This week’s links to what’s fresh, what’s famous, and what’s fiendish in short mystery and crime fiction.
Short sample:
With the third murder, three weeks later, I go into alarm mode. From “On Pacific Beach” by Patti Abbott (In I Bring Sorrow: And Other Stories of Transgression. By Patricia Abbott. Collected in 2018. Polis Books.)
Point of view:
Robert Lopresti reviews the best mystery story he reads each week. Like this one. And this one and this one. And this one too.
New releases, old releases:
The latest issue of The Strand Magazine (June 2020) includes a previously unpublished Louisa May Alcott story.
Switchblade (Issue Twelve, June 2020) features hard luck tales of the human condition, before and after Covid-19.
Thriller Magazine (Volume 3 Issue 1, June 2020) showcases a wide range of tales, from psychological thrillers, to brutal tales of murder, to political thrillers (includes one of my stories, see below).
Tricks of the Trade:
To create stakes for a character in your story, look beyond the plot and brainstorm different ways the stakes might affect the character.
Free Reads:
“Ghost Town” by Lydia Lunch (from Akashic Book’s The Heroin Chronicles).
Check my shorts, please:
The new issue of Thriller Magazine includes my crime-suspense story “They Die in Eight Minutes” (originally published in Shotgun Honey in 2014).
Thanks for visiting.