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”
Tag Archives: Mystery
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”
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”
A Serenade For Rats
Crime Fiction by Robb White I was almost grateful when Bart Massey flung open the door and stomped in, spraying droplets in all directions, cursing the wet weather. “He show up yet?” Bart never read an epic, not even a graphic novel version of one, but he starts every conversation in medias res. “The guy,Continue reading “A Serenade For Rats”
Oleander
Crime Fiction By Andy Betz The man with the ax faces me. His face is always unrecognizable, but his blade singularly distinct. I see the few drops of blood mirroring an otherwise perfect finish reflecting the light from the moon in the sky. I can feel it burning me, coaxing me, almost provoking me intoContinue reading “Oleander”
The Mystery Of The Dead-As-A-Doornail Author
Crime Fiction by John RC Potter Cornelia Vanstone took great pride in herself in general, but particularly for the following three reasons: her prize-winning gingersnap cookies, a trim waistline despite being in her mid-seventies, and her success as the author of several romance novels, known for their titillating titles and historical settings. Although she hadContinue reading “The Mystery Of The Dead-As-A-Doornail Author”
An Inconvenient Death
Crime Fiction By Ben Mimmack Inspector Forsyth looked across at the doctor and considered whether to unbutton his trousers. Dr. Tyler was driving them both to a black-tie Christmas dinner in Devizes and Forsyth’s suit trousers were a relic of a younger and fitter past. The cummerbund would hide the undone button, but he doubtedContinue reading “An Inconvenient Death”
Sweet Little Straight Razor
Crime Fiction By Michael Fontana It was after midnight and rain beat my head like tympani. I checked my look in a shop window: mid-thirties, five-ten, black haired, green eyed and gaunt, nose flattened to my face from a case where it was broken by a punch from a semi-professional football player, a woman whoContinue reading “Sweet Little Straight Razor”
Discretion
Flash Fiction By M.C. Herrington I was sure I’d seen the face before. The illustration looked like a police composite, maybe hand drawn in pencil, maybe computer generated– I couldn’t tell which from the TIF. I received at least fifty new illustrations for the magazine each week, and I had a slush pile of aContinue reading “Discretion”