Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - March/April 2014

In this issue

At the heart of the mysteries in EQMM’s March/April 2014 issue are shifting layers of perception and reality. Even the ground underfoot is uncertain in “Glory of the Worms and Snakes” by Perri O’Shaughnessy, with its images of rich soil full of roiling creatures, and in “Following the Likely Path of the Moon Bear” by Nathan Beyerlein, in which series characters Nat Burg and Bertrand Stein stomp through the jungles of Vietnam. Woods and cold lakes are the setting for “Bond of Brothers” by Brendan DuBois; but will the story’s two siblings help each other get to solid ground?

At a dusty racetrack, in a garden of poisonous plants, and on a bloodstained library rug, the lists of suspects grow, even to include those who seem the most innocent, and those closest to our protagonists (see “Bright Diamond” by John F. Dobbyn; “Fruit of All Evil” by Marilyn Todd; and “Julius Katz and a Tangled Webb” by Dave Zeltserman, respectively). Elements of the fantastic make perceiving what’s going on even harder in “Gorilla of the Gasbags” by Bill Crider, set on a movie soundstage; “The Man in the Moon” by Michael Guillebeau, framed as a bedtime story, and “Lost Horse Road” by David Knadler, a chilling end to the Deputy John Ennis series, involving a character with seeming clairvoyance.

The malice turns domestic in “Gaslight” by Dan Warthman, “Romantivores” by Becky Michael, and “Over Her Body” by Lori Rader-Day, and be forewarned: The halls in none of those households are quite safe to walk.

The question of where to stand is political in Richard Helms’ “Busting Red Heads,” set in the post-WWI era of labor activism, and involves national borders in Doug Allyn’s “The Bandit Ballads,” in which Mexican bandits and a slick American entertainer are brought head to head. Characters take to the streets and flee in the dark, tense Passport story “The Russian Woman” by Jutta Motz and the gritty Black Mask tale “The Assumption of Seamus Tyrrell” by David Dean.

If you enjoy sorting the real from the illusory, to reconnect with terra firma, this issue’s for you!