Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - February 2014

In this issue

The game is certainly afoot—in some cases literally—in EQMM\'s February issue, our annual celebration of the birthday of Sherlock Holmes. In Loren D. Estleman’s playful adventure “Admit One,” you’ll follow film historian and restoration expert Valentino through a scavenger hunt of sorts. And in Chad Wellinger’s chilling tale from the Department of First Stories (“Dead Ringer”), murder unfolds in a college dorm, complete with word games and ominous clues… but who will do what to whom? Darker yet is David Dean’s Yucatán story “Murder Town,” in which an American convict finds himself in the middle of a sport that\'s win or die.

The emotional stakes are high in the unfolding narrative of “King Brown” by Cheryl Rogers, set on an Australian sheep farm, and in the tense “Mols” by Jane Jakeman, about the price of saving someone’s life. “Lily’s Beef” by Shannon Schuren—a police procedural set on the isolated Lily Island—will have you gumshoeing along, and the who- and how-dunit “Jacob’s Ladder” by Paul Halter (Passport to Crime) will have you stumped in a puzzle that would challenge Holmes himself.

Of course, no homage to Mr. Holmes would be complete without some pastiches and parodies of the original tales of the great detective, and this issue does not disappoint. Terence Faherty continues his series of retellings of Conan Doyle\'s most famous works through the uncensored notebooks of Dr. Watson in “The Red-Headed League” and “A Case of Identity.” And we also welcome back Holmes wannabe Skyler Hobbs in an episode with the series\' signature wit and another new character drawn from the Holmes canon. (“Skyler Hobbs and the Smarter Brother” by Evan Lewis). The Baker Street Irregulars, the world\'s oldest Sherlockian organization, will have this issue at their celebratory banquet in January. Don\'t miss it!