Short walk reversion 1.1

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 Short walk #73 in the October 2019 archive, which includes three free-to-read Continental Op stories by the legendary Dashiell Hammett.

I also recommend the blog of The Short Mystery Fiction Society, which is updated frequently and includes links to news, views, and stories by SMFS members.

https://shortmystery.blogspot.com

Best wishes,

Peter

Short walk version 1.0

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_and_Twenty_Blackbirds

Best wishes,
Peter

PS – Breaking news! The members of the Short Mystery Fiction Society voted to make self-published stories eligible for the long-running Derringer Awards for short mystery and crime fiction.
https://shortmystery.blogspot.com/2020/09/changing-derringer-awards.html

SMFS is free to join for mystery writers, readers, editors, publishers, reviewers, bloggers—anyone who enjoys mystery fiction.
https://shortmystery.groups.io/g/main

Short walk #123

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 Volume One, see the Point of View section of Short walk #60.

New releases, old releases

Coast to Coast Noir (September 28, 2020, eds. McAleer and Marks) is an anthology of twelve stories from the dark side of the American Dream. 

A Moment on the Edge: 100 Years of Crime Stories by Women (ed. Elizabeth George (collected in 2004) is an anthology of a century’s worth of superb crime fiction written by women authors. For a review of a Joyce Carol Oates story from this anthology see the Point of View section of Short walk #73.

Tricks of the trade

Five techniques to power ahead and finish writing a story.

Free reads

All the latest free-to-read crime flash at Shotgun Honey.

Check my shorts, please

My humorous private eye story “With Cunning Wickedness” was reprinted, free to read, at Trigger Warning: Short Fiction With Pictures (originally appeared in the anthology The Shamus Sampler II).

Thanks for visiting

Peter DiChellis

Short walk #122

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”—though the stories do not feature Connelly’s well-known Harry Bosch or Mickey Haller series characters.

New releases, old releases

The Killer Wore Cranberry: A Sixth Scandalous Serving is the latest in the annual TKWC series (ed. Jay Hartman, September 2020).

Culprits: The Heist Was Just the Beginning is a themed anthology about what happened to criminal characters after they pulled a big heist. (eds. Richard Brewer and Gary Phillips, 2018).

Tricks of the trade

A three-step, three-minute brainstorming technique to fix a scene that isn’t working.

Free reads

A Treasury of Sayers Stories includes a dozen stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, free to read at Gutenberg Canada.

Check my shorts, please

My locked-jail-cell story “Locked Tight” appeared in Mystery Weekly Magazine in July 2018. You can read a free excerpt on the Mystery Weekly website, and reviews here and here.

Thanks for visiting

Peter DiChellis

 

Short walk #121

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 Dr. Sam Hawthorne is a collection of the legendary Ed Hoch’s “impossible crime” stories.

Review: The April issue of Mystery Weekly Magazine features “complex mysteries that are set in various time periods and feature intriguing characters.”

New releases, old releases

Issue 13 of Mystery Tribune includes stories by Reed Farrel Coleman, Greg Herren, and many others. (August 2020).

Two collections by crime shorts legend Clark Howard: Crowded Lives and Other Stories of Desperation and Challenge the Widow-Maker and Other Stories of People in Peril (both collected in 2000).

Tricks of the trade

EQMM editor Janet Hutchings discusses how to use (and not use) a villain’s confession in mystery stories.

Free reads

All the latest free-to-read flash fiction from Mondays Are Murder (Akashic Books).

Check my shorts, please

My flash-length crime story “See No Evil” is free to read at Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon.

Thanks for visiting

Peter DiChellis

 

Short walk #120

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 of View section of Short walk #85.

New releases, old releases

The latest monthly issue of Mystery Weekly Magazine (September 2020).

And on the Mystery Weekly website you can read free samples of new and old stories by clicking the links to Recent Published Stories. You can also sign up to have free stories emailed to you.

The Crooked Road: Ellery Queen Presents Stories of Grifters, Gangsters, Hit Men, and Other Career Crooks, ed. Janet Hutchings (2011).

Tricks of the trade

A battle-scarred shorts writer put together a two-part “starter kit” for new writers, covering submission managers, email addresses, formatting, cover letters, bios, author photos, contract rights, and Paypal: here and here.

Free reads

Free to read at Gutenberg Australia: The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes collects 12 Arthur Conan Doyle stories, most of them originally published in The Strand Magazine between 1921 and 1927.

Check my shorts, please

My You-Solve-It mystery “Gallery Thief” appeared in the June issue of Mystery Weekly Magazine (solution in the July issue).

Thanks for visiting

Peter DiChellis

Short walk #119

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” author Christianna Brand.

New releases, old releases

Tampa Bay Noir, Addis Ababa Noir (both August 2020), and Alabama Noir (April 2020) are the latest releases in the long-running Akashic Books Noir series.

Ten Year Stretch: Celebrating a Decade of Crime Fiction at Crimefest, is a commemoration anthology that includes stories by Ann Cleeves, Lee Child, Jeffrey Deaver, Martin Edwards, Kate Ellis, Ian Rankin, and many other outstanding authors. For three reviews, see the Point of View section in Short walk #15.

Tricks of the trade

Developing unique character voices.

Free reads

The latest free-to-read stories from Britain’s Crime Writers Association, posted on their Crime Readers Association website.

Check my shorts, please

My humorous private eye yarn “The Belle Hope” appeared in the anthology Malice Domestic 13: Mystery Most Geographical and was a Finalist in the 2019 Derringer Awards.

Thanks for visiting

Peter DiChellis

PS: Excited to announce I am now a Full (published author) Member of Britain’s Crime Writers Association.

Short walk #118

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 creativity Bradbury brought to crime fiction.”

New releases, old releases

New issues of AHMM and EQMM (September/October 2020).

Fire in the Hole: Stories (collected in 2012) is a collection of Elmore Leonard stories, including tales featuring Marshalls Raylan Givens and Karen Sisco.

Tricks of the trade

EQMM editor Janet Hutchings discusses pandemic reading, writing, and story acceptances.

Free reads

All the latest free-to-read stories from Mystery Tribune.

Check my shorts, please

The Literary Hatchet reprinted my crime-horror story “Dead Ringer” (originally appeared in Kzine in 2018).

Thanks for visiting

Peter DiChellis

 

Short walk #117

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 well-known Scottish authors.

New releases, old releases

Vintage Crime (complied in August 2020) is an anthology from Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association, celebrating CWA members’ work over the years.

Ellery Queen’s Japanese Golden Dozen: The Detective Story World in Japan is an anthology of stories selected and edited by Frederic Dannay (aka “Ellery Queen”) that was first compiled in 1978. For a review see the Point of View section of Short walk #61.

Tricks of the trade

A devotee of “rejectomancy” (the arcane practice of divining hidden meaning from rejection letters) analyzes whether a series of rejections from the same market indicate your writing style isn’t right for that market. Check the comments for an insightful observation from short fiction guru Michael Bracken.

Free reads

“The Gangster’s Game” by Steven Berry at All Due Respect.

The Hula Hula Boys in “Headless Ticket to Hawai’i” by Thomas Pluck at Beat to a Pulp.

Check my shorts, please

My crime-suspense story “Murderous Lies” is a free-to-listen podcast from King’s River Life Magazine. The story was originally published in Suspense Magazine in 2013.

Thanks for visiting

Peter DiChellis

 

Short walk #116

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

Killer, Come Back To Me: The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury (collected in 2020) is scheduled for release on August 18 and is available for pre-order.

Kinsey and Me: Stories (Sue Grafton, collected in 2013) is divided into two parts: nine Kinsey Millhone stories and additional stories that provide a glimpse into Grafton’s early life in the guise of the character Kit Blue.

Tricks of the Trade

Submission calls: Hoosier Noir is open for Indiana-related crime stories (setting or characters). Submissions close September 13, but the publisher will then open for marijuana-related crime stories on September 15.

Free reads (repeated from previous posts, in case you missed them the first time)

“Fat Burglar Blues” By Tom Piccirilli

“Possibilities” by Bill Pronzini

“Falconer” by S.J. Rozan

Check my shorts, please

My impossible-crime private eye tale “Callingdon Mountain” appeared in the anthology The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery & Suspense. **

Thanks for visiting

Peter DiChellis

** I just learned this excellent anthology (ed. Judy Penz Sheluk) is on the ballot for the Killer Nashville Readers’ Choice Award. Voting for this award is open to all readers. You can see all nominated books & vote at this link. The ballot is alphabetical by author or editor last name.