Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - September/October 2023

In this issue

The September/October EQMM takes readers on thrilling action-packed adventures. In “It’s Not Even Past” by Anna Scotti, WITSEC participant Cam Baker (whose identity is at risk) is on the road, and in “Green and California Bound” by Curtis Ippolito, one of this issue’s several car chases finds a couple attempting to start over in a pandemic-impacted world. William Burton McCormick’s “Balloon” finds Santa Ezeriņa in a life-and-death situation miles above the ground, while in “Five Hat Minimum” by David Knadler (Black Mask), a Marine veteran is at dangerous odds with a local gang. “Death and Omens in the Great Library” by Thomas K. Carpenter sees Alexandrian magistrate Ovid involved in more daredevil antics than he’d like, including facing down a tiger.
The thrills are vertiginous in “The Final Final” by Jerry Kennealy, in which P.I. Johnny O’Rorke tracks a woman to the Golden Gate bridge; “High Diver” by Joseph Koenig; and “Free Fall” by Kathrin Heinrichs (Passport to Crime).
Cons lead to desperate action in “A Heist in Three Acts” by Amita Murray, as three young women conspire to take down an unethical billionaire, as well as in Tyler Fiecke’s “The Roadside,” Bill Pronzini’s “The Plunderer,” and Liza Cody’s “Never Enough.” The unlikeliest persons set traps in “The Spinster’s Yarn” by Cath Staincliffe and “Soon It’ll Be Over” by Twist Phelan.
With any action taken, we think about those not taken, and this tension is explored in “Teddy’s Favorite Thing” by Paul Ryan O’Conner (Department of First Stories) and “The Siren: 1999” by Joyce Carol Oates.
We’ve got whodunits too: Don’t miss Rob Osler’s clever “Miss Direction” or the efforts of Gabriela Stiteler’s protagonist in “Two Hours West of Nothing” (Department of First Stories) to discover whether an old flame committed matricide.
Add in a thriller of a true crime column, “The Human Bomb” by Dean Jobb, and you’re guaranteed an exhilarating ride!