"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.