Thursday, August 06, 2026
The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: More Sizzling Summer Reads from the Short Mystery Fiction Society!
Bitter Tea and Mystery: A Graveyard for Lunatics: Ray Bradbury
Thursday Treats: 8/06/2026
Some reading opportunities of interest this week...
Black
Cat Weekly #257 is out and includes cover short story by
SMFS list member Anne Swardson (Lost in Paris) and others. You can pick up the
latest issue here.
I
have long been a fan of Larry D. Sweazy. He has announced on Facebook that the Literary Garage will publishing his short story, A
Knock at the Door, on August 13th. So, next week. And go get his
books. Great reads.
Speaking
of being a fan, I also have long been a fan of the works by Russ Hall. Especially
the Al Quinn novels. His latest in that series, Gold in Them Texas Hills, was reviewed here
last week by yours truly. He has a new two book series just out featuring Brett
Crutherstone and private investigator Ketch. You can pick up this small-town
Texas suspense series on Amazon.
This
month marks another resurrected book from author Beau
Johnson. Shotgun
Honey has now released, All of Them to Burn: Stories. Part
of the Bishop Rider series, the read is available at
the publisher and Amazon.
Edited by
SMFS list members, Editors Gigi Pandian and Tom Mead, All the Crime in
the World: Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Puzzles, has been
released. According to the synopsis, the
anthology will feature 14 short stories by “Victor Bonini, James Scott
Byrnside, Shelly Dickson Carr, S.A. Cosby, Anne van Doorn, Martin Edwards,
Sulari Gentill, Paul Halter, Christopher Huang, Vaseem Khan, Josh Pachter,
Masaya Yamaguchi, Ovidia Yu, and a brand-new collaboration from the editors.” Available
from the publisher, Crippen
and Landru, and Amazon,
the read was reviewed here
earlier this week by Aubrey Nye Hamilton.
As Gigi
Pandian posted to the SMFS list recently and I quote: “We've got several SMFS
members in the anthology. Josh mentioned his story, "The Allegory of the
Five Senses," which is terrific. Tom Mead and I wrote "The Problem of
the Poison Garden" as a nod to our favorite author, John Dickson Carr. I
had no idea co-writing could be such fun!”
Finally, as you may have already seen on Facebook, after more than two decades of being bandied about on the SMFS list, something very cool comes this way. This October will see the first issue of SMFS Mystery Magazine. Not only did I suggest the title to Publisher John Connelly of Murderous Ink Press (Crimeucopia series), but I also have a couple of pieces in this first issue. The plan is for 3 issues a year that will have short stories, essays, and interviews, with all the material involving the world of crime fiction and mysteries. It should be very cool. More details on where and how to buy are coming, and it should be available at Bouchercon.
Until next time….
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Wednesday, August 05, 2026
Mystery Fanfare: Cooper & Fry TV News
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE MOST HATED MAN IN LONDON
Tuesday, August 04, 2026
SleuthSayers: Coming Up with a Story Idea to Fit a Prompt
Beneath the Stains of Time: Death in 13 Rooms (2026) by A. Carver
Monday, August 03, 2026
Mystery Fanfare: THE CHELSEA DETECTIVE, Season 4
In Reference to Murder: Media Murder for Monday
Little Big Crimes: Ovaloid Skulls, by Benoit Severac
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: All the Crime in the World by Gigi Pandian (Editor), Tom Mead (Editor)
Crippen & Landru
Publishers (C&L) compiles and produces short story collections, usually by
a single-author, both contemporary and from the past. It’s the latter that I
find most valuable, since so many authors published prolifically in weekly
newspapers and magazines well before the digital age could capture them for
posterity. Locating copies of these stories is a real challenge; most of the
periodicals are long extinct and were not indexed. Authors contributing to
anthologies of all kinds is common now. These anthologies are seldom indexed in
any meaningful way and a compilation protects short stories that might
otherwise be lost. C&L preserves these stories for generations to come and
for readers interested in an author’s entire output.
In All the Crime in the
World, to be released on 4 August 2026, C&L honors the resurgence in
popularity of the locked room mystery. Editors Gigi Pandian and Tom Mead, both talented
authors of contemporary locked room mystery series, present 14 short stories
from an impressive line-up of international writers.
Most often attributed to John
Dickson Carr (1906-1977), the locked room mystery is one in which there appears
to be no way for the crime to have taken place. All access to the room is locked
or otherwise inaccessible, i.e., the chimney is far too small for a human to
climb down, and all potential culprits can show they were elsewhere but the
valuable relic has been stolen or someone has been killed in that room. Not to
be confused with the closed circle mystery, in which only a few people can be
considered suspects. The classic murder on an island or in a manor house during
a snowstorm is good example of a closed circle mystery. Locked room mysteries
are expected to be fair play, offering all the clues to the solution somewhere
in plain sight, so that readers can work out for themselves how the crime
occurred. I never succeed but the effort adds to the enjoyment of the story.
Included in this collection
are puzzles written by well-known authors from Australia, Brazil, Canada, England,
France, India, Japan, The Netherlands, Singapore, and the United States: Victor
Bonini, James Scott Byrnside, Shelly Dickson Carr, S.A. Cosby, Anne van Doorn,
Martin Edwards, Sulari Gentill, Paul Halter, Christopher Huang, Vaseem Khan, Yamaguchi
Masaya, Josh Pachter, and Ovidia Yu, in addition to a story by editors Gigi
Pandian and Tom Mead.
The narratives take place in
the past, in the present, and in alternate worlds. Locations are eclectic: hotels,
rooftops, universities, tea ceremonies, gardens, birthday parties, weddings, and
a murder mystery party that backfires. The equally diverse set of victims
include a drug dealer, an artificial intelligence engineer, an arrogant author,
a greedy financier, a crooked property manager, an entitled university student,
a hanging judge, and a rising politician. Solutions are nothing less than
ingenious.
Saying much about any one
story risks giving away the answer, which would be unfair. Rest assured they
are all admirable examples of the genre. Starred review from Publishers
Weekly.
·
Publisher:
Crippen & Landru
·
Publication
date: August 4, 2026
·
Language:
English
·
Print
length: 294 pages
·
ISBN-13:
978-1-9714-8906-3
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4w5o5HV
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©202
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, August 02, 2026
Saturday, August 01, 2026
SleuthSayers: A Roundup of Favorite Short-Story Writers
Beneath the Stains of Time: Locked Room Puzzles (1986) edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Bill Pronzini
Jerry's House of Everything: DELL FOUR COLOR #96: DICK TRACY (1946)
Scott's Take: The Last Ronin: A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Novel by Erik Burnham
The Last Ronin: A Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles Novel by Erik Burnham
adapts The Last Ronin comic into a prose novel. In this novel set
in the far future, New York is a dystopia ruled by the Foot Clan led by the
Shredder’s grandson. The last surviving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle has
returned to New York to climb the Foot Clan tower and kill him. He is on a
suicide mission out for revenge against the man who killed his family.
,
This is a violent novel full of death,
dismemberment and plenty of action. The story is told from three main
perspectives with some flashbacks to how the Turtles died and other flashbacks.
The deceased turtles are frequently around as ghosts to bug the Last Ronin.
I enjoyed the novel way more than I
enjoyed the comic book version. My two main complaints with the book are the
same ones I had regarding the comic book version. The main villain is too
generic and uninteresting. The Last Turtle is stripped of personality in order
to have the mystery of the identity of the turtle survivor. Once the identity is
revealed to the reader, the Last Turtle is still depicted as nothing more than
the generic revenge seeker.
Still, I would recommend this book. By
the way, there is a video game and a movie adaption being worked on for this
story. Hopefully, both will address these issues.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3SpJI7F
I read this through Hoopla by way of the
Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2026
Friday, July 31, 2026
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten Books: Death of an Old Girl
Jerry's House of Everything: A FRIDAY REVIEW: MORE WEIGHT
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange
Review: Gold in Them Texas Hills: An Al Quinn Novel by Russ Hall
We close out July with one of my all-time
favorite authors. Readers of my reviews should already very much know that I
have long been a fan of the Al Quinn series set in the Texas Hill
Country. The latest, Gold in Them Texas Hills: An Al Quinn Novel
by Russ Hall is another solidly good read.
As the read opens, Al Quinn and family
are asleep. Things have been peaceful these last few months and that has been a
very good thing. But, on this night, something has woken up Al and their dog
Tanner. Tanner’s warning growl woke up Al’s wife, Fergie, and thoroughly
disturbing the quiet in their home on a shore of Lake Travis.
A look out the bedroom window reveals
somebody is in the woods with a flashlight just outside their home. Fergie and
Al get dressed and get their guns to see what is going on outside.
They live there with his brother, Maury,
his wife Bonnie, and their young baby, Little Al. Bonnie is a very good shot as
she grew up hunting and shooting. They also were awakened by whatever is going
on outside. While Maury has the baby, Bonnie is already out there with her gun.
Based on the noise, she isn’t planning on taking prisoners.
As the action moves to the nearby boat
dock, Al and Fergie arrive as a boat flees from the dock out into the lake. If Bonnie
wanted the people dead, they would be. Instead, she fired warning shots to send
the culprits fleeing. In their haste, as she shows Al and Fergie, they left a
metal detector behind.
While the others think that maybe they
were looking for gold, Al doubts it as Texas isn’t known for having gold. Not
like, say California was back in the day. Besides, any gold in the lands of Texas
would be way out west somewhere and not at Lake Travis. So, in Al’s mind, these
folks were on their land for some other reason. What? He has no idea. Good
thing he has connections with the local law enforcement.
Whatever it was they were hunting for,
the people are persistent. They want their metal detector back. Apparently,
they want more than that and aren’t going to stop. They escalate things
repeatedly in Gold in Them Texas Hills: An AL Quinn Novel.
Long time readers know these characters
like family they are after numerous books and short stories. The focus here is
on action and the read absolutely delivers from start to finish.
Highly recommended as is the entire
series.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4fnx5D9
Amazon Associate Purchase Link Entire
Series: https://amzn.to/4fpbRog
According to Amazon, I picked this up
back in March 2025 at time of publication. I probably did that by way of funds
in my Amazon Associate Account.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
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