Still struggling with tech issues related to interfacing with new version of WordPress. Until I can resolve this, I am suspending my usual weekly posts, though I will occasionally produce a brief and crudely fashioned post such as this one. In the meantime, I invite you to scroll through nearly three years of previous posts (simply scroll down from here, or see the monthly archives and search box located in the right-hand side of this page). You will find hundreds of links to reviews, releases, free reads, and more—all of them about short mystery and crime fiction. For starters, check out Shor ..read more

Struggling with some tech issues so this week, and perhaps future weeks, will be only an abbreviated version of a typical post. Review: The Traveller and Other Stories is a collection of violent and terrifying Irish noir stories. http://www.gumshoereview.com/php/Review-id.php?id=6671 The ins-and-outs of writing a scene. https://www.janefriedman.com/writing-scene/ “The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds” is free-to-read hardboiled private eye story by award-winning SF&F and Horror author Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman https://www.neilgaiman.com/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories/The_Case_of_the_Four ..read more

This week’s links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction. Short sample A few months after I’d been promoted to the Robbery-Homicide Division, my then-partner noticed a detective novel lying in my half-opened desk drawer. From “Inflection” by Steven Gore (in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, September/October 2020, ed. Linda Landrigan, Dell Magazines.) Point of view Review: Bibliomysteries Volume Two (ed. Otto Penzler) is the second volume of an anthology series with a bookstore or a book as the central element to a mystery. For a review of Volum ..read more

This week’s links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction. Short sample Seeking the escape of unconsciousness, Al lay on his bunk and covered his head with his blanket before rolling over to face the wall. From “Shuffle” by Christopher M. Stephen (in Prison Noir, ed. Joyce Carol Oates. Akashic Books, 2014.) For a review of this anthology, see the Point of View section in Short walk #26. Point of view Review: Mulholland Dive: Three Stories is a Michael Connelly collection of “three entertaining stories set on Mulholland [Drive] in Los Angeles ..read more

This week’s links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction. Short sample The bright sunshine, striking through the dirty window that looked down upon a littered alley, flooded the dingy room in Mr. “Nosey” Moore’s lodging house. From “Thubway Tham’s Hoodoo Roll” by Johnston McCulley. (In Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, September/October 2020, ed. Linda Landrigan, Dell Magazines. Published in AHMM Mystery Classic section. Story copyright 1921. Selected and introduced by Josh Pachter.) Point of view Review: Diagnosis: Impossible: The Problems of D ..read more

This week’s links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction. Short sample The body was put together from different parts—the door was one color and the hood was another and the bumpers were from an ’82. From “Hannah Martinez” by Sara Gran (in The Highway Kind: Tales of Fast Cars, Desperate Drivers, and Dark Roads, ed. Patrick Millikin, Mulholland Books, 2016). Point of view Review: Vintage Crime is an anthology from Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association, celebrating CWA members’ work over the years. For a review of another CWA anthology see the Point ..read more

This week’s links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction. Short sample Four men were clustered around the form on the stainless-steel autopsy table: two in dark blue uniforms, a homicide detective in a plain dark suit, and the medical examiner in a knee-length white lab coat. From “Things That Follow” by Jim Allyn. (In Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October 2020, ed. Janet Hutchings, Dell Magazines.) Point of view Review: What Dread Hand? is a collection of murder and horror stories by the “criminally underrated” and “very talented ..read more

This week’s links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction. Short sample Moe knew every crook in the game, never forgot a face or a gem and was the smoothest double-crosser in the business. From “Come and Get It” by Erle Stanley Gardner (in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories, ed. Otto Penzler. Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. Compiled in 2010). For a review see the Point of View section in Short walk #28. Point of view Review: Killer, Come Back To Me: The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury is a collection that demonstrates the “imagination and c ..read more

This week’s links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction. Short sample I couldn’t see the full reflection of my face; my features were obscured by the vapors of death on the mirror, resembling the death in the city, and resembling the scent of yesterday’s passersby. From “Scent of a Woman, Scent of a City” by Alawiya Sobh (in Beirut Noir, ed. Iman Humaydan, Akashic Books, 2015). Point of view Review: Bloody Scotland is a crime anthology of stories featuring iconic Scottish sites and structures in historical and current settings, all written by we ..read more

This week’s links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction. Short sample Bosch knew that any active burglar with a parole tail would keep a separate and secret place—a safe house—for his tools and swag. From “Christmas Even” by Michael Connelly (in Angle of Investigation: Three Harry Bosch Stories. By Michael Connelly, collected in 2011. Little, Brown and Company.) Point of view Reviews of Agatha Christie shorts here and here. For more reviews of Christie shorts, see the Point of View sections of Short walk #17and #105. New releases, old releases K ..read more