"Skinhead Central" by T. Jefferson Parker

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

This Edgar-nominated story is told from the viewpoint of Sally, who has moved with her retired cop husband Jim from Laguna Beach to Spring Lake, Idaho. Shortly after the move, a 19-year-old skinhead named Dale shows up looking for work. Jim begrudgingly gives him some, but when Sally's jewelry bag goes missing, it's easily traced to Dale. The next day, Dale's younger brother Jason returns the bag and takes a beating from Dale for his trouble.

Calling on a network of contacts stretching back to California, Jim learns that Dale and Jason's father is an abusive ex-con. Jim and Sally take an unusual interest in the boys' future.

"Skinhead Central" is written so crisply, in a voice so knowing, I read it aloud.

The Lost Girl by Robert Barnard

The latest Ellery Queen has another Robert Barnard story. He publishes there with great regularity, and I've read several of his stories over the years, but they all affect me the same way - in short, I don't like them.

If you don't know, Robert Barnard has won a slew of awards over the decades, and he has the respect of the mystery reading/writing world. He has my respect as well. His prose is impeccable. He can make you care for the characters he puts before you. What he hasn't been able to do, especially with the short stories but even with the one novel of his I've read, is give me a satisfying ending. In one story, a character presented with a dilemma chooses the path no one I have ever encountered in my life would have chosen. In other stories, the ending just fizzles. So with this story.

The story (which is only about five or six pages) starts off well - a teenaged girl is missing, she might have crossed paths with a pedophile, and the Inspector follows leads and questions witnesses. In every way, the story is set up perfectly, and I truly expected to finally like a Barnard story at long last. Then came the ending. Fizzle. In faact, it took me three readings just to figure out what it is I think went on at the end. But once I figured things out (I think) I found as many loose ends as there were tied up ones.

SPOILER ** SPOILER ** SPOILER**

Notice the SPOILER sign? Your last chance to turn back.

Okay. You asked for it.

The lost girl is, as far as I can tell, still lost at the end of the story. And the pedophile ist kaput. Presumably she killed him. Was she related to him? Not sure. If she killed him, what, precisely was her reason? No idea.

Oh well. The prose is nice.

The Rules of Evidence by Steve Gore

This story all takes place in the interrogation room in dialogue between a career criminal named Irish and a homicide detective named Pacheco. Irish is a suspect in the murder of Mucker, one of Irish's former partners. The problem is that no matter what Pacheco thinks, the physical evidence is weak, Irish is seasoned enough to resist breaking, and besides, someone else has already confessed to the murder. Seems like a pretty tough case.

Though there aren't any car chases or shootouts, the dialogue stays crisp. It grips you and refuses to let go.

Pacheco may not have the best case, but he's determined. Is there a way he can make Irish slip up? You'll have to pick up a current copy of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine to find out.

By the way, this is Steve Gore's first published story - kudos to him and I hope others are in the pipeline.

Cheer by Megan Abbott

In other places, I've talked about Megan Abbott's novels including Die a Little and The Song is You, and they are marvelous things. The stories are interesting and tightly wound, the prose is finely spun - some of the strongest prose you'll find in crime fiction today. The voices of her characters are always pitch perfect. In this story, she continues her winning ways.

"Cheer" has to do with the cheerleading team under the care of a young woman called "Coach." It's told by one of the squad members and even though the narrator is not named, she exhibits a growing sense of...I'm not sure what. Fear? Dread? Anxiety? In any event, nothing good. This happens as the narrator learns more about the coach and her teammates.

In the end, of course, it is a crime story so the narrator has reason to feel ill at ease. I can't tell you what happens or even why it happens, but I can say the story is well worth looking up. Like just about everything else Megan has written, "Cheer" has been nominated for a prize. In this case, it's a Pushcart Prize.

NBS Special Report: 2009 Best Short Story Edgar Nominees

As presented by the Mystery Writers of America:

BEST SHORT STORY

"A Sleep Not Unlike Death" - Hardcore Hardboiled by Sean Chercover (Kensington Publishing)
"Skin and Bones" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by David Edgerley Gates (Dell Magazines)
"Scratch of a Woman" - Hardly Knew Her by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
"La Vie en Rose" - Paris Noir by Dominique Mainard (Akashic Books)
"Skinhead Central" - The Blue Religion by T. Jefferson Parker (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD (Best First Short Story)

"Buckner's Error" - Queens Noir by Joseph Guglielmelli (Akashic Books)

Congratulations and good luck to all.

The full list of Edgar nominees via Sarah Weinman's Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind.

"Devil Dog" by Dick Lochte

From: Hollywood and Crime. Ed. Robert J. Randisi. Pegasus, 2007.

One of the contemporary entries in a collection of crime stories set during the history of Hollywood, "Devil Dog" marks the return of Leo Bloodworth. At the behest of Larry King-like media personality Pierre Reynaldo, Leo looks into a woman's claims that her neighbor is a Satanist.

After an eight-year hiatus, it's good to hear from Leo in a story that is equally comedic and tragic.

"Give Till It Hurts" by Donald E. Westlake

Available in Thieves Dozen by Donald E. Westlake. Mysterious Press, 2005.

Discovered trying to pass himself off as a rich Arab at a coin collectors' convention in Manhattan, John Dortmunder narrowly escapes through a linen closet window and stumbles into a poker game at Otto Penzler's Mysterious Bookshop.

Dortmunder is $240 ahead when the police come calling, investigating the burglary he's just committed. To Dortmunder's surprise, Penzler and friends don't hand him to the cops. Then he realizes they want to win their money back.

Penzler first published this story in 1993 as a Christmas present to the Mysterious Bookshop's mail-order customers. In memory of Westlake, who died on New Year's Eve at age 75, I hope our reviews give readers some idea of his talent and personality.

A nasty, brutish, short Christmas

In honor of Christmas 2008, our past reviews of Christmas stories:

Gerald So reviews "Dreaming of a Spite Christmas" by BV Lawson

Steven Torres reviews "Hidden Gifts" by Steve Hockensmith

Gerald So reviews "Sanity Clause" by Steve Brewer

Gerald So reviews "As Dark as Christmas Gets" by Lawrence Block

Gerald So reviews "Silent Night" by Marcia Muller

Gerald So reviews "Here Comes Santa Claus" by Bill Pronzini

"Dreaming of a Spite Christmas" by BV Lawson

From: Mouth Full of Bullets, Winter 2007.

This piece of flash fiction counts down to a shopping mall elf's attempt to poison Santa Claus. Each paragraph is a snapshot of the elf's growing nervousness as the plan moves along and then suddenly runs off the rails.

"Oil Slick" by Jay Brooks

From: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, March 2009

Brooks's first published story follows a con man looking to bilk big money from ex-NFL player Andy Belton in an oil drilling scam. Little does he know Belton is running a con of his own. Tightly told and surprising.

"Babs" by Scott Phillips

From: Las Vegas Noir ed. Jarret Keene & Todd James Pierce. Akashic Books, 2008.

From the author of The Ice Harvest comes the story of Tate, a good-natured pothead originally from Kansas who, as a favor to his friend Skip, agrees to pick up some crystal meth from Skip's friend Babs, and bring it back to L.A. Babs, described by Skip as "a stripper", is nothing like Tate expects. Falling a little in love with her, he agrees to back her up retrieving the meth from a dealer.

I'm not a fan of first-person present-tense narrative as a rule, but the style works here to set up Tate's sensibilities. I was as disarmed by Babs as he was, even as I realized Tate was getting in over his head.

The Proper Application of Pressure to a Wound by Sherry Decker

Sherry Decker's story in the December issue packs an emotional punch and as I've said before in this space, that's one of the hallmarks of a great short story for me. (It's a hallmark of a great long story too). Very difficult thing to accomplish in a short space, but this story does it.

The main character is a home nurse for an elderly man she's learned to care about. He dies, and that's not the worst that happens. We learn the nurse has been on a downward spiral having lost a child and a husband and a proper hospital job. When you've lost enough, you think about what you can save, and she couldn't save her patinet.

Still, there are plenty of others who need help in this world, and the story will talk about some of those. The nurse does what she can and rises and rises until some might say she's become a hero. But will the appreciation of others be enough for her?After all, it won't bring her back what she's lost.

In any event, if you're looking for a crime related story that might just move you emotionally, this one is recommended.

"Down Home Blues" by Rob Kantner

Recently posted to Kantner's Web site, this new Ben Perkins story has Ben attending his great aunt's funeral in Georgia. After the ceremony, Ben's cousin Caroleen asks him to fix the toilet at the cabin she rents out. This he does easily, but he also becomes suspicious when the renters don't seem to be the "lovely folks" Caroleen describes.

I hadn't read a Perkins story in some time, but Ben's voice was instantly familiar. I'm glad Kantner is still writing about him. I found "Down Home Blues" a little long to read onscreen. Print it out and take your time with it, as Ben would.

"Candles on the Corner" by Janet Dawson

From: Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November 2008

Dawson's Bay Area P.I. Jeri Howard is hired by the parents of 12-year-old Emily Gebhardt, who died in a hit-and-run accident. With varying witness statements and precious few clues, Jeri proves a tenacious questioner with a knack for educated guesses. She elicits the truth, but is unable to stop a horrific act of vengeance by Emily's father.

A well-plotted, satisfying investigation with a tragic end.

NBS Special Report: Awards Roundup

A belated roundup of the short story awards announced at Bouchercon, as seen on Jiro Kimura's The Gumshoe Site:

The Shamus (Private Eye Writers of America)

Best P.I. Short Story: "Hungry Enough," by Cornelia Read (in A HELL OF A WOMAN, edited by Megan Abbott; Busted Flush Press)

The Anthony (as voted by attendees of Bouchercon 2008)

Best Short Story: "Hardly Knew Her," by Laura Lippman (in DEAD MAN'S HAND, edited by Otto Penzler; Harcourt)

The Barry (presented jointly by Deadly Pleaures Mystery Magazine and Mystery News)

Best Short Story: "The Problem of the Summer Snowman," by Edward D. Hoch (Ellery "Queen's Mystery Magazine, November 2007)

The Macavity (presented by Mystery Readers International)

Best Mystery Short Story: "Please Watch Your Step," by Rhys Bowen (The Strand Magazine #21, Feb-May 2007)

"The Other Side of the Mirror" by Eric Van Lustbader

From: Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night ed. James Patterson. Mira, 2006.

This anthology of shorts by thriller writers is up for discussion on DetecToday next month, and I was lucky to find it on Mystery Loves Company's table in the book room at Bouchercon. I was curious whether thriller writers, known for their sprawling plots and over-the-top prose, would succeed at short stories, wherein much has to be condensed and focused.

In Van Lustbader's story, a spy on the verge of a nervous breakdown is hiding from his enemies in a seedy Buenos Aires hotel room. He reflects on how he was drawn to spycraft by his wife's death. As their love story plays back for readers, we realize his love can turn to jealousy instantly. In fact, he turns out to be a most unreliable narrator.

I found that despite the story's relative brevity (twenty pages), it still featured excess verbiage and false-sounding dialogue, the two main traits that turn me off from thrillers. That said, I have to admit I kept reading as the spy's mind slip out from under him.

"Promise" by John Harvey

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

Harvey's former footballer P.I. Jack Kiley is hired when British tennis star Victoria Clarke is blackmailed to pay a quarter of a million pounds or have the existence of a daughter she had at age fifteen exposed. While Kiley is an able tough guy who does get to work out some aggression in this story, the resolution is nicely downbeat and plausible. "Promise" is a glimpse into Kiley's life that makes me want to see more.

"Comes Around" by Chris Rogers

From: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, December 2008.

This five-page story from the author of the Dixie Flannigan bounty hunter novels features ex-cop Ford Bradshaw. Now retired, Bradshaw takes it upon himself to be an instrument of justice without judge or jury. Early in the story, Bradshaw suspects Jake McGrew, a newcomer to the weekly poker game, is a killer. Bradshaw's follow-up on his hunches actually obscures the outcome, turning expectation on its ear.

"Accidentally, Like a Martyr" by Reed Farrel Coleman

From: The Darker Mask. Ed. Gary Phillips and Christopher Chambers. Tor, 2008.

This story from a anthology of noirish superhero tales is told in the frenetic, poetic stream of consciousness of a crack addict who kills a priest to steal from a church poor box. After this encounter, he gains the power to travel through time, taking the sins of others as his own, clearing their paths to heaven while he is cursed with immortality on earth. A Deity with an Irish brogue calls him the Absolver.

"Bottom Deal" by Robert Gregory Browne

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

Ex-cop, compulsive gambler, and amateur Vegas magician Nick Jennings extends himself when his friend Holly Addison calls him out of the blue. He's too late to keep her from being shot to death, but he's determined to find out why she was killed. Browne's Killer Year entry combines engaging characters, a meaty plot, and brisk pace.