Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - September/October 2019

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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.