"The Bridal Bed" by John Connolly

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

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

"No One" by Marcus Sakey

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

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

"My Father's Gun" by Dave White

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

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

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

"Breakfast Anytime", by Bryon Quertermous

From: SHOTS Magazine, Summer 2005

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

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

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

And that's where it gets weird.

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

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

"Good and Dead" by Evan Hunter

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

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

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

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

NBS Special Report: One Year Later

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

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

"The Maltese Cat" by Sara Paretsky

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

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

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

Gold Mountain by Terrence Cheng

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

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

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

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

"Marley's Woman" by John C. Boland

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

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

"White Trash" by Jerome Charyn

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

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

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

NBS Awards Report

As announced at Bouchercon 2007 from Anchorage, Alaska:

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

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

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

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

Full coverage from The Rap Sheet.

"October", by Scott Wolven

From: Demolition, Fall 2007.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Freddie Prinze is My Guardian Angel" by Liz Martínez

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

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

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

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

"The Erstwhile Groom" by Laura Benedict

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

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

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

Public Immunity by Eve Fisher

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

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

"Needle" by Loren D. Estleman

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

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

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

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

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

"The Guardians" by Jim Fusilli

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

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

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

"Tennis, Anyone?" by Kinky Friedman

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

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

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

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

"The Recipe" by Carolina Garcia-Aguilera

From: Miami Noir ed. Les Standiford

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

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

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

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

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

"Account Closed" by William Link

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

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

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

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