Speculative Crime Fiction By Margaret Karmazin “Who saw Lucy Beard this morning?” Inspector Margot Waite asked the cafeteria crew behind the counter this first Tuesday of the month, which meant Veggie Day. Not the most popular on Toronto Moon Base on Peary Crater, the moon’s newest installation. Toronto was quite up-to-date, though lacking some ofContinue reading “Lunacy”
Category Archives: Mystery
Twenty Dollar Post-Mortem
Crime Fiction by R.J. Butler My first day in Homicide, and it rained. Always a bad start. Whitehaven looks like a city trying to kill itself but missing every time. The buildings lean away from each other, as if ashamed to be seen standing beside each other, as the brick rots and the windows sweat,Continue reading “Twenty Dollar Post-Mortem”
Shadowland
Crime Fiction by Sean O’Leary A fourteen-year-old girl was missing. Candy had taken the call two hours ago. The father, Peter Ling, sounded like he was in agony when he told Candy his daughter had been missing for two days. Missing or lost forever. That was Candy’s job. The missing girl’s name was April. CandyContinue reading “Shadowland”
Kayfabe
Crime Fiction by Gregory Meece A sharp clang cut through the arena—brass on bone. Wild Bill Brewster crumpled, wide-eyed, staring at nothing. John McMurphy didn’t flinch. The fans roared—at first. McMurphy knew how they worked. They’d buy the blood, revel in it. Then doubt would creep in. Too real. Too much blood for a convertedContinue reading “Kayfabe”
Piece Offering
Crime Fiction by Jon Matthew Farber With one notable exception, the chess players sat at their boards, waiting for the tournament director to announce the start of play. In retrospect, the missing person would have done far better to stay away. The bulk of the hall was set up with long rows of chessboards, chessContinue reading “Piece Offering”
Dead-Center Plodder
Crime Fiction by Carl Tait Hudson Calloway wondered if it would be legal to murder the man walking ahead of him. The guy was wearing an ugly green sweater and plodding slowly down the dead center of the sidewalk. His hands were raised to his midsection, his elbows sticking out like chicken wings. The man’sContinue reading “Dead-Center Plodder”
Foundation Repair
Crime Fiction By William David Higgs III He had been repairing foundations for fifteen years, but it only took him fifteen minutes to decide that it was the worst condition he had seen a house in. It’s a miracle this place is still standing, he thought. He prepared to turn around when he heard clangingContinue reading “Foundation Repair”
Parfum
Crime Fiction by Kim Castle The night her brother Jason flung himself off the 500-foot-high bluff, the full moon glowed a chalk white, hovering above the Pacific Ocean’s shimmering surface. Just before he leaped to his death, he probably heard the harbor lighthouse’s foghorn blasting out a low and steady moan. Jodene Moore imagined hisContinue reading “Parfum”
Detective Santana’s Holiday
Detective Fiction By Russell Guenther It was 11:25, Tuesday evening, and Detective Rogelio Santana drove up to his unlit and empty house. By no means a paranoid man like many of his colleagues, he rarely locked his own car when parked under the shelter of the carport. Tonight, however, Santana had driven the county carContinue reading “Detective Santana’s Holiday”
The Beijing Poker Club
Crime Fiction by Frank Sonderborg I had all the equipment ready. My secure Cell Phone. My laptop, 16Gigs of Ram, a good Internet connection. I’d downloaded the Thor browser. I had my VPN, (Virtual Personal Network) working. So, all my net tracks were covered. I sat and stared at the laptop screen and jumped whenContinue reading “The Beijing Poker Club”