Short walk #63

Weekly links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction.

Short sample:

There is nothing more annoying than the repetitive sound of frozen iguanas hitting the roof of your trailer, with the possible exception of a man hammering at your neighbor’s door. From “Frozen Iguana” by Debra Lattanzi Shutika (in Florida Happens: Bouchercon 2018 Anthology, ed. Greg Herren. Three Rooms Press/Diversion Books, 2018. Out of Print. Limited Availability).

Point of view:

Review: Ben Boulden is on the scene with At Home in the Dark, ed. Lawrence Block (2019).

Reviews: Robert Lopresti’s Little Big Crimes: The best mystery story I read this week covers one, two, three, stories from the latest issue of AHMM.

New releases, old releases:

Invisible Blood, eds. Lee Child and Jeffery Deaver (July 23, 2019. Includes a new Jack Reacher story).

Crime & Mystery Short Stories (2016).

Tricks of the Trade:

Almost everything you wanted to know about cops’ concealment holsters.

Free Reads:

“The Bear Trap” (A Mike Bowditch Short Story) by Paul Doiron.

“Backtrack” by Paul Doiron.

Check my shorts, please:

My supernatural voodoo mystery “Most Evil” appeared in the anthology Busted! Arresting Stories from the Beat.

Thanks for visiting.

Peter DiChellis

Short walk #62

This week’s links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction.

Short sample:

A murder moon hung low in the sky. From “Past is Prologue” by Paul D. Marks (in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, July/August 2019, ed. Linda Landrigan, Dell Magazines).

Point of view:

Matthew X. Gomez reviews a sharp release: Switchblade Issue 9 (also see Switchblade Issue 10 in New releases, below).

New releases, old releases:

Switchblade Issue 10 (July 2019).

Murder Mayhem Short Stories (2016).

Tricks of the Trade:

The editor of Occult Detective Quarterly riffs about submissions, writing, and rejections.

Free Reads:

“Portrait of a Hotel Photographer” by Jack Bates, “Trimmigrant Song” by Angel Luis Colón, and “Kaboom” by Cindy Rosmus, all at Shotgun Honey.

Check my shorts, please:

My suspense story “Nobody’s Safe” is free to read at crime ‘zine Tough.

Thanks for visiting.

Peter DiChellis

 

Short walk #61

Weekly links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction.

Short sample:

She was a tall, seedy, sad-eyed blonde who had once been a policewoman and had lost her job when she married a cheap little check bouncer named Johnny Horne, to reform him. From “Goldfish” by Raymond Chandler (in Raymond Chandler: Collected Stories, Everyman’s Library, collected in 2002).

Point of view:

From the EQMM blog: Frederic Danay and the Art of the Detective Short Story.

Review: Ellery Queen’s Japanese Golden Dozen (ed. Frederic Dannay).

New releases, old releases:

Announced on the SMFS blog – Pattern of Behavior: Ten Tales of Murder and Mayhem.

Includes Helen Smith’s Thriller Award winning short story “Nana” – Killer Women: Crime Club Anthology #2.

Tricks of the Trade:

A devotee of “rejectomancy” (the arcane practice of divining hidden meaning from rejection letters) reflects on what to do about a story after 24 rejections spanning five years.

Free Reads:

Pop open the new issue of Flash Bang Mysteries for five free stories.

Check my shorts, please:

The anthology The Best Laid Plans includes my impossible-crime private eye tale “Callingdon Mountain.”

Thanks for visiting.

Peter DiChellis

PS — Breaking news: My private eye You-Solve-It “Disappearing Diamonds” was accepted for an upcoming issue of Mystery Weekly magazine.

Short walk #60

This week’s links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction.

Short sample:

Grantham Beale smiled, and while it was worthy of inclusion in a toothpaste commercial, it was the first smile he’d managed since his conviction on first-degree murder charges just two weeks and four days earlier. From “The Ehrengraf Experience” by Lawrence Block (in Defender of the Innocent: The Casebook of Martin Ehrengraf, Subterranean Press, collected in 2014).

Point of view:

Review: Bibliomysteries, Ed Otto Penzler.

Review: Tiny Crimes: Very Short Tales of Mystery and Murder.

New releases, old releases:

Bloody Scotland: New Fiction from Scotland’s Best Crime Writers (2018).

From Thuglit: Hardcore Hardboiled (2008).

Tricks of the Trade:

Submissions at AHMM and EQMM — Behind the Scenes with Senior Assistant Editor Jackie Sherbow.

Free Reads:

“The Great Train Robbery” by Michael Bracken at King’s River Life.

“The Calling” by Gary Phillips at Akashic Books’ Mondays Are Murder.

“Hollywood Harry’s Bar and Grill” by Fred Zackel Yellow Mama.

Check my shorts, please:

My flash piece “The Interrogation” appeared in the March 2016 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine as the story that won the AHMM Monthly Mysterious Photograph Contest.

Thanks for visiting.

Peter DiChellis