Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - May 2014

In this issue

Family and home come first in EQMM’s May 2014 issue, but don’t expect a paradigm of domestic peace. Blog Bytes column founder Ed Gorman brings us a tale about an unfaithful husband in a tight spot both personally and professionally (“Calculated Risk”), while Robert S. Levinson’s narrator, a former child star, reveals a shady past set in the back lots of Old Hollywood (“My Mom, the Movies, and Me”). In the first of two additions to the Department of First Stories this issue, Molly Bond delivers a chilling portrait of a woman whose abusive mother keeps catching up with her (“Bare As Bones”), and in the tense, Glauser Award-winning short-short “Ground Meat” by Regina Schleheck, the crime, revealed in an intimate moment at home, will leave you reeling.

In a whimsical narrative by James Powell, a police officer demonstrates pride in his hometown heritage—a piece of which is at risk (“The Theft of the Clown Jules”). And in the emotionally resonant “Teddy” by Brian Tobin, the eponymous family member isn’t a sibling or parent but a faithful canine companion.

Some of our characters have more unsavory places to call home, such as the safe house in Neil Schofield’s “And Little Lambs Eat Ivy” and the prison in Lu Greer’s “Six Hours,” the other first story in this issue. Michael Z. Lewin brings back detective Albert Samson and his extraterrestrial client in a case that touches upon both characters’ families, a revelatory entry that may be the last of the series (“A Question of Fathers”).

This issue also announces the winners of the 2013 EQMM Readers Award. Don’t miss it!