Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - March/April 2024

In this issue

The March/April 2024 issue of EQMM brings to the forefront crimes both big (as in Twist Phelan’s “Aim,” featuring international spy Finn Teller) and small (as in Tom Tolnay’s “Poverty,” which chronicles a family’s sometimes not-quite-legal deeds). In other families, parents’ roles are examined—for better or for worse: see “Turnabout” by Sheila Kohler, “The Good Father” by Hilary Davidson, and “Lady Nitro” by Marilyn Todd, a historical set in a rapidly industrializing Pennsylvania. We also see the closeness and potential peril involved in untraditional and chosen families in “Fish Around and Find Out” by Karen Harrington, “Apple Juice” by Nils Gilbertson (from the Black Mask department), and “The Video Girl” by M.J. Soni.
In Michael Z. Lewin’s “Asset to the Community,” P.I. Albert Samson has a new case and is honored with a neighborhood award, while in “Neighborly” by Peter Lance Graves (from the Department of First Stories) one neighbor’s watch over another ends in a way no one could foresee. It’s neighborhood kids who feature in “The Pasture at Night” by Doug Crandell when a hijacker lands amongst them. Community awareness even affects a wannabe crook in “Mask Up” by Eli Cranor.
If you’re looking for a traditional “fair play” mystery, we’ve got one in the Department of First Stories: “Murder Under Sedation” by Lawrence Ong, and there’s also “The Four-Nine Profile” by Richard Helms, in which the identity of a serial killer is deduced through forensic profiling.