It's been a while since I had a roundup of the latest offerings of crime fiction and news in magazines (both print and digital), but I hope to rectify that with today's blog post - and another next week focusing on anthologies. So, without further ado, here they are (with a hat tip to Peter DiChellis, Sandra Seamans, and Martin Edwards):
The November/December issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine features some familiar characters: Special operative cum high-school principal Anne DeWitt returns in “Small Signs” by Charlaine Harris; Elizabeth Zelvin’s sleuth Bruce Kohler is back in a Central Park/Strawberry Fields whodunit (“Death Will Help You Imagine”); Lou Manfredo’s Detective Rizzo takes on a case with a bit of nostalgia (“Rizzo’s Monkey Store”); writer-sleuth Antonia Darcy again stumbles upon a body in “Murder at The Mongoose” by R.T. Raichev; and detectives Hennessey and Yellich return in Peter Turnbull’s procedural “Bad Bargain Lane.” The newcomers include Jim Fusilli, who has his Black Mask debut with the mob story “Precision Thinking,” and John Gastineau’s suspenseful Department of First Stories entry, “A Coon Dog and Love," plus there's much, much more from Dominic Russ-Combs, Tim L. Williams, Tom Tolnay, Penny Hancock, Frankie Y. Bailey, Richard Chizmar, Bill Pronzini, T. J. MacGregor, Zoë Z. Dean, and Doug Allyn.
The new issue of EQMM's sister publication Alfred Hithcock Mystery Magazine includes post-war Manhattan private investigator Memphis Red, who confronts shifting motivations, political alliances, and even identities in L. A. Wilson Jr.’s “Harlem Nocturne; a young woman tries to escape the consequences of a one-time lapse in judgment but finds she can’t escape those determined to find her in S. L. Franklin’s “Damsels in Distress"; and the shadow of calamity, in the form of drought, leaves a western town vulnerable to a charismatic, and dangerous, itinerant preacher in Gilbert Stack’s “Pandora’s Hoax.” There are also plenty of other stories that fit the issue's theme of a landscape of shadows offering many opportunities for both deception and misperception, including those from Eve Fisher, Robert S. Levinson, William Dylan Powell, Susan Oleksiw, Tara Laskowski, Robert Lopresti, R. T. Lawton, Carol Cail, and Anna Castle.The edition also features the second installment of the new feature The Case Files as Steve Hockensmith brings to light some cutting-edge mystery-related podcasts.
I announced this earlier in a Mystery Melange, but it's worth repeating here: Spinetingler Magazine announced it will begin regular publication of a print magazine with the first issue due November 2017 by Down & Out Books. "As is true in life, the events of the past have a tendency to influence our actions in the future," said Sandra Ruttan, co-editor of Spinetingler. "It is the support of our readers that has enabled us to return with this print edition. With their continued support we hope to be able to continue to bring exceptional short fiction and features to you for years to come." The Fall 2017 edition will feature original stories by Tracy Falenwolfe, Karen Montin, Jennifer Soosar, Nick Kolakowski, David Rachels, and yours truly. There are also author snapshots of Con Lehane, Rusty Barnes, Mindy Tarquini, as well as book features and reviews.
Spinetingler is not the only foray into the crime magazine field from Down and Out Books, which also publishes Crimespree, as it just recently launched a new digest, Down & Out, The Magazine, edited by Rick Ollerman. Reed Farrel Coleman contributed an original Moe Prager story, and the editors promise that each issue will feature a story based on a series character. There are also new tales by established and well-known writers including Eric Beetner, Michael A. Black, Jen Conley, Terrence McCauley, Rick Ollerman, and Thomas Pluck. J. Kingston Pierce, fresh off his former beat from Kirkus Reviews, also introduces “Placed in Evidence,” his non-fiction column, and the zine will answer the question of what happened to crime fiction after Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler moved on from the pulps in the essay “A Few Cents a Word.”
The latest issue of Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine (#23) from Wildside Press includes new stories and features by Dan Andriacco, Henry W. Enberg, Steve Liskow, Laird Long, Robert Lopresti, Gary Lovisi, David Marcum, Kim Newman, and a classic tale from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself. SHMM is a go-to favorite for tales in the more traditional, Holmesian vein.
The latest Mystery Weekly Magazine features the cover story, “The Sugar Witch” by R.S. Morgan, as well as new short fiction from Joseph D’Agnese, Peter DiChellis, Stef Donati, Debra H. Goldstein, R.S. Morgan, Edward Palumbo, Tom Tolnay, and David Vardeman. Mystery Weekly bills itself as offering up every imaginable subgenre, including cozy, police procedural, noir, whodunit, supernatural, hardboiled, humor, and historical mysteries.
Flash Bang Mysteries, edited by BJ Bourg, publishes mystery and crime flash fiction quarterly online, in January, April, July, and October, with a mission to showcase "stories that feature believable characters who speak naturally, realistic situations that bleed conflict, and surprise endings that stay with us long after we reach the final period." The latest issue includes new work by Michael Bracken, Larry W. Chavis, Herschel Cozine, John M. Floyd, and Earl Staggs.
The only American scholarly journal for crime fiction, Clues, has published its latest issues (35.2) in both print form, which can be ordered from McFarland, and digital, available on Kindle and Google Play. As noted in the introduction by executive editor Janice M. Allan, this edition includes analyses of works by E. C. Bentley, Benjamin Black, Andrea Camilleri, Leslie Charteris, Agatha Christie, Tana French, Dashiell Hammett, and Herman Melville, and the TV series True Detective. There are also reviews of nonfiction works in the genre, including Out of Deadlock: Female Emancipation in Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski Novels and Her Influence on Contemporary Crime Fiction (Enrico Minardi and Jennifer Byron, eds.) and Susanna Lee's Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Decline of Moral Authority.
The latest issue of CADS (Crime and Detective Stories), Geoff Bradley's "irregular magazine of comment and criticism about crime and detective fiction," includes an article on "Serendip’s Detections XVI: Disjecta Membra by Tony Medawar," the first attempt to provide a definitive and accurate overview of all the unpublished material featuring Lord Peter Wimsey; a look at "Two and Nearly Three, Crime Classics by Andrew Garve" by Pete Johnson; and "Women Detectives in Fiction: The Early Period" by Philip L. Scowcroft, who explores Sayers’ comments on female detectives. (HT to Cross Examining Crime and Martin Edwards)
The third issue of Crime Syndicate Magazine is out with ten fantastic crime fiction short stories from some of the top crime writers on the market today. Guest-edited by Eryk Pruitt, this issue follows its mission of publishing hard-hitting crime fiction of stories "about violence, greed, lust, debauchery, and any combination," from drugged-outmarital problems in the East Texas countryside (Eryk Pruitt's own "The Deplorables") to helping a new college bestie murder a New Orleans local "god" (Nina Mansfield's "Gods and Virgins in the Big Easy"). There are additional offerings from Kevin Z. Garvey, Max Booth, Dennis Day, S.A. Cosby, Travis Richardson, Paul Heatley, Allen Griffin, and David A. Anthony.
Noir Nation No. 6 continues the crime noir tradition by circling back to its 20th Century jazz roots. This issue includes contributions from 14 writers, including "oldtimer" Gary Phillips, and Tatiana Eva-Marie, who is publishing her first story, who use their stories to address "jazz and crime, jazz and temptation, and the startling impulses that give them life and genius." Other stories in the issue hail from JC Hopkins, Tigre Galindo, Tatiana Eva Marie, John Goldbach, Brendan DuBois, Geronimo Horowitz, Gary Phillips, Jonas Kyle, Andrey Henkin, Alfredo Meridee, Jackie Goodwin, and Ted Berg, and Bill Moody.
In case you missed it, the first issue of Black Cat Mystery Magazine was launched into the crime fiction universe. The brainchild of Wildside Press publisher John Betancourt and Wildside editor Carla Coupe, the magazine is expected to come out quarterly. The inaugural issue features new stories from Alan Orloff, Art Taylor, Josh Pachter, Barb Goffman, Meg Opperman, Dan Andriacco, John M. Floyd, Jack Halliday, Michael Bracken, Kaye George, James Holding, and Fletcher Flora.
The most recent issue of Mysterical-E features new short fiction by Rosemary and Larry Mild, Rafe McGregor, Leslie Budewitz, Sam Wiebe, Robert Watts Lamon, Justin A. McWhirter, Peter W. J. Hayes, Rita A. Popp, Summer Theron , Andrew Miller, Bern Sy Moss, J. R. Lindermuth, and Leroy B. Vaughn. Plus, Gerald So has his latest "Mysterical-Eye on TV and FIlm" column, Christine Verstraete talks up characters, and Frances G. Thorsen looks at classic crime novels. And there are the usual interviews and reviews.
July/August issue of Suspense Magazine has interviews with Peter James, Tess Gerritsen, Linda Fairstein, Sandra Brown, Brenda Novak, and Jeff Menapace. There's also a new section by bestselling author Alan Jacobson, with “The Writer’s Toolkit," and Dennis Palumbo writes a great article about "Rejection." Plus, Anthony Franze and Barry Lancet's "Rules of Writing with J.A Jance"; D.P. Lyle's Forensic Files; and pages of book reviews and short stories.
The most recent Mystery Readers Journal, "Big City Cops I" has "Author Author" features from Max Allan Collins, J.T. Ellison, Margaret Maron and more, including three that are available online: "Cops These Days Aren’t What They Used To Be" by Rennie Airth; "Chinatown Crime Time" by Henry Chang; and "Are You Feeling Safe?" by Lyndsay Faye. There are also new reviews from Lesa Holstine, Michael Mayo, L.J. Roberts, and Craig Sisterson, and more.
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