The May/June 2024 issue of EQMM shows off the creative drive of characters in many artistic realms—and reminds us that this type of passion can lead to crime. Doug Allyn’s Upper Peninsula contractor can’t resist the opportunity to take on a historic renovation, but he isn’t the only one interested in “Capone’s Castle.” “Where’s Dookie?” by Gregory Fallis involves a unique visual-arts practice, and “Bermuda Triangle” by Michael Bracken a priceless musical instrument. “Blood and Butter” by Tyler Fiecke hits the “hot” spot of the culinary arts, and once again Antonia Darcy’s crime-writing career gets her caught up in a mystery in R.T. Raichev’s “Blind Witness.” 

“A New Weariness” by Anna Scotti is another major turning point for her librarian on the run, and it involves movie-making, while “Maternity Leave” by LaToya Jovena involves a character’s love of fashion and her book club. 

In “Seppuku” by Geneviève Blouin (Passport to Crime), an outcast Montreal detective takes a look at “a death scene resembling a contemporary work of art,” and upstages her colleagues, while in Josh Pachter’s “Texas Kinda Attitude,” a P.I. and music lover helps out the owner of a local laundromat. Bill Pronzini’s protagonist in “Friends” deals with a frame—but not the type you’d put a painting in, while Michael Kardos’s “Quick Change” involves the art of magic.

Celestial bodies may be traditional muses, but in Randall Silvis’s “And the Moon Disappears,” things go awry from the start. Artificial intelligence seems to find its own inspiration and proves dangerous in Twist Phelan’s “Artificial Hearts.”



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. 

We’re celebrating in this issue in signature EQMM fashion! In our January/February 2024 edition, you’ll find Christmas delights (and dastardly deeds) as well as Sherlockian fiction to commemorate the Great Detective’s birthday.

C.H. Hung takes us on a small-time reporter’s journey to discover what’s awry among Christmas-tree sellers in “The Quebecois Quotient,” while Charley Marsh’s protagonist in “Streets of Joy” reckons with the Christmas spirit while investigating the disappearances of unhoused people, including his estranged father. In Passport to Crime’s “Sacrifice in White” by Qinwen Sun, two impossible crimes are set in motion following a student Christmas party at a Chinese University.

Sherlock Holmes devotee Old Red and his brother Big Red are back in the winter-set “Enchantress” by Steve Hockensmith, and Terence Faherty brings us another Holmes parody, “The Crooked Man.” A story of the Holmes era, David Dean’s “The Carfax Lunatic Society” focuses on another iconic character: Dracula, while two other stories focus on classic mystery writers. “The Problem of the Vanishing Sopranos” by Erica Obey” involves an AI program called Doyle who’s trained to write mysteries via the work of S.S. Van Dine, and we’ll leave it to you to figure out what famous writer is invoked in “Where the Heart Is” by Jacqueline Freimor.

Does life imitate art, or vice versa? Ask the characters in “Rendering” by Sophia Lynch (about an artists’ model), “Far From the Tree” by Pete Lieunoir (starring a true crime writer), “How Mary’s Garden Grew” by Elizabeth Elwood (featuring an avid Agatha Christie fan), and “What Is Your . . . ?” by Mat Coward (in which an actor creates a fictional self for his public).


EQMM’s November/December issue is full of treasure—and treasure hunts. In “The Iron Maiden” by Doug Allyn, competing factions are after a long-lost shipwreck, and an unsuspecting man of the streets stumbles into a potentially lucrative situation, if he can find the goods first, in “Kit’s Pad” by David Krugler. Sometimes the sought-after is more sentimental than pricey—and thereby even more dangerous—such as in “Moldova, 1992” by A.F. Bhuyan, in which a child feels abandoned by his mother.

In a new case for the begrudgingly hooked Darcy and Payne, “The Men Who Knew Too Much” by R.T. Raichev, a complicated ritual unravels into a map that ends in murder—and in Joyce Carol Oates’s “***”, a man searches for an elusive gem of fact in his memory. Speaking of gems, jewelry is sought in “Uprooted” by Cath Staincliffe (where more than a trinket is unearthed from the past), “The Ring” by Pip Thompson (from the Department of First Stories), the storm-drenched “A Small Mercy” by Alice Hatcher, and “A Woman in Miniature” by Carol Goodman, in which a WWII era information-desk worker at the Plaza finds herself in pursuit of a spy. 

Fame is an elusive pearl, and characters in “The Stars of Reality TV” by Brendan DuBois and “The Good Winemaker” by Beatrix Kramlovsky (from the Passport to Crime department) are out to find it—whatever the cost. Even small-timers like the “Spear Carriers” (by Richard Helms) are roped into extortion schemes, whether they like it or not.

Readers know well that gambling can lead to fortune or a fall, such as in “Texas-Sized Vanity” by Travis Richardson. Two stories set in Vegas continue the precarious momentum: “Two Thousand Miles from Vegas” by J.D. Frain (from the Department of First Stories) and “Sign-Removal Day” by Michael Grimala. Topping off the issue is a jewel from the past in the Black Mask Department: “Three O’Clock in the Morning” by Erle Stanely Gardner. Don’t miss this trove of wonderful tales!

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!

Power and control are at the heart of many crimes, and the July/August EQMM is full of characters trying to pull others’ strings. In the Passport to Crime Department, “Martin, the Novelist” (by Marcel Aymé) commands the lives of those inside his novel, and in “Twos on That” by Pat Black, a disgruntled student plays God, wreaking havoc. In David Dean’s “Crown v. Marchland,” a prosecutor revels in having the power of life or death—while a lovelorn cowgirl tries to disrupt a new attachment in “Snakebite Love” by Pam Barnsley. The quest for control accelerates in “The Riverside Incident” by Daniel C. Bartlett (Black Mask) when a woman wants to break up with a gang member.

A young boy in “The Knight-Wizard” by Janice Law feels most in control using the magic he discovers in literature, while in Brendan DuBois’s “The Night Walks,” a veteran uses a new routine to control PTSD. Others turn to arcane and mystical powers—psychics and tarot cards—in Mehnaz Sahibzada’s “Death in the New Age” and “Flight of Fancy” by Marilyn Todd. Cards also figure in “Her Upstairs” by Michael Z. Lewin, as Greek gods observe a human card game. Speaking of games, an underestimated stepson turns to an old lesson to play “The Deacon’s Game” by John M. Floyd.

“His Father’s Son” by Bev Vincent  and “It’s Half Your Fault” by Meghan Leigh Paulk (Department of First Stories) explore the power of bloodlines, while in “Heatstroke” by Jennifer Black (another first story), a more perceptible power of nature leads to homicide. 

Some beloved series characters return too: Lt. Cyrus Auburn in “Strictly on the Level” by John H. Dirckx; Julia Katz in “Archie’s Been Stolen!” by Dave Zeltserman, and DCI Hennessey in “The Extremely Pleasant and Most Helpful Lady With Three Ears” by Peter Turnbull. And don’t miss Dean Jobb’s latest installment for Stranger Than Fiction, exploring a 1903 attempted murder by one of L.A.’s elite, or the debut of our new columnist, Elizabeth Foxwell, in The Jury Box.

Partnerships are key in crime, and in our May/June issue. “The Third Lady” by Robert Edward Eckels welcomes back two con men who have gone straight, and in “Down the Fire Road” a deputy attempts to help his long-suffering sheriff while they deal with twin sisters. Charles Hewitt and his mother-in-law Magdalene solve a crime on vacation in G.M. Malliet’s “The Pact,” and in “A Cruise to Eternity” by John Lantigua, several former MPD partners reunite on an action-packed ride. A P.I. partnership works like clockwork in “What’s the Holdup?” by Sandra Murphy.

Doubles and counterparts also emerge, as in “The Incurious Man” by Terence Faherty (a curious Owen Keane finds a “parallel person”), Libby Cudmore’s “Wait for the Blackout” (a victim mirrors Martin Wade’s past), and “The Wendigo Spell” by Paul Halter (twins have a deadly connection). Ken Linn’s “A Flash of Headlights” finds a man facing down a car in mirror image, but to what consequences? And in “Chalk” by Bill Pronzini, a burglar sees—what? Himself?

With intense connections, loyalty and revenge are sure to play a part. In “Drive, Mary” by Archer Sullivan (Department of First Stories), loyalty to a cousin sets a woman on a dangerous road, while in “Squatter’s Rites” by Hal Charles, a DEA agent avenges his partner’s death. A grandson recounts his grandfather’s adventures on the fringes of crime in “The Life and Times of Big Poppa” by Michael A. Gonzales, and in “The Body in Cell Two” by Kate Hohl (Department of First Stories), a small-town jail worker faces a conflict between justice and loyalty. In “Something Blue” by L.A. Wilson, Jr., a P.I. encounters a similar dilemma.
 
Readers and publishers are iconic partners, and in this issue we’ll announce your choices of our 2022 Readers Award winners!

Spring is coming, but the March/April 2023 issue of EQMM offers some chills as well as thrills. National Book Award winner Joyce Carol Oates’s “The Phlebotomist” and Marjolein van der Gaag’s “Beneath the Surface” tap into archetypal fears; David Dean revisits a classic horror tale from the point of view of “Mrs. Hyde,” and in “The Sleeper of Coldwreath” by Tom Mead, a sceptical academic teams up with his housekeeper to investigate claims of a haunting. 

Physical chill envelopes the scene in “Snowbound,” a noir thriller by Brendan DuBois, and in the action-packed “Midnight Run” by L.S. Kunz (Department of First Stories). But for those longing for spring’s warmth, there’s “Mushrooming With Murray” by Karen Abrahamson, “The Balance of Some Things” by Sacha Bissonette, in which a vacation cabin is opened for the season, and “Drinking in the Afternoon” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, in which a health-care worker escapes the COVID-19 pandemic but encounters intrigue in the hot Southwest. 

Family ties bring things to breaking points in “Shame the Devil” by Joseph Goodrich, “The Secret Sister” by Doug Allyn, “Game Four” by Travis Kennedy (Black Mask department), and “The Eye” by Savio Pham (Department of First Stories). Several other stories stand out for the experimental manner in which they're told: “Carver [and] (Company)” by Mike McHone, in which voices in a P.I.’s head become characters in the story; “What You Know, What I Know” by Michael Kardos, in which disconnected observers stumble on bits of information that could bring down a burglary ring; “Meth” by Terena Bell, whose narrator reflects on a crime he doesn’t want to commit, and “Bad Boy” by Michael Wiley, a dark tale told in verse. 

As is traditional in our January/February issue, we celebrate Sherlock Holmes’s birthday and the Baker Street Irregulars’ annual celebration of it. Among the games afoot are “The Killing of Henry Davenport” by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan, in which Chinese novelist Lao She and Judge Dee team up with Sherlock and Watson; a new installment in Terence Faherty’s parody series from the notebooks of Dr. Watson (“The Reigate Squires”); a Holmes on the Range tale by Steve Hockensmith (“Can the Cat Catch the Rat?”); and “The Murder of Sir Henry Baskerville” by Elizabeth Elwood, in which murder hits the stage.

Speaking of the arts, Holmes was a practitioner of music, and a couple of our stories this issue strike a tune: “There Will Be No Encore” by John H. Dirckx and “The Picardy Third” by Jacqueline Freimor. Others touch upon the visual arts, film, and screenwriting: “American Lovers” by E.A. Aymar, “American Night” by Zandra Renwick, and “It’s A Small World (After All)” by Twist Phelan.

Holmes would have been interested in the scientific findings of a character in “Errand for a Neighbor” by Bill Bassman (Department of First Stories)—and speaking of neighbors, they’re also integral to “Goodbye, Ms. Damico” by Bill Pronzini and “Dissonance” by Lou Manfredo. 

In “The Bowser Boys Are Back in Town” by Hal Charles, a mischief-making pair return to hatch a scheme, while in “The Butcherbirds of Twelfth Street” by Matt Coleman (under the Black Mask banner) something more sinister occurs. Also in the hardboiled vein is “The Soiled Dove of Shallow Hollow,” a first story by Sean McCluskey. 


In EQMM’s November/December issue, Christmas lunches at a rest-stop diner come with a side of suspicion in Charlotte Hinger’s “Lizzie Noel” and a theologian is mysteriously dead before holiday sales can earn out in Simon Brett’s “Marginalia.” A teenager’s observations at a small-town library come to a head over winter break in “Book Lovers” by Hollis Seamon, and neighbors are invested in each other’s lives in the lead-up to the holidays in “Street Versus the Stalker” by Pam Barnsley. 

The bonds we make during childhood can remain strong, as we find in the tense “Juvenility” by M.J. Soni, the touching “If I Could Walk My Brother into the Dark Woods” by Andrew Riconda, and “Magic Beans” by Meenakshi Gigi Durham, where a woman raised in an ashram reminisces. In another alternative community, a young mother finds what matters to her in Vikram Kapur’s “10.”

The surprises don’t end: We have unlikely sleuths (a reluctant groomsman in “Something Blue” by G.M. Malliet, a high school athletic-equipment manager in “Two, Four, Six, Eight” by Michael Z. Lewin, and a struggling writer in “Creative Vice” by Scott William Carter) and unlikely criminals (in the relatable “What Kind of Criminal?” by Latoya Jovena and the hilarious “The Artisan-Cheese Incident” from the Department of First Stories by Michael B. Hock). We find more seasoned investigators in “Archie Smith: International Spy” by Dave Zeltserman and “The Sunday Assassin” by John Lantigua.

It wouldn’t be the holidays without a “ghost”—there’s one to consider in the Department of First Stories’ “A Ghost for Marcy’s Garden” by W.W. Mauck—and a little magic, which we find in “The Card on the Ceiling,” a Passport to Crime tale by Awasaka Tsumao. 

A Black Mask reprint (“Take It and Like It” by Frederick Nebel), our usual columns, and two poems (Carl Robinette’s “Tightrope City” and F.R. Duplantier’s “A Roomful of Sleuths”) round out the issue. Plus you’ll find the 2022 Readers Award ballot. Don’t forget to vote!


EQMM’s September/October issue ushers in autumn with specters of all kinds. In “No Peace for the Wicked” by Martin Edwards, a dead woman hovers around the living to discover her killer. We welcome a lively skeleton to our pages with the EQMM debut of Leigh Perry’s series character Sid in “The Skeleton Rides a Horse,” set amongst fans of a TV Western. Ghosts appear within another fan community (those obsessed with the Black Dahlia), in Paul D. Marks’s “The Wraith of Bunker Hill.” John Dziuban’s “Down the Mine” (Department of First Stories) involves a haunting—or is it an hallucination? Series sleuth Santa Ezerina unravels the mystery of strange lights in the sky in “The Celta Wave Conundrum” by William Burton McCormick, and a mythical creature of the night appears in Jane Jakeman’s “The Edinburg Vampire.”
If you prefer more solid ground, you’ll enjoy “The Hideout” by Bernard Onken (Black Mask department), “Dogs in the Canyon” by Mark Harrison (Department of First Stories), and “Sound Moral Character” by Hal Charles. Being watched isn’t always bad, though, as we find in “The Light on the Lagoon” by Elizabeth Elwood.
In Art Taylor’s “We Are All Strangers Here” and Anne Swardson’s postwar tale “Uncaged,” the POV characters may have figured out the perfect murder, while in “Police Technique” by Pierre Very (Passport to Crime) the culprit only thinks he’s got everyone stumped by the seemingly impossible crime.
Despite doing good, protagonists find danger, as in Twist Phelan’s “The Kindness of Strangers,” the story of two night-clubbing teens; David Dean’s “Deconstruction,” involving construction-site graft; Joseph S. Walker’s “Cleaning Day,” about an interfering aunt; and “Publish or Perish” by Smita Harish Jain, focused on a grab for academic research.
Speaking of academics, who determines the correct pronunciation of a word? Read about a real phonetics dispute that led to murder in Dean Jobb’s column Stranger Than Fiction. 

What can we really know about reality when we’re separated from it by electronic and other barriers? That’s the question for characters in EQMM’s July/August 2022 issue. In “The Secret Sharer” by W. Edward Blain, a professor experiences the world through a virtual classroom, and in “Storm Warning” by Dana Haynes, a couple plays out an anxiety-ridden conflict in a storm cellar, hidden from the outside. In “The Shape of Australia” by Christine Poulson, a neighbor disappears—but to what realm? Is reality simply a set of statistics, as for the expat in “Quiet Pol” by Raoul Biltgen, a translation of this year’s Glauser Prize winner? And how disorienting can surroundings be during a time of war and violent dictatorship? The young movie-lovers in William Burton McCormick’s “Myrna Loy Versus the Third Reich” find out.
Rituals play a big part in building personal cosmology in Jill Vassilakos’s “The Message of Amun-Re” (set in Ancient Egypt, from the Department of First Stories), and David Dean’s haunting “The Wedding Funeral.” Families create their own universes, sometimes deceitfully, in two puzzlers by Marilyn Todd and R.T. Raichev, “Desperate House Wines” and “Sweet Death.”  Deceiving relatives also feature in the P.I. tale “Runaway” by Bill Pronzini and the twisty “Powerball” by Jack Bunker.
And how do nonhuman creatures impact human reality? Find out in “Sit. Stay. Die.” by Michael Bracken and Sandra Murphy, “Zoodunit” by Richard Helms, and “Serving Process” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.


EQMM’s May/June 2022 issue celebrates Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and the spring season with signature mystery and mayhem. In “The Manglik Curse” by Smita Harish Jain, a daughter tries to bend her parents’ marriage traditions and her astrological fate to her will; in “Phoney Friend” by Peter Turnbull, a community must come to terms with the death of three unpopular sons and the legacy of their father; in “Lucky Stars” by Readers Award winner Karen Harrington, a father’s distance puts a daughter in danger from her temporary guardian.

The challenges of motherhood are at the forefront in Sheila Kohler’s poetic “A Secret Country,” “The Investigation,” by Adrienne Celt, and “The Bridge” by Twist Phelan. And fatherhood takes center stage in “The King’s Ferret,” a historical by David Dean. 

Doug Allyn’s “Blind Baseball,” a quest story, brings in family, plus friends who are as tight as family; in “Pedro Antão’s Glasses,” a nephew speculates about his mysterious uncle’s final actions; characters in the Black Mask department’s “A Complicated History” by Daniel C. Bartlett navigate the complex tragedies of strained family relationships, and brotherly and spousal relations turn deadly in “A Philosophical Difference” by Joseph Goodrich and “The Thesaurus of Love and Death” by Sharyn Kolberg, respectively.
More straightforward motives are revealed (by classical detection) in “The Artist Will Not Be Present,” a case for P.I. Martin Wade by Libby Cudmore, “The Doctor Who Fell Into Sin” by Anne van Doorn, and “Dead Man’s Gorge” by Michael Bracken, while some truly amateur sleuths uncover a hornet’s nest in “I Believe in You” by Jeremiah K. Balko (Department of First Stories).

You’ll be outdoors this spring too, but that proves hazardous for characters in “Blue Sky” by Andrew Bourelle, “The Natural Order of Things” by Sylvia Maultash Warsh, and “Runner” by Tyler Fiecke (Department of First Stories). 

The characters of mystery fiction are often described as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. That’s true of the characters in the March/April 2022 issue of EQMM, and readers will be able to sympathize with them better than ever after the two years of extreme conditions we’ve all just endured. 

National Book Award winner Joyce Carol Oates portrays a woman’s reaction to her sister’s disappearance in the novella “33 Clues Into the Disappearance of my Sister.” The past catches up to characters in intriguingly different ways in “Justice” by Cath Staincliffe, “Tomorrow” by David Dean, and the Department of First Stories entry “Strangler Fig” by Ralph Hornbeck. We see what desperate people do when put to a sudden test in “Rising Sun” (also from the Department of First Stories) by Jameson Trahearne and “The Rendezvous” by Tim Baker—and how this can lead to extreme behavior, as in Wendy Hornsby’s post-pandemic-era “Cardigans,” Anna Scotti’s mind-bending “Schrödinger, Cat,” and Edith Maxwell’s angry-neighbor piece “Bye-Bye, Jojo.” 

Technological and social change feature in Peter Tremayne’s Shakespearean-era “Now Go We in Content,” Lou Manfredo’s 1970s police procedural “Sundown,” “Once Again” by Dave Zeltserman, set in the early days of the pandemic, and “Morbid Phenomena of the Most Varied Kind” by Mat Coward, which follows two witless youths attempting to use a politician to their advantage.

And what does it look like to experience a situation as an outsider? Find out in Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier’s “Rise,” “Russian for Beginners” by Dominique Biebau (from the Passport to Crime Department), “Another Saturday Night” by Michael Caleb Tasker, “The Footless Phantom” by Tom Mead, and “Send in the Clowns” by Paul Charles, a DCI Christy Kennedy mystery set in an exclusive historical home.

Following tradition, EQMM rings in the year in Holmesian fashion. Our January/February 2022 issue contains a new Sherlock Holmes parody from the lost manuscripts of Dr. Watson (“The Musgrave Ritual” by Terence Faherty) and another wintry addition to Steve Hockensmith’s Holmes on the Range series, set after Holmes’s presumed death at Reichenbach Falls (“Bad News”). Another beloved sleuth reappears in Josh Pachter’s “Their Last Bow,” the final tale in his Ellery Queen Puzzle Club series.
Police detectives work in creative ways in B.A. Paul’s quirky “Stone Still,” Alex Grecian’s humorous “The Scarlet Box,” and Raghu Roy’s pensive “The Policeman and the Dead” (Dept. of First Stories).
World War II is the backdrop for the events of Doug Allyn’s “The Death-Camp Angel” and Merrilee Robson’s “On the Side of the Angels,” which explore morality in a war-weary society. But it’s atmospheric natural settings that play a role in love, infidelity, and death in K.L. Abrahamson’s seaside “Paleolithic,” Bill Pronzini’s stormy “The Wind,” and Jack Fredrickson’s duneside “The Sound of Laughing.”
Passion informs our Passport to Crime entry, “The Crime” by Olavo Bilac, which explores obsession and complicity.
Nonromantic relationships can be rough too: adolescent friendships turn sour in “It’s All in the Telling” by Ariel Dodson, involving a fortuneteller’s return; “Best Served Cold” by Alice Hatcher, deals with a life-changing accident; and “Double Fly Rocket 87” (in Black Mask) sees two former high-school football stars return to their alma mater. Some do find a “True Companion,” as in Libby Cudmore’s new case of that title for Martin Wade, as well as unlikely allies in “Into Thin Air” by Karen Jobst (Dept. of First Stories) and “The Favor” by Michael Z. Lewin, set during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Don’t miss our columns, which include Sherlockian book reviews (The Jury Box), and an article about Arthur Conan Doyle’s interest in true crime in Stranger Than Fiction. Happy 2022 from EQMM!

With the November/December 2021 issue of EQMM, we close out our 80th year of continuous publication.
We are thrilled to bring readers a never-before-published Amelia Peabody tale by Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Mertz), “The Vengeance of Sekhmet,” and fans of the original Ellery Queen stories will find a reprint of one of the most ingenious of them, “The Broken T.”
Two authors debut in the Department of First Stories: Eleanor Gonnella (“Another Temptation”) and Barbara B. Green (“30 Ackerian Place”). A familiar name—Doug Allyn—appears in our Black Mask department, writing darker than usual in “Hit and Run,” and Sunil Mann’s Glauser Prize-winning “The Patsy” travels from Germany to the Passport to Crime Department.
We welcome back to EQMM after a hiatus Pam Barnsley with her confessional tale “What Can You Do?”, and we present for the first time two award-winning authors: William Boyle with “Jianjun Ling and the Sad Case of Sonny La Grassa” and Bruce McAllister with “1952,” both of which juxtapose the earnestness of childhood with very adult crimes. Another newcomer to EQMM is Victor Kreuiter with the experimental “We’re in This Together, Aren’t We?”.
Readers will recognize repeat contributors with stories that include kidnapping (Pat Black’s “Wing Man,” Michael Wiley’s “The Best of Times,” and Scott William Carter’s “Ask Hagan”), revenge (Anna Scotti’s “The Longest Pleasure”), haunting (“Death and the Coyote” by John Lantigua), and revelation (Hal Charles’s “The Reawakening”). 
We ring in the holiday season with four tales set amidst the winter festivities: “The Disappearing Man” by Sharon Hunt, “The Smiler” by Dennis McFadden, “The Debtor” by C.H. Hung, and “Number 10 Marlborough Place” by Elizabeth Elwood. 

In keeping with our founding editor’s mission to represent the expanse of mystery fiction and showcase literary quality, EQMM’s 80th-anniversary issue contains a diverse mix of 17 stories, two forms of verse, a letter from the editor, and three columns.
We bring you a variety of stars, from those well known in the world of mainstream and literary fiction such as Jerome Charyn (“White Chocolate”) and Juliet Grames (“The Very Last Time”) to those who write across many genres, including Kristine Kathryn Rusch (“DNF”), Emmy Award-winning TV writer Matt Goldman (“Sixteen Lies),” MWA Grand Master Bill Pronzini (“Why Did You Do It?”), Anthony Award winner Hilary Davidson (“Weed Man”), and the U.K.’s Jane Jakeman (“Trick or Treat”). 
Several favorite series characters are here too: Julian Hall in “Non Absolvo” by David Dean, Magistrate Ovid in “The Stain of Memory” by Thomas K. Carpenter, Antonia Darcy in “To Slay a Stranger” by R.T. Raichev,” Santa Ezeriņa in “Demon in the Depths” by William Burton McCormick, and Owen Burns in the impossible-crime tale “The Celestial Thief” by Paul Halter (Passport to Crime). John F. Dobbyn’s Yukon story in verse (“Nugget”) belongs to a series that debuted in EQMM 42 years ago!
This issue’s newcomers to EQMM include Department of First Stories authors M. Zizzari (“Rage and Ruin”) and Denis Johnston (“Snail Mail”), plus Sandy Smith with the high-tension “Meals on Wheels.”
Our Black Mask department features the classic “Dig Down Deep” by Frances Beck, and in a feat of virtuosity Trey Dowell presents an espionage thriller (“The Problem With Fish Markets”) in just over two pages! 


We continue our celebration of EQMM’s eightieth year with an issue dedicated to the classical mystery. July/August 2021 is bookended by stories that take place in one of the most iconic of puzzle-story settings: see “The Locked Room Library” by Gigi Pandian and “The Body in the Bee Library” by Jon L. Breen. Other fair-play head-scratchers include “The White Star” by G.M. Malliet (set in an English manor), “Julius Katz and the Two Cousins” by Dave Zeltserman, the medical mystery “Not So Fast, Dr. Quick” by Elvie Simons, a lyrical impossible-crime case, in Passport to Crime, from Awasaka Tsumao (“Fox’s Wedding”), and the mystery of a homeless man’s disappearance, investigated by a homeless P.I. (“Sweeps Week” by Richard Helms). 

Elsewhere in the issue, suspense abounds, to varied backdrops: an operating room (“Bone Marrow Donor” by Joyce Carol Oates), a concert hall (“The Concert” by Ragnar Jónasson and Víkingur Ólaffson), a winery (“The Fraud of Dionysus” by Smita Harish Jain), a comic-book convention (“What’s Wrong With Harley Quinn?” by Barbara Allan), within a character’s very own mind (“Sycamore Acres” by Richard Dooling), a prison (“Bad Chemistry” by John G. Wimer), a dying Texas town (“The Last Man in Lafarge” by current Edgar Award nominee Joseph S. Walker), and right at home (“Next Door” by Kate Ellis).

Speaking of home and family, the theme runs strong in other of this issue’s entries, especially “Homecoming” by Janice Law, the Department of First Stories tales “When the Dust Settles” by Tehra Peace and “A Truck Full of Illegal Fireworks” by Michael Grimala, and a noir story for Black Mask by Brendan DuBois (“Family Love”). 

Our columns—The Jury Box, Blog Bytes, and Stranger Than Fiction—round it all out, the latter with an account of Victorian “detective-fever”!

The May/June issue of EQMM, part of our 80th-anniversary celebration, is dedicated to our fans—appropriately, because herein are the results of our 2020 Readers Award poll! 

Here you will join previous Readers Award winners such as Doug Allyn (“Kiss of Life”), Marilyn Todd (“Leap of Faith”), and David Dean (“Season of Night”) to explore the shadows within. See too how the dark motive of revenge can motivate in “Frank Scarso Finds His Life “ by Doug Crandell, “Satan’s Circle” by Roger Vaccaro (Department of First Stories), and “A Heaven or a Hell” by Anna Scotti. 

We’ll get your gears turning with some intriguing puzzles in “The Hidden Places” by Linda Stansberry, “The Case of the Strangled Man” by Steven Torres, “A Brief History of Local Warfare” by Libby Cudmore, and “The Unlocked Car” by Mike MacInnes (Department of First Stories). More turns (and twists) are encountered in “Strong Stomach” by Zoë Z. Dean and “Temptation Street” by Martin Edwards, and you can really take flight with a short- short by Alex Knight (“Birdman”), a Willie Cuesta story by John Lantigua (“The Cry of the Condor”), and a romantic suspense tale from Melissa Yi (“Flamingo Flamenco”).

Spend a companionable evening with series characters in Hal Charles’s “Nothing Good Happens After Midnight,” with icons from American culture in “Waiting For the Night to Fall” by Tim Baker (from our Black Mask department), and in an intimate historical moment in “The Bunker” by Herbert De Paepe (in Passport to Crime).
History is central too to The Jury Box by Steve Steinbock, focusing on historical mysteries, and Stranger Than Fiction by Dean Jobb, which, this issue, handles a notorious 1870  New York City murder.

In Blog Bytes, Kristopher Zgorski has you covered with some great blogs and audiobook sites. And finally, we have an article by scholar and fan Arthur Vidro: “EQMM Goes to College.” We thank him and all of our fans for being with us through the years!

This year’s March/April EQMM will help you ease from winter into spring in criminally entertaining style. Starting it off is the first appearance in EQMM of the iconic character Mike Hammer in a previously unpublished story by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (“Killer’s Alley”). Things cool down in “Cold Hard Facts” by Chad Baker, “Stone Coat” by David Dean, and “A Winter Night’s Dream” by Michael Wiley, letting you while away chilly nights with a murder mystery, a fireside tale, and a “not-so- private private eye.” 

The intrigue continues: truth, justice, or the lack thereof play out in unexpected ways in “The Best Is Yet to Come” by Chris Knopf, “The Phone Message” by Robert Cummins, “Mother” by Ray Bazowski, and “Yeah, I Meant to Do That” by Mat Coward. With simple physics, things become more straightforward; see the supernatural-seeming “The Eyes of the Alcalde” by William Dylan Powell and the nostalgic “Escape Velocity” by Kevin Egan.

Fraught predicaments play out when characters are stretched thin in “The Dark Underbelly of Commerce” by Peter Turnbull, “An Eye for Detail” by Nancy Novick, and “A Bit of Bling” by Wendy Hornsby. The crises of other protagonists and even real-life people bring us around the world in “A Bucharest Arrest” by Bogdan Hrib, “The City of Light” by Josh Pachter (set during the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral), and this month’s Stranger Than Fiction entry “A Death in Provence” by Dean Jobb. Sometimes, though, the view out our own windows can present a dilemma, such as in “Black Swallowtail” by Hollis Seamon and “Pressure” by Cath Staincliffe. . . .

And finally, we arrive at the high-tension “Spring Fever” by Charlaine Harris and the holiday whodunit “Who Stole the Afikomen?”, a Passover tale by Elizabeth Zelvin. Thank you for spending the seasons with EQMM.


EQMM’s January/February 2021 issue features a dual celebration: our annual Sherlock Holmes tribute and the start of our 80th year. In honor of the latter, we present a special find, a heretofore-unpublished story by Cornell Woolrich (“The Dark Oblivion”)! Our Sherlockian fare shines, including a Holmesian Jury Box and an article by Dean Jobb on Arthur Conan Doyle’s career. In our fiction lineup we have a parody by Terence Faherty (“The Gloria Scott”), a Holmes on the Range tale (“Curious Incidents” by Steve Hockensmith), a whimsical poem by Ruth Berman (“Watson’s Plane”), and a pastiche with ominous overtones from EQMM newcomer Mike Adamson (“In the Shadow of the New”). Josh Pachter returns with another case for the Puzzle Club—and this time, there’s a Sherlockian twist (“The Five Orange Pipes”). Even our Passport to Crime tale fits the bill, as it features a sleuth known as France’s Sherlock Holmes (“The Touffard Affair” by Marcel Aymé). 

Bill Pronzini’s Quincannon and Carpenter take on a case that would have made the Great Detective proud in “Pick Up Sticks,” and we ring in the New Year with warnings from Tom Tolnay (“A Dangerous Encounter”) and Ken Linn (“Stray”). The turning of the calendar brings new things for many fictional characters—like a new course of study at a tony school in “No Legacy So Rich” by Anna Scotti, untraditional instruction in “Boo Radley College Prep” by Karen Harrington, and a new nanny in Sheila Kohler’s “The Changing Room.” But new roles can bring danger (see Nick Mamatas’s mob-related “Pink Squirrel,” Rob Osler’s “Analogue,” and Barb Goffman’s “That Poor Woman,” in which someone decides to take the law into her own hands).

Money-making ventures cause malevolent interactions in Scott Loring Sanders’s “The Lemonade Stand,” “The Two Gentlemen Guests” by Susan Dunlap, and Jeff Soloway’s court-translator drama “The Interpreter and the Killer.” 

Close out the year with EQMM’s charmingly chilling holiday issue. In our pages you’ll follow clues through the snow in “Killer Instinct” by Doug Allyn, solve a compelling Christmas Eve puzzle by firelight in Catriona McPherson’s “Mrs. Tilling’s Match,” travel through time to the holidays at a coal mine in Almuth Heuner’s Glauser Award-winning “Black Legacy,” and enjoy a Yuletide visit with Ellery Queen and the Puzzle Club in “The Adventure of the Black-and-Blue Carbuncle” by Josh Pachter.

The holidays are known as a family time, and characters navigate those ties in “My People” by Liza Cody, featuring an undercover police officer, “Good Decisions” by Edwin Hill, in which two couples navigate their desires, “The Cards You’re Dealt” by Michael Z. Lewin, featuring Sergeant LeRoy Powder, and “The Man at the Window,” a Slater and Lomond case by Pat Black. Much like unwrapping a gift, characters sometimes give more than you’d expect, such as those in “The Man From Scotland Yard Dances Salsa” by John Lantigua, a Willie Cuesta mystery, “Crumble” by Christine Poulson, set in a small English town, and “The Other Imelda” by R.T. Raichev, featuring always reluctant sleuth Antonia Darcy and her husband Major Payne.

Two entires from our Black Mask department shine like coal in a stocking: “Duel of the Aces” by Travis Kennedy and “Boomerang Dice,” a classic reprint by Stewart Stirling. Meanwhile, power dynamics shift uneasily in “The Winner” by LaToya Jovena, “Maps” by Kim Harbridge, and “The Tuesday Curse” by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg.

As you read “The Line” by Cath Staincliffe, “Words Don’t Kill” by Jehane Sharah, and “A Voice From the Dark” by Maurissa Guibord, you might find yourself reflecting on your year’s deeds (or misdeeds). Finally, we invite you to consider the stories published in EQMM this year and fill out our Readers Award ballot!

The September/October 2020 issue of EQMM brings all of the body’s senses thrillingly into play. Music evokes memory in “All Shook Down” by EQMM newcomer Libby Cudmore, “Los Colores” spark a vivid experience in a tale by Michael McGuire, “The Perfume of Peaches” by Alexandria Blaelock (from the Department of First Stories) will have you drifting into aromatic and flavorful territory, and the touch of a baby’s hand sends a couple down a dangerous road in “Baby Drop Box” by Doug Crandell. See how much power a haunting visual image holds in “The Oxford Ghosts” by Jane Jakeman and consider a more nebulous sense, intuition, in “What the Morning Never Suspected” by Anna Scotti. 

Societal and familial perceptions can drive crime too, as we see through the humorous “Dear Emily Etiquette” by Barb Goffman; the sibling-rivalry tale “The Homecoming” by Brendan DuBois; “Killer Biznez” by Zandra Renwick, featuring two hapless, law-breaking cousins; and several generations of eccentrics in “Burning Desire” by Marilyn Todd. Even stronger, at times, are the unnamed forces that pull on us, such as the tug for belonging in “Things That Follow” by Jim Allyn (from the Black Mask department) and “Round-Trip Runaways” by Department of First Stories author Violet Welles.

Other powerful feelings, such as love and loyalty, determine the action in the grifter story “Chasing Diamonds” by Joseph Walker, the remembrance-fueled P.I. case “The Last True Love” by L.A. Wilson, Jr., and the cleverly told “Terrible Ideas” by Gregory Fallis. Finally, use all your senses to the end of deduction in two traditional mysteries: “The Dashing Joker” by Ashibe Taku and the Ellery Queen pastiche “Four Words” by Dale C. Andrews.

With our usual columns, including a swashbuckling true crime piece by Dean Jobb, this issue has you covered for an intriguing, full-body experience in the comfort of your home!

The July/August 2020 EQMM has us thinking about the powers that be—the forces that are behind mystery, crime, and everyday life. Robert L. Fish Memorial Award winner E. Gabriel Flores introduces one of these forces, “Mala Suerte” (bad luck), and other characters feel the energy of bad-luck mixups in “The Scourging of Jimmy Blake” by David Dean, “Manic Monday” by Barbara Baraldi, and “Ending It All” by A.J. Wright.
Meanwhile, a young man is unlucky in his choice of part-time job in “The Death and Carnage Boy” by Steve Hockensmith, and bait-and-switch identities affect the outcome of two procedurals: “The Harder They Fall” by John Lantigua and “There Was an Old Woman . . .” by Peter Turnbull.
Sometimes a force seems like magic, but there’s something else behind the trickery, such as in “The Indian Rope Trick” by Tom Mead and two other impossible-crime tales: “The King’s Gambit” by S.A. Cosby, set in an art gallery, and “A Murder at Morehead Mews” by G.M. Malliet, a locked-room murder mystery set at an English manor house. That setting is echoed in an untraditional way in David Bridge’s haunting fiction debut “Feral Flesh.”
The natural world is a powerful entity, as we see in “The Thunderstorm” by Iris Hockaday from the Department of First Stories. And characters take on almost superherolike qualities in “The Recipe Box” by Claire Ortalda, “Mary Poppins Didn’t Have Tattoos” by Stacy Woodson, and “That Which Is True” by Jacqueline Freimor.
Love, whether it’s young lust, a marriage of comfort, or family ties proves powerful in “Midsummer’s Night” by Kevin Egan, “Of Arms and Women I Sing” by Sheila Kohler, and “Rendezvous Time” by Brendan DuBois.
And Joseph Goodrich takes us on another trip of misadventure and luck (or lack thereof) from the lecture notes of Manfred B. Lee, this time outlining the birth of Ellery Queen. We think you’ll be blown away by the force of this compelling fiction!

What’s at stake in a crime tale depends on what characters value, and that comes clearly to light in EQMM’s suspenseful May/June 2020 issue. In Tom Tolnay’s “Rhododendron,” a couple debates what’s important in their community (to surprisingly dark results), and in “Safe” by Judy Clemens a character values the status quo over the safety of others. In “Quality Control” by Susan Dunlap, monetary gain is valued above all, while in “Borrowed Brains” by Alaric Hunt, from the Black Mask department, P.I. Clayton Guthrie puts the value of a stranger’s life over compensation. And values can change as circumstances do, as the central character in Shelly Dickson Carr’s “Nantucket Undertow” finds out.

Protagonists in Marilyn Todd’s “Beyond the Tree Line” and “House of Ash” by Benjamin Percy find importance in freedom, of a kind, while justice and financial gain are at odds in “Noble Rot” by Richard Helms and “Rassendyll’s Grave” by R.T Raichev. Elsewhere, familial loyalty is the driving force for action, as in “Shadow Lane” by David Dean and “Rage Warehouse—Ire Proof” by Toni L.P. Kelner.

We value our fantasies as well, and this is true for characters in Jim Weikart’s “The Frog” and Keith McCarthy’s “The Perfect Crime.” Meanwhile, legacy is of ultimate importance in “The End of the Line” by Katherine Hall Page and the Passport to Crime entry “Travelers’ Rest” by Michael Berg. Finally, how much characters value their work creates tension in “The Workaholic” by N.W. Barcus and “Art in Pieces” by Wynn Quon, both from the Department of First Stories.

Here at EQMM, we value our readership, and you get a voice this issue as the winners of our 2019 Readers Award are announced. You’ll also find new reading material, as our Stranger Than Fiction true crime column by Dean Jobb, formerly only available on our website, comes to the pages of the magazine. As always, EQMM gives readers the highest value in short mystery fiction!

EQMM’s spring issue has us thinking about time. A stunning novella by Joyce Carol Oates shows how we may experience distortions of time itself. Two of our featured pieces keep time in meter: “Here in Tremonia” by Karr & Wehner (from the Passport to Crime Department), an homage in song, and “Of Clues and Clerihews” by Richard Stout, several small poems. And several narrators share how they spend what might be their very last moments, in “Final Thoughts” by Susan Salzer, “A Little Help From My Friend” by John Dobbyn, and “Active Shooter” by Jack Bunker.

The puzzler “The Eleventh Commandment,” the suspenseful P.I. tale “In the War Zone of the Heart,” and the legal mystery “Kidneys” (by Paul Charles, John Lantigua, and Rebecca Cantrell, respectively) explore family dynamics, while “Ghost Cat” by Hal Charles, “Bones” by Bill Pronzini, and Ariel Dodson’s haunting first story “Ding Dong Bell” explore the lines some are willing to cross for—and against—family.

The fanciful “Auguste Didier and the Mad Hatter’s Hats” by Amy Myers and the clever “Lady Luck” by Peter Lovesey take us on travels—back in time in the former and to exotic Marrakesh in the latter.

The personal pursuits of characters lead to creative ways to make a buck—for better or for worse—in “Like a Lightning Bolt” by Dave Zeltserman, “One Too Many” by Edith Maxwell, and “Run Rosie Run” by Preston Lang. 
 
Make EQMM one of your pursuits. Take some time for stellar short crime fiction today!


Greet the season in EQMM tradition with a stocking full of stories and a celebration of Sherlock Holmes’s Twelfth Night birthday. Our January/February issue sets a yuletide tone with tales by Matthew Wilson (the timely “The Wretched Strangers”), Andrew Welsh-Huggins (“Home for the Holidays,” starring P.I. Andy Hayes), Bonnie Hearn Hill (“Feliz Navidead”), and Fei Wu (“Beijingle All the Way,” a puzzler in translation).

Terence Faherty is back with a new Holmes parody from the lost manuscripts of Dr. Watson (see “The Yellow Face”), and Josh Pachter treats us to another meeting of The Puzzle Club (“The Adventure of the Red Circles”).

Other characters—such as an insurance investigator in Kieran Shea’s “Paying It Off” and a 1970s P.I. in Marilyn Todd’s “Nights in White Satin”—encounter more than they wish for at the end of their trails, as does an observant cleaner in Christine Poulson’s “Because You’re Worth It” and an unlucky vacationgoer in Kelston Gunn Cowling’s “Mr. Majestyk,” from the Department of First Stories.

Justice is a personal endeavor in the nostalgic “Edie” by Merrilee Robson, the adventuresome “Crow’s Nest” by John M. Floyd, the gritty “Now Hiring Nasty Girlz” by Toni L.P. Kelner, and the twisty “Stroke of Luck” by Bill Pronzini.

Police detectives feature in Peter Turnbull’s “The Banks of the Ouse” and Pat Black’s “The Concrete Pillow”—in which the area nightlife holds danger—and in Mike McHone’s “A Drive-by on Chalmers Road?”, where a detective looks into the injury of her uncle, a Santa Claus moonlighter.

Speaking of family, it’s the time of year to honor them—and they certainly mix things up in “The Summer Uncle Cat Came to Stay” by Leslie Elman, “Frogman” by Mark SaFranko, “Used to Be” by Twist Phelan, and “The Dragonfly” by B.A. Paul, from the Department of First Stories.

The November/December 2019 issue of EQMM is perfect for year-end reflection. Our Black Mask reprint (“Private War” by Roger Torrey) will have you thinking about the characters’—and perhaps your own—internal conflicts and motivations, as will “The Breakfast Club” by David Dean and “The Dutchy” by Doug Allyn, in which characters plumb the depths of their understanding of the “other side” of conflicts domestic and political.

Family dynamics and personal codes of justice rule the action in “A Little Happy Hunting” by Charlaine Harris,  “Fiction Addiction” by Christine Poulson, “Fathers-in-Law” by Twist Phelan,” and “Wrangled” by Doug Crandell. But cautionary notes are supplied by “The Final Stage” by Ingrid Oonincx (Passport to Crime) and “The Beige Skirt” by Joseph Goodrich, which show where playing by your own rules can get you. 

Willie Cuesta reflects on his Cuban roots while helping a client find freedom from the past in “The Underground Man” by John Lantigua, and Nell Drury, in Amy Myers’s “Death and the Donkeys” is just looking for a day at the beach when her keen observations compel her to help solve a murder.

Characters must find their bearings in more than one sense in the twisty “The Island” by Elizabeth Zelvin and “None Of This Is On the Map” by Richie Narvaez, in which a reluctant young P.I. confronts his own losses to address a case. Loss also figures in “Three Calendars” by Angelique Fawns (a first story) and “Stray Dogs” by Matt Coleman (Black Mask department), where survivors grapple with the never-ending fallout from the murder of loved ones.

Classic motives—jealousy and suspicion—are at the heart of “The Drawings” by A.M. Porter (a first story), “The Chess Room” by Elizabeth Elwood (a locked-room mystery), and “That Which We Call Patience” by Anna Scotti (a first-in-series whodunit).

The September/October 2019 issue of EQMM—as befits a mystery magazine!—explores the concept of truth. “Lies and Other Truths” by the late Robert S. Levinson focuses on a ghostwriter, while Black Mask’s “Second Cousins” by Michael Cebula, circles around the nature of proving guilt or innocence—something that turns out to be a matter of perception in “The Squatter” by David Dean and of interpretation in “How Will I Ever Use This?” by the Department of First Stories’s Tim Burke.

Truth from the past is uncovered in “Red Mist” by Peter Turnbull (a Hennessey and Yellich story), “The Visit” by Kevin Egan (with echoes of World War II), Josh Pachter’s Icelandic tale “The Secret Lagoon,” and William Burton McCormick’s “The Dunes of Saulkrasti” (with series sleuth Santa Ezerina).

Sometimes the truth of our past emerges in our current life, as find the narrators of the poetic “Figs” by James Sallis and the haunting “Never Have I Ever” by Anna Scotti.

It’s hard to keep unsavory truths hidden in a neighborhood, and dark ones emerge in “Do It Yourself” by Bill Pronzini, “You Can Scream in the Everglades” by William Hallstead, and “Frontier Days” by Bill Pippin.

Speaking of neighborhoods, we visit some tony ones in “Retirement Plan” by EQMM Readers Award winner Stacy Woodson and “Julius Katz and the Belvedere Club” by Dave Zeltserman, and some unusual ones, such as a bullfighting ring (“Torero” by John F. Dobbyn) and a stone-age community (“School of Hard Rocks” by Marilyn Todd). Plus, we’re back in New Orleans with P.I. Lucien Caye (“Sac-a-lait Man” by O’Neil De Noux), and we challenge you to solve an impossible crime by Dutch writer Anne van Doorn (“The Poet Who Locked Himself In”).

In “Bare Ruined Choirs” by the Department of First Stories’s Webter Ford and “Dog Tired” by Cath Staincliffe, small irritations blossom into full-blown motives for murder.

EQMM’s July/August issue takes the subgenre of workplace mysteries to whole new realms, with tales surrounding wind-energy consultants (“New Energy” by Vicki Weisfeld), a nineteenth-century thief-taker (“The Cripplegate Apprehension” by Richard Helms), an oyster farmer in a gentrifying neighborhood (“Oystermen” by Michael Bracken), and embalmers—of sorts (“Day of the Jackal” by Marilyn Todd). In the Passport to Crime Department, we even meet a ventriloquist and other members of a circus troupe (see Takemaru Abiko’s impossible-crime tale “A Smart Dummy in the Tent”). A couple of stories feature workers from behind the desk in hotels or motels, the intriguing but melancholy “Do Not Disturb” by Steve Hockensmith, and the shadowy and riveting “The Long-Term Tenant” by Tara Laskowski (a Black Mask story). The pragmatic narrator in Aoife Clifford’s “Crossing Bridges,” too, is brought into a tough situation at her retail gig, but she secretly suspects someone else.

Of course, many characters are more interested in their extracurricular activities, like the writers in “Murderers’ Row” by Chris Holm, the barista in “Rionach, My Queen” by James Hadley Griffin (a First story), the Latvian jewelry expert in V. S. Kemanis’s “Dzintra’s Tale,” and the do-it-yourselfer in “Left for Dead” by S. J. Rozan.

Family secrets and other deceptions can complicate a job, as they do in Brendan DuBois’s “Her Sister’s Secrets,” in Tony Fisher’s twisty “Tingo” (from the Department of First Stories), in R.T. Raichev’s new Antonia Darcy mystery involving a cosmetic surgeon, “The Mysterious Affair at Osiris House,” and in “There Are Just Some Things a Rat Won’t Do,” a Hennessey and Yellich procedural by Peter Turnbull.

Some characters probably won’t be making it in to work at all, as in the harrowing “Heat” by Trey Dowell and the stunner “Rude Awakening” by Twist Phelan. Don’t miss this issue, perfect for lunch-break reading!

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9. Magzter is a distributor and NOT a publisher of the Publications and so Magzter has no editorial control over the content, including opinions, advice, statements, services, offers etc., that is represented in the magazines. So Magzter will not take responsibility for the accuracy or the reliability for any information or facts provided therein or that is made available through the service, by anyone other than authorised Magzter employees who are acting on their official capacities. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered by the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of Magzter. Magzter will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information obtained through the Service or from the Publications. The Service may contain links to other Internet sites and third-party resources and Magzter does not assume any responsibility or liability for communications or materials available at such linked sites. These links are provided for your convenience only. You are solely responsible for understanding any terms and conditions that may apply when you visit or place an order through a third-party site.

Details of the objectionable content, including its link on our platform

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Girish Ramdas is the Co-founder and CEO of Magzter, a New York based startup that has been making waves in the global digital publishing business. Magzter has crossed 80 million users since its inception in 2011 from more than 150+ countries with 1000s of magazines, newspapers and books from more than 4,500 publishers worldwide. He has more than 25 years of experience in cross-platform publishing, including print, mobile, and Web development. During this period, he has co-founded and run three successful start-up businesses. He has enabled magazine companies to go digital and helps them monetize their content across the digital world. Girish's deep industry experience in online, mobile and publishing ecosystems has made him an expert in acquisition, marketing and monetizing digital content across platforms globally.

In the event that you encounter any objectionable content on our platform, we have put in place a grievance redressal policy to address your concerns.

Magzter Inc. (“Company”, “we”, “us” or “our”) knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared. Please read the following privacy policy (the “Policy”) to learn more about our privacy practices. By visiting any of the websites operated by the Company, and any sub-domains thereof, or using any of our mobile applications and other methods of content distribution (collectively, the “Service”), you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in this Policy, and you hereby consent that we will collect, use, and share your information in the following ways.

Magzter Inc. is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 80 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

Magzter is committed to providing a safe and secure platform for our users. Please note that Magzter is merely a platform for publishers to distribute their content. We do not control or endorse the content published on our platform. We cannot be held responsible for the actions of our publishers or their content.

Magzter is not responsible for compensating any party that has suffered damages or incurred costs due to any content, or part of the content, that violates their rights. Magzter is not liable to face any legal action in civil court for any violation of rights caused by any content, or part of the content, that infringes the rights of a third party.

Magzter offers the world’s largest {{allyoucanread}} subscription service called {{gold}} which gives digital readers unlimited access to 8,500+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

Magzter offers the world’s largest “All-You-Can-Read” subscription service called Magzter GOLD which gives digital readers unlimited access to 8,500+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

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Prior to Magzter, he was the President of Dot Com Infoway (DCI) and Galatta Media. His duties included strategic marketing, partnership development, and monetizing content globally. DCI grew from a small team of 3 in 2000 to 300 by 2011 and was dealing with web, software and app development for clients globally.

Since we launched, Magzter has been committed to partnering with global organizations to provide the greatest possible newsstand technology & service to our customers. Whether you are looking to offer magazine subscriptions to your customer database or just want to learn more, Magzter is committed to helping your business grow. To find out more, please fill out the questionnaire below:

The DMCA allows us to restore the removed content if the party filing the original DMCA Notice does not file a court action against you within ten business days of receiving the copy of your Counter Notice.

This Policy covers Company’s treatment of personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) and other information about you and your computer or device that Company gathers when you are accessing the Service. We may collect Personal Information from you, as explained in more detail below, and we use this Personal Information internally in connection with our Services, including to personalize, provide, and improve our products, services, content, and advertising, and to allow you to set up a user account and profile, to contact you, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, and to analyze how you use the Services. In certain cases, we may also share some Personal Information with third parties, but only as described in point 4.

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To analyze the quality of content and provide appropriate feedback to publishers

We have designated a Grievance Officer to address any complaints related to objectionable content.

We request that any complaint related to objectionable content be sent to the Grievance Officer through email to the above-mentioned email address. We also request that you provide the following details when making a complaint:

and the App that provides you the capability to order, subscribe to and receive the delivery of various magazines, books, news and magazine and publication related content (collectively known as 'Publications') and to have these digital versions of the Publications delivered to you

c. We also collect information associated with your use of the application in order to make personalized recommendations. If you provide your third-party account credentials to us, you understand some content and/or information in those accounts (“Third Party Account Information”) may be transmitted into your account with us if you authorize such transmissions, and that Third Party Account Information transmitted to the Service is covered by this Policy.

f. The Personal Information we collect allows us to respond to your requests, improve our products and services, customize the advertising and content you see, and communicate with you about new products.

is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 87 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

n. We will also use usage information in order to ensure users adhere to our Terms of Use. For example, a user’s usage information will help us confirm that a user only downloads a magazine or other content a permitted number of times or to a permitted number of devices.

which gives digital readers unlimited access to 8,500+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

{{magzter}} is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 87 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

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