A Word From the Editor
The Delayed Spring-Summer Issue
Covid-19 has given all of us a lot to think about. Focus and Concentration haven't been the best and I found that this has been a common phenomenon among writers and others. But it certainly had us pushing off this issue week after week. But we're back now. Covid may …
Stories
The program warned a smoke machine and a strobe light would be used during the production. It said nothing about a gun. The theater was one of those dodgy ones, tucked up four flights of stairs, on an empty street, in an area that bordered Chinatown. Ellen couldn’t imagine it …
Stories
The three young detectives stood over a body which lay beside an overturned chair in the back room of the snake building. Rear access hatches to a dozen snake enclosures stood open, but the uniforms had assured the detectives that the top cover of each snake terrarium was securely fastened …
Stories
The Sleuthing Silvers and The Mystery of the Disappearing Deceased
Paralyzed, but still able to think, retired private investigator Bernie Silver is being wheeled on a gurney toward the crematorium. His main thought, continuously looping in his mind: “It isn’t supposed to end this way.” ***** Bernie had not really thought much about cremation until several months before, when he …
Stories
One O.J. The call comes, oddly enough, in the middle of the day. “Sorry to interrupt your day off, detective, but we have two bodies.” “Where?” She gives me the address. I hit End. Not the same feeling as slamming down a desk phone, but those days are gone. Great. …
Stories
Jake Striker gazed at himself in the mirror. A crack wriggled up the middle of the glass, splitting his face. Printed on the glass in bold red letters was the slogan: BEANIE’S FAMILY VALUE FOREVER He was unhappy with how he looked. His face was tense with anxiety. He wasn’t …
Stories
Deputy Ed Malone was heading across the lobby of the sheriff’s office when retired schoolteacher and amateur crimefighter Frances Valentine strolled in. “Am I glad to see you,” he said to her. “You charming devil,” Fran said. “Where’s the sheriff?” “She’s out of town till Friday. I figured she’d told …
Stories
I’m always happy to meet an attractive woman. But when Margot Lewis came to my door, I never expected that her problem would lead me into the deeper problems of modern mankind. Yet I eventually confronted at least two of them—the cheapening of human life and the demeaning of the …
Stories
New Rules and Regulations, August 1976
All listed rules taken from the bar employee’s handbook where my mother worked while she was in school. The rules are 100% real. The story itself is 40% true. No drinking or smoking marijuana on the job or six hours before. *** “Would you be willing to wear a wire?” …
Stories
Artie McKenna woke up fully dressed hugging a near-empty bottle of cheap whiskey. The barking jackhammer in his head came from someone rhythmically rapping at his front door. "What the fuck," he said as he finally reached it. Standing in front of him was an attractive, if stern looking woman, …
Stories
Early in the morning of New Year’s Eve, six people gathered in the chambers of a retired judge. The chambers overlooked the courthouse parking lot and, beyond that, the quadrangle of office buildings and bare maples that made up the county seat. Snow materialized in the sky, and a cold …
Book Excerpt
Deadly Labors An Excerpt From Chapter 2: MOTHERS
After I told my mother that at my boss’s request, I was taking a few weeks off from duty at the Honolulu PD until an appropriate job opened up for me, she asked, “Do you remember Ikaika Kahale?” I cocked my head, running through the filing cabinet in my brain. …
Book Excerpt
It’s summer at Treemeadow College’s new Globe Theatre, where theatre professor Nicky Abbondanza is directing a musical production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream co-starring his spouse, theatre professor Noah Oliver, their son Taavi, and their best friend and department head, Martin Anderson. With an all-male, skimpily dressed cast and a …
Book Excerpt
When they arrived at HQ, Detective Timothy Brooks slipped into a docent role. The five-story red-brick Public Safety Headquarters, with its curved mirrored glass façade, depicted the best-in-class public safety and judicial center. “Being centrally located near City Jail, Municipal Court and the Fulton County Courthouse was the reason this site …
Columns
From ROBERT B. PARKER'S WONDERLAND to SPENSER CONFIDENTIAL by Gerald So Writing this column a month before the March 6 premiere of the Netflix original movie SPENSER CONFIDENTIAL, I thought I'd cover my perspective on the movie as a fan of the late Robert B. Parker's Spenser private eye novels, …
Columns
Cozy is the Word For some reason, a line from a favorite movie song, “Grease is the Word” (thank me for that earworm!) came to mind as I started writing this. But hey, as far as mysteries are concerned, cozy really is the word. There was a debacle a while …
Columns
At the beginning of 2019, we asked authors to submit answers to a few questions in the hopes of giving our readers some insight into the various methods writers use to produce their mystery fiction. This month, we have a terrific bunch of authors and their very helpful responses. Here …
Columns
While quarantines and lockdowns are lifting, some people may have to or may choose to continue to stay home. For those that do, here’s a few films that might fill the hours: On the Beach Waking Ned Devine The Secret of Roan Inish; Stage Coach Moonstruck The Russians are coming, …
Interviews
RJ Beam is a Wisconsin law enforcement professional. He has experience as both a firefighter and police officer. For most of his professional career he was assigned as an evidence technician, collecting evidence from crime scenes. www.amazon.com/R-J-Beam/e/B00B7TJFGI/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_ BMH: What’s the biggest challenge in writing? RJB: For me often times the …
Interviews
John Schembra spent a year with the 557th MP Company at Long Binh, South Vietnam in 1970. Upon completing his military service, John joined the Pleasant Hill Police Department, where he retired in 2001 as a Sergeant, after 30 years of service. His time as a combat M.P. provided the basis …
Reviews
Some Books To Keep You Reading
Seconds to Midnight by Philip Donlay Donovan Nash and Michael Ross, are on a routine Eco-Watch flight above northern Canada studying a powerful solar flare in history, when they narrowly miss colliding with a Boeing 737 that shouldn’t be there. The 737 is forced to make an emergency landing on …
