September 2012)
• "Mariel" by David Dean (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, December 2012)
• "Pirate Dave and the Captain's Ghost" by Toni L.P. Kelner (An Apple for the Creature, September 2012)
• "The Sunny South" by Chris Muessig (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2012)

The 2013 Derringer winners will be determined by a March 1–30 poll of eligible SMFS members and will be announced March 31.

"Knife Fight" by Joel Goldman

Originally published in the Mystery Writers of America anthology The Prosecution Rests and now available for Amazon Kindle, "Knife Fight" is engagingly told by defendant Travis Runnels, a previously convicted drug dealer, now on trial for the fatal stabbing of Diego Hernandez.

The story unfolds as Travis meets with public defender Alex Stone and follows her performance in court. When the case turns against Travis, he accuses Alex of using what he's told her in confidence to pursue her own agenda.

Former trial lawyer Goldman so enjoyed writing Alex Stone, he expanded her into a novel series, the first of which, Stone Cold, is due out next month.

"The Big O" by Vicki Hendricks

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

If you're a fan of Hendricks's sexy noir novels as I am, the title of this story may fool you, too. "The Big O" refers to Florida's Lake Okeechobee, where protagonist Candy flees, trying to provide a better life than her year-old son, Chance, would've had with his abusive father.

True to noir, Candy lands in another abusive relationship with trailer park owner Jimmy. As a a hurricane bears down, Candy hatches a plot to kill Jimmy and steal his stash of drug money. Just right for a hot summer afternoon.

His Daughter's Island by Brendan DuBois

The current Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (July 2012) has this nifty story by past master Brendan DuBois. DuBois has taken home Barry and Shamus awards and been nominated several times for Edgar awards, so the story was never going to be a bad one, but this one was more than competent; it was touching.

Zach Ford is a father whose daugther died on a private island in the middle of a giant lake. She was invited to a party by the son of the richest man in town and who could resist the lure of the swankiest address in the state? Some alcohol, a pill slipped to her, and then she's no more. That's it. An accident, the coroner will say, and the father of the rich boy slips his son out of the country. What can her father do? How can he even begin to seek Justice for his daughter if the law refuses to be on his side? And how can he get closure without Justice?

Want to know how he goes about things? Get a copy of the story.

Shanks Commences by Robert Lopresti

(Cough. Cough. Clear away the cobwebs...)
It's been a while, but here's a review. A fine story by one of my favorite storytellers, Robert Lopresti - "Shanks Commences." If you don't know Shanks is Lopresti's series character - a mystery writer who solves mysteries he comes across/stumbles over. In this case, the stumbling happens on a college campus. Shanks is there to receive and honorary degree, give a commencement address, and, most importantly, donate some of his books to the school's library. The librarian had been a professor - gave Shanks a D in English and looks down his nose at the man now regardless of Shanks' success as an author. Lots of people might want him dead. And dead is how he's ultimately found.

Is Shanks a suspect? Well, he has to be at first, but don't worry. He's more into helping to uncover the real killer. And with a witty repartee with his wife, and some smart alecky remarks to the official detective in charge of the investigation, this is exactly what he does. In any event, this is a humorous story in the current Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

Note also that Lopresti is a college librarian himself...

"Remaindered" by Lee Goldberg

From: Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, August 2001.

Thriller writer Kevin Dangler—whose second and third books sank under the weight of bad reviews—meets Megan, an alluring librarian whose attention entices him into a night of passion.

When Megan proves eager to spread the news of her night with the married Kevin, he snaps and inadvertently beats her to death. Luckily finding a book on forensics among Megan's shelves, Kevin meticulously cleans up the evidence of his crime, but one detail does him in.

"Remaindered" shows off Goldberg's experience in publishing, his wry sense of humor, and the attention to detail that serves him well as author of the Monk tie-in novels. The story is available as a free Kindle download this week only. The ebook includes a link and password to watch a 20-minute short film based on "Remaindered", directed by Goldberg.

Nasty. Brutish. Short. Mobile.

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"Chin Yong-Yun Takes a Case" by S.J. Rozan

Currently a free download at Smashwords, this story features the mother of Rozan's series P.I., Lydia Chin. A new, not-yet trusted member of Yong-Yun's mah-jongg circle shows up at her door with her computer programmer son, looking to hire Lydia. The son, visiting New York from Beijing, explains that his infant son has been kidnapped and there are two hours left on a deadline to hand over secret software code in exchange for his life.

Due to the ticking clock, Yong-Yun accepts the case, claiming to work more closely with Lydia than she actually does. The tone of the story is light, yet I worried that Yong-Yun might be in over her head. Lydia does call in at one point, but Yong-Yun deflects her offer of help.

I saw through the kidnapping plot a little before the end, but the real fun of this story is hearing Yong-Yun's voice and seeing how she puts things together.

"Dolls", by Victor Gischler

From: Three On A Light, 2010.

Dean Murphy used to lead an interesting life. One day at a flea market he'd picked up a Zippo lighter, and ever since then, his one-man detective agency had seen enough vampires, werewolves, and other assorted ghouls to fill a dozen Twilight books.

But now the curse haunting the Zippo has been exorcised, and his life is back to normal, or, more accurately, boring.

Finally, though, he gets off his butt and takes a new case, an odd young woman named Felicia. Felicia just dumped her boyfriend, and when he left, he took something that belonged to her: a red backpack. Felicia wants it back. She wants it back badly.

Back in the swing of things at last, it only takes Dean a few hours to track down the backpack. Unfortunately he finds her boyfried, Sebastian, as well, and he's not jolly or green but he is a giant. Things come to a happy conclusion, for all except the giant, and Felicia pays Dean and sends him on his way.

Before she does, though, he sees what's in her backpack, a book, very old and valuable. Some of the occult symbols on it are disturbingly familiar. Soon enough he realized that this isn't over, not at all.

"Dollls" is the last, longest, and best story in Three On A Light. I'd read several of Gischler's Dean Murphy stories before, but not this one, and it really breaks free of the conventions of the private eye story in a way the others don't. The other stories hew more to private eye conventions, and "Dolls" starts that way, too, before Gischler takes the story into uncharted territory, discarding many PI trappings along the way. By the end you're really wondering if any of the good guys are going to make it.

I'm not saying; you'll have to read it to find out.

"The Unholy Three", by William Campbell Gault

From: Joe Puma, P.I., Wonder Publishing Group, 2010.

Johnny Delevan is a 12-year-old kid with a problem. This isn't a problem he can talk to his parents about (they're dead), or a teacher, or a priest. Instead he takes this problem to the neighborhood private investigator, Joe Puma.

The problem: he doesn't like his sister's boyfriend.

His sister Eilenn is twenty-three, and the head of the household now, and she's started seeing a slick, handsome character named Jean Magnus. Despite the fact that Puma is on his uppers once again and can't afford to turn down paying clients (Johnny has a paper route), he gently suggests that maybe the kid is a little jealous. Johnny, cheesed off, tells him what's what and storms out.

And that doesn't sit right with Puma. He kept turning it over in his mind, looking at the angles, and finally he decides it won't hurt if he asks a few questions. So he does. In particular, he looks up an old acquaintance, Lenny Donovan, now the house detective at Magnus' hotel.

The next morning, Donovan has disappeared.

William Campbell Gault was one of the leading private eye writers of the 1950s before he began writing sports stories for the juvenile market, which was more lucrative. The stories in Joe Puma, P.I. all date from that decade, and they're excellent. If you like this kind of thing you'll love this book. If not, it might change your mind.

"Eight Mile and Dequindre", by Loren Estleman

From: Amos Walker: The Complete Story Collection, Tyrus Books, 2010.

Private eye Amos Walker drove out to a little diner on Dequindre where it me Eight Mile Road just to be stood up by a prospective client. He was still there, nursing his coffee and thinking about a career change, when a young guy who looked a bit like Howdy Doody came in, beaming and flashing a picture of the girl he's there to meet.

Walker was just leaving when the two thugs barged in and shot Howdy Doody dead.

So naturally he's obliged to stick around a while longer, until the homicide detectives are all done with him. Much later he's finally crawling into his Chevy for the drive home when something catches his eye - a woman, naturally. The woman from the dead man's picture.

The set-up has obvious similarities to Raymond Chandler's "Red Wind", and it's the first time I noticed a well-known author giving a hat tip to his influences. The rest of the story plays out in the traditional way - nice guy mixed up with the wrong crowd wants out - and is pretty typical of early Walker.

"The Avenging Chance", by Anthony Berkeley

From: The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories, ed. Patricia Craig. Oxford Univeristy Press, 1990.

Sir William Anstruther went to his London club for lunch, as he did every day, at half past ten. Waiting for him in the mail was a small box of chocolates, along with a letter stating the this was a new product designed to appeal to men, and asking for his opinion. Sir William was rather a man's man and was quite prepared to bin the lot when another member, Graham Beresford, happened by. In the end the chocolates went home with Beresford, to the delight of both men.

Once at home, Beresford had a few of the chocolates before leaving to attend to some business. Upon arriving back at his club several hours later he was taken gravely ill.

His wife had a few of the chocolates, and then a few more, and by evening she was dead.

All this was brought before Roger Sheringham, occasional consultant to Scotland Yard. He could make no more of it than the police. To the essential question, Who would want Sir William dead?, there seemed no good answer. Although the investigation went on, the general feeling was that this was the act of a lunatic, someone unlikely to ever be uncovered.

Until Roger had a chance meeting with a very silly woman on a busy London street. This woman, an acquiantance of his and of the unlucky Mrs. Beresford, mentioned a small fact in passing, the significance of which she did not recognize, though Roger saw it at once. And through tugging on that tiny scrap of string, he unraveled the entire mystery.

One of the greatest short stories of the Golden Age of detection (think Christie, Sayers, et al), "The Avenging Chance" has been reprinted many times, and appears in many anthologies of the best such stories. It strikes an excellent balance between dismay as such a callous crime, and a certain intellectual airiness in treating it largely as a puzzle. To a modern reader it's not as old-fashioned and windy as many of its ilk, and is certainly a landmark of mid-twentieth century crime fiction.

"Cry Silence", by Fredric Brown

From: The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories, ed. Otto Penzler. Vintage Crime / Black Lizard, 2010.

This new anthology of classic stories from Black Mask magazine opens with a long, long-winded story by Erle Stanley Gardner, which, at penny-a-word rates, seemed designed mostly to deposit as many pennies as possible in Gardner's pockets.

The next story, though, is "Cry Silence" by Fredric Brown. It's short, only a couple of thousand words, and it carries an impact that the weight of Gardner's saga can't match.

The nameless narrator, a stranger in town, is sitting at the train station waiting for a connection when he overhears the old "if a tree falls in the forest" argument. Despite his best intentions he's drawn into conversation by the station agent, and soon learns why the man is so intent on the line between sound and silence.

There's another man at the station there, who sits impassively throughout. He claims to be deaf, says the agent, and if he's telling the truth, he's the victim of a terrible tragedy. And if he's not, he's a cold-blooded killer.

The twist ending to this short little shocker is worth the price of admission. Brown was one of the most original thinkers among the Black Mask writers, and this story truly deserves its place among the best stories published there.

"The Gun Also Rises" by Jeffrey Cohen

From: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, January/February 2011

In 1999, trying to find out who gave his six-year-old son Ethan a water gun (with which he squirted a classmate) causing him to face a two-day suspension, suburban New Jersey husband, father, and freelance reporter Aaron Tucker gets a call to cover the death of Ramon Escobar, closer for the minor league Edison Kilowatts.

Escobar apparently died when his teammates piled on top of him celebrating a win. However, Tucker's various sources say it's unlikely the weight simply crushed him. Tucker overhears two of Escobar's Latino teammates talking, but their only words in English are "cream" and "clear".

By setting his story ten years in the past, Cohen cleverly draws attention to three of today's hottest topics. In 1999, pro baseball hardly acknowledged the problem of performance-enhancing drugs, team celebrations were thought harmless fun, and Ethan's disability had yet to be diagnosed as Asperger's syndrome. Tucker's editor at the fanboy magazine Infield isn't interested in the hard news story of a drug-related death. He wants a puff piece lamenting the loss of a talent so young.

Lucky for readers, Tucker keeps digging, and with the help of his multilingual best friend, gets to the bottom of Escobar's death. I enjoyed this story's humor and heart, but also Tucker's level-headed approach to questioning people. Realizing what will set them off, he tries to disarm them and get the answers he needs.

"Neighbors" by Joseph Finder

From: Agents of Treachery ed. Otto Penzler. Vintage Crime, 2010.

Finder's contribution to an anthology of original espionage stories follows protagonist Matt Parker's suspicions of his new neighbor Jimmy Nourwood. The suspicions seem to start on the level of mild prejudice: "He looks Arab. 'Nourwood'? That can't be his real name." When Matt's computer searches on Nourwood come up empty, you have to wonder what's going on.

As far as he goes to learn about Jimmy, Matt is very guarded about his own life. As I read the story, I measured my own view of Jimmy against Matt's increasing paranoia and aggressive actions. Eventually I found Matt so distasteful I turned away from him—and was blindsided by everything he was hiding.

Whether you gravitate toward Matt or Jimmy, I'm betting you'll be surprised, too.

Passed by Kieran Shea

Stories by Kieran Shea are bound to be well written and hard edged, so he's fast becoming one of those writers that can get me to spring for a copy of a magazine or open up one of the e-zines. His story "Passed" is in the current iteration of Plots with Guns, and it is well worth the read.

In it, a son gets a call from his death-row dwelling father in the hour before the needle. The son, a full grown man now, only has bad memories and no real desire to talk with his daddy, but then the request the father makes is a simple favor and, well, it is in his very last hour: pick up and deliver some funeral clothes.

The story has a lot of atmosphere and even though I kind of wished for a sligthly different ending, that might just be "Moral-me" talking. Anyway, check it out.

Mr. Alibi by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Kristine Kathryn Rusch is not known to me personally, but I've admired her career for a while. She writes romance, sci-fi and mystery at an award winning caliber, and her list of credits is amazing. Take a look.

The current issue of EQMM has one of her stories, and I think it is the best PI story I've read in a while. It's called Mr. Alibi and concerns a female PI who is in a bar waiting for a no-show client when she's approached by a man who wants her to alibi him for the night before when he claims to have murdered his wife. At first she thinks he's just using a pick-up line or trying to be funny, but doubts creep in and what follows is a mix of false identities, scams, and Hollywood history.

It's an engrossing story and the legwork the PI goes through felt real. Overall, a great read.

The Uninvited Guest by Jane Hammons

This story, in my latest issue of Crimespree Magazine is lovely. Okay, it is a really very dark brand of lovely, but it's memorable lovely as well. The prose is neat, the psychology of the characters seems real, the plot presented twists that I wasn't expecting (granted, that's not that hard)In any event, the story deals with a pair of con artists - older male, quite dominant - and a younger female, submissive but also the narrator. They come across a young girl - 8 year old Connie - and the female grifter decides to use the girl in a series of scams which has an unintended result.

Anyway, you won't be disappointed by this one. It is supposedly a cut from a novel Ms. Hammons is working on and if this is the stuff that got cut, I can't wait to read the actual novel.

"One, Two, Three" by Paul Cain

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

The unnamed gambler who narrates this story is after a con man named Healey, and with good reason. Healey plays cards but is no good at it, and he has a lot of money. The narrator plays well and wants to relieve him of some.

After cooling his heels in Los Angeles waiting for his mark to show up, the narrator gets a tip he's hiding out in Caliente, Nevada, and he wastes no time getting up there. Pretty soon he and Healey are drinking together, and Healey eventually asks him for a lift to L.A. Unfortunately Healey gets cold feet, as in laid-out-on-a-slab cold, and his money takes a trip of its own. The narrator doesn't like that so much.

He returns to L.A. and starts hunting around, and before long he discovers two other chislers trying to horn in on the action. The three of them do their best to beat each other to the punch, but unbeknownst to them, there's someone else out there ready to knock them all on the head.

"One, Two, Three" is told in Cain's trademark deadpan style, but unlike many of his other stories, there's nothing grim about it. In fact it's blackly humorous and the ending is outright funny. I read Cain's collection Seven Slayers, in which this story apparently appeared, several years ago, but for whatever reason had absolutely no memory of it, even after rereading it in Otto Penzler's mammoth love letter to the pulps.

I was reminded of Cain today when I read the news that one of Cain's stories that had never been reprinted was available. Take a look here for more details. (via Spinetingler)

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.

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.

The Alphabet Workbook by Mehnaz Turner

The Alphabet Workbook by Mehnaz Turner is only three pages long, but it packs a wallop. It appears in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's Department of First Stories, but is so amazingly well written and so ultimately devastating that you'd be forgiven for thinking Ms. Turner is an old hand at the mystery story. I'd forgive you.

The story is only three pages long, so there is a sense in which I can't say all that much without revealing more of the plot than is decent. On the other hand, the power of this tale (and it is powerful) is in the telling - even were I to reveal every plot point, I wouldn't be capturing what makes this story so special. Still, as a reviewer, I'll say this much: it concerns the narrator, a transplant to Los Angeles, and her neighbor, Angela. Angela makes the mistake of knocking on the narrator's door to borrow eggs. Anyway, I fear saying more. I'll just mention that though the narrator is a social worker, she has some anti-social tendencies.

I really don't know how else to say things about this marvelous story. If you'd like my copy of EQMM, leave a comment to that effect, and if you're lucky, you get it. Lucky or the only one to leave a comment... I'll check back in a day or two to see who gets the prize (and this one story does qualify the magazine as a prize).

"Blood and Bone in Bambooland", by Cameron Ashley

From: Plots With Guns, Issue #9, June 2010.

Apparently Cameron Ashley and I have the same since of humor, 'cause I laughed out loud a couple of times while reading "Blood and Bone in Bambooland". If this story were set in the U.S., it would have to be a Southern Gothic, but even with the Down Under milieu, it's still pretty damn Gothic.

And it has the best Anglo-accented monologue since The Limey.

The plot? Mark is boss John G.'s newest flunky. A couple of his other boys killed somebody they really maybe ought not have, but it's done now, and John G. needs somebody to clean up the mess. So Mark is taking a trip out to the country to see the Eggman, who handles that sort of job. Things don't go exactly as planned, though, and Mark gets caught up in a feud between the Eggman and his horticulturist neighbor, a disagreement that ends badly all 'round.

It's the narrative voice that carries the story, though. Mark is the only one who can see how absurd all the clowns around him are, and sometimes it's a struggle not to laugh right in their faces. The reader, however, is free to laugh with abandon. A dark comedy but one I enjoyed.

"Bronx, Summer, 1971", by Steven Torres

From: CrimeSpree #35 (March/April 2010).

Ernesto and Celia Santiago, an elderly Hispanic couple living in a modest third-floor walkup, were brutally murdered on the hottest day of the year. What troubled Detectives Woods and Carver was the absence of a motive. It appeared that someone wanted something and tortured the couple to get it. Then Woods spots a picture that gives them a hint: Ernesto and Celia, their arms around a smiling young man. Ray Cruz, a notorious drug dealer.

Cruz himself shows up soon after, distraught to the point where even the cops know he's not faking. The Santiagos were his godparents. Now Woods and Carver have to work fast, because they're not the only ones after the killers.

I'm breaking one of our rules here ("thou shalt not review other members' stories") because I like this one so much. It's told with great economy, with characters sketched out in just a few strokes, but entirely believable. Steven is really good at using unsympathetic characters, or outright villains, as the protagonists of his stories (see his Viktor Petrenko stories for another example), and I understand that Ray Cruz may return in the future.

"The 45 Steps", by Peter Crowther

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

There was only one thing noteworthy about the Regal Hotel in Luddersedge. Not the elegance of its ballroom, which was really rather threadbare; not the quality of it's foie gras, as the cuisine tended towards tradional English; certainly not the long list of distinguished guests who'd stayed there. No, the only reason to remember the Regal was the opulence of the gentlemen's lavatory in the basement.

Arthur Clark's bathroom habits were equally well-known around the village. At ten o'clock every evening he would get up and head to what Max Reger called "the smallest room in the house", whether he were in his own home, or at the Conservative Club's Christmas banquent at the Regal. So regular were his habits, in fact, that they could be used against him, and one of the elegant stalls in the Regal's restroom could in fact become the setting for a locked-room murder.

This rather droll story was original to the book in which it appeared but deserves wider attention. A mixture of dark humor, fair-play detection, and the character of irascable Detective Inspector Malcolm Broadhurst combine to make this a delightful exercise in classic detection.

"How To Jail", by Dennis Tafoya

From: CrimeFactory, Vol. 2 Issue #3 - May 2010.

When Willis' brother Henry got out of jail, he moved into Willis' small Las Vegas apartment. But he's not out yet, not really. He doesn't talk much, and he doesn't do much. Mostly he sits and looks out the window. Sometimes Henry talks about his dad, a drunk and a jailbird, and how everything he told them about jail was wrong

Kelly lives in an apartment down the hall. Her boyfriend smacks her around sometimes. She comes down to Willis' place to see a friendly face and find some peace.

Henry's friend Dontay is getting out of jail. It's up to Henry to take him out, celebrate a bit. Reminisce about old times.

From these elements author Dennis Tafoya spins a tragedy writ small. These are people and situations we've seen before, but Tafoya's characters are closely observed and carefully drawn. "How to Jail" is a quiet story, not much action, but the ending still carries an emotional impact.

NBS Special Report: A Facelift

The updated look of Nasty. Brutish. Short. should be easier to maintain with Blogger's new template designer, just out of draft. I went for a cold look fitting our nasty, brutish title—but also a clean look, keeping all the page elements where they were. Enjoy.

"Scenarios" by Lawrence Block

From: The Dark End of the Street: New Stories of Sex and Crime by Today's Top Authors, ed. Jonathan Santlofer and S.J. Rozan. Bloomsbury, 2010.

Block's contribution to this anthology of literary and crime fiction authors begins with a sexual predator looking for his next victim at a bar. Just when I began to guess where the story was going, Block broke the "fourth wall", offering three different ways the story could turn out, one of which was "true".

If you don't mind Block breaking the fourth wall, this story is a fine show of the writer's imagination at work and how many different tales can be spun from the same starting point.

"Everything Tastes Like Whiskey", by Scott Wolven

From: Plots With Guns, Issue #8 Winter, 2010.

As John walks to work across the University of Idaho campus, .44 Magnum strapped to his hip, no one seems interested in him. He himself has a hard time forgetting that he'd shot a man just the week before. All he's done since is sit at his house and drink beer.

Despite the fact it was self-defense, his boss at the detective agency thinks it would be a good idea if he left town for a while. A rancher named Bill Warner has been having some problems with wolves, and maybe trespassers, and John is dispatched to take care of it. Warner himself is an old man, many years widowed, and a drunk.

John sets up early one morning in a spot where he can spot the wolves if they approach Warner's cattle, but instead of wolves he sees three Mexicans instead, boys or young men. He warns them off in no uncertain terms, but they've brought trouble with them.

What can I say? Another winner for Scott Wolven. The character of John - tough but sensitive - is well drawn, as that of Warner and John's elderly uncle. If you're not a big fan of Wolven's, well, it's time you started.

"I Am Madame X's Bodyguard", by Patricia Abbott

From: Needle: A Magazine of Noir, Spring 2010.

Lennie, the narrator of "I Am Madame X's Bodyguard", used to be a pro's pro, keeping guys like John Gotti safe from their occupational hazards. But he's not the man he used to be. Recently his biggest job was guarding Joey Bananas during a long, slow death that finally came at age 97.

Now, though, he's got a new job. Not exactly glamorous, but very, very necessary. His new client has one of the most dangerous jobs in the country: she's a book reviewer for the New York Times.

And not just any reviewer, but one who writes lines like "an odious self-portrait of the artist as a young jackass." As it turns out, she's just as critical of her bodyguard.

This story relies on a lot of inside baseball for the publishing crowd. Unless you're a regular reader of Sarah Weinman's review roundups you may not know who "Marilyn" is, for example. But if you're in on the joke, I suspect that you will find this story to be one of the funniest you've read in a while.

"Lapses", by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

From: The Second Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction, ed. Ed Gorman.
Black Lizard Books, 1988

Ruth Donahue was on her way through the San Joaquin Valley when the pickup ahead of her wiped out, launching a dog into her windshield. Though the dog was killed, Ruth herself seemed to be okay. Maybe just a little... off.

After a trip to the hospital and a night in a motel, she feels ready to return to her home in San Luis Obispo. So she climbs into her rented Ford Escort and gets on the road. A little while later she glances at a road sign - and realizes she's driven two hundred miles out of her way. There's a gas station receipt on the seat beside her. She doesn't remember stopping.

She stops at a roadside church, welcoming a few minutes of peace with the friendly pastor. She sips the coffee he brings. And when she looks up...

Yarbro does a good job bringing Ruth's confusion and panic to the page. As the situations she finds herself in become increasingly bizarre, Ruth wonders Where have I been? What have I been doing? Though it takes a while to get going, "Lapses" is a fine, disturbing short story.

Derringer Winners

Yes, it's been all over the web. Yes, people are done with congratulations. In fact, some of the joy is probably ebbing from the winners, but... I thought I'd mention that the Derringer winners have been announced:

BEST FLASH STORY (Up to 1,000 Words)

"And Here's To You, Mrs. Edwardson" by Hamilton Waymire
Published in the webzine Big Pulp, November 23, 2009

BEST SHORT STORY (1,001 - 4,000 Words)

"Twas the Night" by Anita Page
Published in The Gift of Murder, October 2009

BEST LONG STORY (4,001 - 8,000 Words)

"Famous Last Words" by Doug Allyn
Published in EQMM, November 2009

BEST NOVELETTE (8,001 - 17,500 Words)

"Julius Katz" by Dave Zeltserman
Published in EQMM, September/October 2009

2010 RECIPIENT OF THE EDWARD D. HOCH MEMORIAL GOLDEN DERRINGER FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Lawrence Block


Links to many of the nominated stories are to be found at the Short Mystery Fiction Society website here.

Spinetingler Award Nominees

Just got word that Spinetingler has posted their nominees for best short story on the web. Take a look.

The Consummate Professional by Graham Bowlin

The current Thuglit has a nifty story. The profession in this story is that of cocaine vendor. The main character has a problem client and the problem client has a pretty girlfriend. And he beats her. There's not much question that the client deserves to die, but then he's wealthy and no longer susceptible to rat poison... And it's unprofessional to murder your clients. Probably in a cocaine vendor handbook.

The story backtracks to college days and looks forward to a time when the professional can retire, but that can't really happen unless the pretty girlfriend is willing to do her share. Share of what, you ask? Well, read it and see.

The prose is well-polished (though there may be a few excesses - hard to say. The site is called "Thuglit," after all...). The pace is good (not such an easy feat when you're flashing back). Overall, a very good read and when I see Graham Bowlin's name again, I'll certainly take a look.

Kiss Me, Dudley by Ed McBain

I picked up a copy of The McBain Files at a library sale, and this is the first McBain I read. Kiss Me, Dudley is a seriously deranged story. A woman walks into a PI's office and normal ends there. Her mate has caused her trouble by stealing 10 million and dying leaving her at the mercy of the people he stole from. Before the initial interview is over, the PI has belted his client. Before it's all over, the PI will have struck his client several times (and done worse) and gotten rid of the enemies - all 26 of them. With grenades... Bizarre and well worth the read.

"Drive-Thru" by David Dietrich

From: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May 2010.

Working the midnight-to-six shift alone at the Atlas Burger drive-thru window, the narrator of this story doesn't believe he's being robbed when he hears an unfamiliar man's voice through his piece-of-junk headset. Bored, and perhaps jaded, the narrator engages the would-be robber in conversation.

This isn't how you might expect a crime story to unfold, but it's just right for AHMM's annual humor issue. Disembodied dialogue across the narrator's headset and the drive-thru speaker drives the story yet keeps it unpredictable.

Nowhere to Go by Iain Rowan

I've been reading Iain Rowan for a long time now going back to the heady days when Shred of Evidence was around. He's a master of creepiness and this AHMM story from the end of last year is not an exception.

Here's the set up: A man with way too much time on his hands witnesses a murder via his laptop. He calls the authorities and gives what information he has, but it appears to be a wild goose chase as far as the police are concerned. There is no evidence to corroborate the story, no missing person who might have been the victim, etc. There's some chance, of course, that the witness is insane, but, well... Isn't that always the case? The man decides to investigate for himself (after all, his sanity is in question, and one likes to clear those issues up) but what he finds out won't at all be what he expected.

Mr. Rowan has put together a tricky story and made it run like clockwork.

Out of Her Depth by John C. Boland

The December 2009 issue of AHMM includes this story by John Boland, an author whose work I've admired before. In this story, the reader is treated to multiple points of view and voices (complex and a nifty bit of craftsmanship, but never irksome to the reader). A man is dying on a ship in the opening section, but this quickly turns to the hiring of a detective by the potential widow. It seems she and her millionaire husband were in the midst of settling a divorce which would cut her out of his estate unless... unless it turns out her husband died before the divorce was finalized.

Meggie Trevor takes the case and goes to retrace the potential victims last steps.Meggie's voice throughout the remainder of the story is, I think, the main draw. She sounds like the type of person you may want to know - real. Not an easy thing to do in a short story.

The Caretaker by Terence Faherty

The December 2009 issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine has a story you shouldn't miss by Terence Faherty. The man writes delicately beautiful prose which is not something that can be said for every mystery writer. His care in phrasing and word choice is phenomenal and worth study.

Anyway...

Anne Abbott is taking care of a house in Jackson Hole Wyoming. The place is isolated from society under a big sky, and the only other person for miles around is the caretaker of another house not too far away - a mysterious stranger with a limp. Can't hardly think of anything that could possibly go wrong there...

Except that Anne is not the type of young lady who could let a mysterious stranger simply float into and out of her life without her investigating.

And her investigations turn up what she thinks might be a star-crossed love affair. but what role does a hatchet play in it all? Well, take a look to find out. I'll mail my beat up copy to whoever asks first.

The Hate Tapes by Doug Allyn

The March AHMM fairly brims with great stories, and this is one of them. The story starts with a rock concert (I've never been to one of those) by an aging band in 1991. Their heyday was about twenty years past and they thought they'd seen it all. Then, during the last song, there's a scuffle on the dance floor and a fan winds up dead.

Nothing to do with the band, right? Well, it turns out the lead singer knows the guy - the stabee, if you will. The police want the singer to stay in town since no one else knows the dead guy. And it turns out that the last words on the dead man's lips were "hate tapes." Is that a reference to the recording medium or a reference to the music that was being played or something else entirely? Figuring that out is a key to figuring out who killed the guy.

Doug Allyn is a favorite at AHMM, though his stories sometimes leave me a little cold. This one, however, was quite good.

"The Messenger" by Wayne L. Wilson

From: The Darker Mask: Heroes From the Shadows ed. Gary Phillips and Christopher Chambers

Wilson's contribution to this collection of dark superhero tales opens with a man walking along the Venice Beach boardwalk entranced by the best trumpet-playing he's ever heard. Following the music through a thick fog, he encounters a few people who don't seem to hear it. Finally he finds the trumpet player, an imposing figure who oddly seems to have no weight. Realizing the figure is God or an angel, the man has a hard time accepting what he's told, until the spirit of his dead wife appears.

The tone of continued skepticism here nicely balances the more "out-there" elements. Not your typical feel-good story.

The Man Who Was Kicked to Death by Pablo Palacio

The current Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine has a story that is terribly inventive. Sadly, the author, Pablo Palacio, has been dead for some years. K.j.a. Wishnia has translated and introduced the story and it deserves to be known.

In the story, the narrator reads of a man who was kicked to death. The man had made his way to a police precinct before dying and when the police had asked who had kicked him and why, the victim's story is thin. Since the man dies soon after, the thin story is all there is. Or is it?

The narrator, after waiting a few days to see if more of the story comes out, takes it upon himself to investigate. Of course, he isn't a police officer and doesn't have anything more than the short news article, but he goes through a process of ratiocination (that's right, I said ratiocination...) that would have made Dupin envious. The narrator is clearly crazed, but he also seems to be clearly right in his deductions about the crime.

In any event, this is a story tha deserves to be read by many more and Wishnia and AHMM have done mystery lovers a great kindness. Here's hoping there are more Palacio stories out there.

"I Seen That" by S.J. Rozan

From: Once Upon a Crime: An Anthology of Murder, Mayhem, and Suspense ed. Gary R. Bush and Chris Everheart

In three pages, Rozan's contribution to an anthology honoring Minneapolis mystery bookshop Once Upon a Crime delivers a New York character as only Bronx-born Rozan could write him. In a one-sided conversation with bartender Frankie, he fills in the backstory behind a woman's murder just reported on the news.

R.I.P. Stuart M. Kaminsky

Along with the rest of the mystery community, I was saddened to hear of the passing yesterday of former MWA Grandmaster Stuart M. Kaminsky at the age of 75. Kaminsky's prose was so personable, I felt I knew him though we had never met. Click here to read my previous coverage of Kaminsky's work on Nasty. Brutish. Short.